Despite the horrible graphics, terrible dialogue, and absolutely broken gameplay, I don't hate it.
It seemed to me that this new one, "Box Office Bust", was going to be closer in style to the original games. I was expecting a dirty puzzle game with at least a sprinkling of intelligence, badly animated polygon nudity, and at least something to laugh at. Well, I was wrong. What they actually delivered was another series of minigames masquerading as an adventure game, with plenty of rude humor, foul language, and absolutely no nudity at all. But somehow, in my truly demented mind, I am unable to absolutely hate the game.
Sure, the platforming controls are the worst I've ever seen, the camera makes me want to choke the life out of the chicken, and the character models are ugly as sin. They turned the original Larry Laffer into a sleazy, disgusting, and rather annoying old man. Overly furry, gaudy golden jewelry, and horribly ill-fitting suit; instead of the silly, lovable Larry we've always known, we're treated to the most disgusting character I've ever seen. I hate them for that.
That's not to say the graphics were terrible. In fact, if you look around, you'll see some rather fantastic little details. The water all looked amazing, the lighting was phenomenal, and the scenery in general was (usually) very nice looking. The most notable graphics are during the sinking of the "Bytanic", the fire's ambient glow and the colors used in general were really top-notch, you don't often see lighting that nice. The water looked almost real, especially with all the reflections. That was also the single most irritating point in the game, as it's almost impossible to tell where you're supposed to be going, and the broken platforming controls make it nearly impossible.
This brings me to my next point: the contorls. Broken, broken, broken. You'll find yourself in the middle of a ridiculous platforming debacle, ready to jump over a single ledge. You hold forward, tap the jump button... then BAM! The camera does it. It switches angles, and not just any angle. It does a perfect 180 above your head. Making forward backward, and backward forward. As you hold the analog stick up, Larry suddenly turns, falling directly between the platforms. Also, he has a tendency to not follow directions. For instance, he might be running along a narrow cliff, camera angle changes, you quickly counter with a change of direction yourself, only Larry doesn't respond, you move the stick further and further around, Larry never changes direction, instead, chooses to fall to his death. Again.
The fighting mechanic is laughable, but not because it's funny, because it will make you want to yank all the curlies from your jeans as your face is bashed in for the hundredth time. You use "A" (Xbox 360) to punch or kick. You have no control over what he does, he simply does it at random. You can hold "X" to block, which has a 50% hit ratio, and if you hold "X" and tap "A" he'll do some sort of a spinning kick in the air, which knocks the enemies in range back, knocking them to the floor in true rag doll fashion. Often times, Larry will ignore which direction you're facing, and/or pushing, and try to punch in some weird direction.
All that said, I don't hate the game. But there's no doubt about it, it's broken. In all honesty, it seems like an early beta test. The whole thing just seems unfinished. I played the game, and rather enjoyed it, despite its almost game-breaking flaws. I thought that parts of it were rather funny, and laughed quite a bit while playing. The game isn't difficult, it's simple, actually. If the controls were solid, this would be as easy as "Barney's Hide and Seek" on the Sega Genesis. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the game, and I appreciate what they were trying to do. However, in all honesty, if they had this same plot, but the game itself were designed by Al Lowe, with the puzzle being at the core of this game instead of it being made into a pointless filth-fest, it would have been amazing. Here's to what would have been.
There were some redeeming qualities to the game, like the cast. The cast was fantastic, just full of stars from years past who no longer have careers, but still command respect. If only from me. Dave Attell, Jay Mohr, Jane Lynch, Artie Lange and Patrick Warburton, to name a few. In my opinion, these are some of the best of the low-brow comedic actors of their time. Also, it was kind of cool that they also managed to get Carmen Electra, Nikki Cox, and Shannon Elizabeth. And Josh Keaton did a fantastic job as Larry Lovage.