Al Lowe Returns In A New Leisure Suit Larry Game

There's just one tiny little keyword in that title that actually ruins the news we've all been waiting for: "Al Lowe Returns *With* A New Larry Game". That's not the case, unfortunately, so for now we'll have to suffice with Al returning *in* a new Larry game... For mobile phones... And we're not even sure it's him. But hey, any reason is a good reason when you feel like talking about Larry, even when it's just a screenshot for a pseudo-gaming platform we don't normally deal with.

The image in question is from the upcoming Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail remake for mobile phones, to be released by Vivendi / Sierra this month in Europe, and in September in North America. As you can see, the grey-haired guy sitting in front of Larry looks suspiciously a lot like Al Lowe - the father of the classic Larry series on the PC, among other adventure games he created for Sierra before he left and retreated to the mediatic shadow.

So we tracked him down to see if he had any comments on this. When cuffed to a bed in flames, threatened with a mean-looking cactus, and poked for comments, Al said:

"Wow. Can I sue? Or should I feel honored?

I guess I'm fair game since I made myself a character in the games I did and [Vivendi] owns "all the rights to all the characters, stories, and situations" I developed."

Admitedly, this wouldn't be the first time he appears in one of his games - or in this case, in a remake based on his classic Larry 7. As Al explained some time ago on his website:

"When artists have to create so many characters, it's rough to be entirely original, so they look at real people for inspiration. I was an easy mark, for the same reason that I loved putting Ken Williams (Sierra's founder and CEO during its successful period) in the games - we knew we wouldn't get sued!"

Ok, so no one's suing anyone, but we'd sure love to see more Larry games on the PC one of these days. And for the record, NO! Magna Cum Laude was NOT a true Larry game.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)