Something of mild historical interest is that Magna Cum Laude had some genuinely brilliant dialogue here and there. The abusive arcade machine and tabletop RPG scene still stick firmly in my memory all these years later, and there was solid comedic timing as well (“Are those my Funyuns?”). Unfortunately, more good lines are cut up into the minigames, which act out scenes with gamified dialogue selection. Many of the games probably have to be re-attempted to clear, too, and no matter how funny a line is, it’s not gonna be great the fourth time because you hit too many beers and can’t control the cursor. The game’s also very much a product of the irreverent college movie genre, which has aged in the worst way. Consent issues and all.

Al Lowe’s games were more highbrow, for lack of a better term, so they didn’t go quite as far off the rails. They seemed to be the kind of thing aimed at a Playboy Magazine reader. One of these, Love for Sail, remains my favorite of the bunch. I think they really hit their stride with the gameplay in that one, and the writing and the visuals were solid, though I’ve seen better in this genre since.

I didn’t see great reviews for Wet Dreams so that was an easy skip–I’ve been ignoring the series since MCL–but it’s interesting to see a high opinion of those games. I almost never see anyone talking about them, much less in a glowing way.