Top 5: Funny Videogames
Number 5: Leisure Suit Larry
Comedy is often hit or miss. Most of the time, game laughs are unintentional due to terrible dialogue or voice acting. But believe it or not there have been several franchises that made comedy a central focus.
This is immediately apparent in the case of the “Leisure Suit Larry” point-and-click adventure franchise, a comedy series created by programmer Al Lowe.
Throughout the years gamers have been lured in with various misguided adventures that have had them take on the awkward role of middle-aged virgin Larry Laffer. Since its debut in 1987, his raunchy sexual escapades have consistently managed to blind-side us with countless outrageous moments, and its focus on Larry’s inability to seduce women.
Number 4: Portal
Valve, the company responsible for the Half-Life franchise surprised everyone with their leap into dark comedy in 2007.
Releasing their first-person puzzler in 2007, eager players quickly found themselves in the uncomfortable position of scientific test subjects wielding a portal-throwing canon.
While the challenges seemed harmless at first, the player quickly realized that the artificial intelligence running the test called ‘GlaDOS’ was quite insane.
Players couldn’t help but giggle from the absurdity of her deadly mind games, promise of cake, and free therapy when it was all over. In fact, she almost had us all believing that a metal box with a heart painted on it, called the “companion cube’, was our best friend.
Plus, the game ended in a memorable song that was both devilishly witty and chuckle inducing.
Number 3: Grim Fandango
Tim Schafer, the programmer behind several iconic franchises, made his comedic genius well known with the computer-based adventure ‘Grim Fandango’.
Along with unconventional humor about the Land of the dead, it became well known for its vast array of quirky characters and interactions.
Based around the exploits of Manny Calavera, a travel agent for the recently deceased, players travelled through the Underworld meeting wacky clients in order to pay off his debt. Of course, Manny’s adventures always resulted in unexpected and uncontrollable hijinx.
Number 2: Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Originally envisioned as a cute platformer for younger audiences, Rare reshaped their game about a wily squirrel into a raunchy M-rated laugh riot for the Nintendo 64. Earning its adult rating, the game made extensive use of graphic violence, film parody, sexuality and toilet humor.
The game was so unique and infamous that it was remade years later for the Xbox, in order to please its cult following of rabid gamers. No other game has been able to shock us into such guilty giggles like “Conker’s Bad Fur Day.” And did we mention it featured a catchy musical by a giant Poo monster?
Number 1: The Monkey Island Series
The pinnacle of swashbuckling silliness from Ron Gilbert and the rest of the talented team at LucasArts gets the number one spot. Not only did it bring us intelligent and witty humor for all ages, but every line was lovingly crafted with precision to keep the mood light, the adventures wild and the overall tone comedic.
And no one can forget the antics of Murray, the wonderfully evil and deranged skull that taunted Guybrush Threepwood.
Conclusion
While many of these are comedies are classics, they can still make you laugh with their unusual brand of situational humor. Gamers who were too young to enjoy the unique or adult comedy offered by these games should track down a copy and enjoy a good laugh.
