Video games have always been about sex--let's just say Mario didn't rescue Princess Toadstool for the cardio workout. This fall will see the release of the sexiest, bawdiest and most entertaining games ever created.
Start with Playboy: The Mansion (PC, PS2, Xbox), in which you are Hef, the most powerful man in the world--if power can be measured in chesty, willing blondes (and we'd argue that it can). The game is a compelling mix of Sims-style fun and empire-building strategy. And we're not just saying that because it's our game. Heavens no.
Singles: Flirt Up Your Life (PC) is a relationship sim in which a cash-strapped man and woman share a flat. Will they hook up? Will they fight? Will they buy bland furniture at Ikea? Do you need this kind of aggravation?
The Guy Game (PS2, Xbox) lets you see what Jeopardy would be like if Alex Trebek were drunk and all the contestants had just arrived from a Girls Gone Wild shoot. You and your friends compete in trivia and hand-eye games for the ultimate prize: topless college girls.
If you enjoy wrestling but only of the mud variety, Rumble Roses (PS2) has your number. Buff gals (no boy grapplers allowed!) try to pin one another using the most suggestive holds known (and not known) to man.
Finally, the frisky runt who practically invented racy games back in 1987 returns. The babes in this year's Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PC, PS2, Xbox) put the blocky pixel chicks of yesteryear to shame. For proof, see our foldout of Luba Licious, one of the luscious lasses Larry meets on his sordid collegiate odyssey. Will he win at quarters? Will she live up to her name? Depends on how good you are with your joystick.
It turns out that being an icon of the good life and intelligent hedonism is a full-time job: Your duties in Playboy: The Mansion (right) include selecting editorial content for the magazine, charming the right guests at Mansion parties, enticing female VIPs and models into posing nude and (of course) selecting and photographing the Playmates. Do well and you'll be rewarded with cash you can use to make the Mansion even more entertaining--and to pay the kind of money necessary to get supermodels to take it all off.
Despite having a certain low-rent feel and the whiff of a frat house, The Guy Game (left) is a fun play. As with most self-consciously wacky entertainment, beer helps. Here, three contestants handle a nasty case of blue balls.
