Beavis and Butt-Head

Travel back in time with me. Back before Family Guy was the top of the FCC’s most wanted list. Back before South Park shocked the world with elementary school children swearing. Back to when MTV actually aired music, and the vulgar behavior of Beavis and Butt-Head were destroying the very fabric of society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally airing from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997, Beavis and Butt-Head became the scapegoat to any and every terrible thing committed by the generation X youth culture. Whether that be throwing bowling balls at cars from the overpass, or shoving firecrackers up cats’ butts. Some of these claims probably could be linked to seeing it on Beavis and Butt-head first, so eventually MTV took drastic action to prevent this in the future.

Of course, by drastic action, I mean they simply put a disclaimer at the beginning of the show. “Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy whom we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason, the little wiener heads make us laugh.” This of course was later changed to the more eloquent disclaimer found throughout the rest of the series. “Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They’re not even human. They’re cartoons. Some of the things they do could cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way: Don’t try this at home.” Somehow I find it amazing that a simple disclaimer absolves you of all responsibility. Without the disclaimer, people can sue you for making them hurt themselves doing something that any rational person would know beforehand is going to hurt someone.

Controversy aside, the show was very popular, and culturally influential. Several games were based off the show, and today I’m going to focus on the Sega Genesis version. I owned this game growing up, and I loved it. I never beat it, but I loved it none the less. It’s primarily an action – adventure game, with a little bit of puzzle solving thrown in. it’s not a particularly hard game, but with only a single life, a tiny slip up can mean quite a bit of back tracking. So join me as we experience a glimpse of the lives of Beavis and Butt-Head.

Gameplay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GWAR is coming to town, and Beavis and Butt-Head, the rock aficionados that they are, immediately buy tickets. Unfortunately, Tom Anderson’s dog swiped them right out of their hands and ate them. After chasing the dog home it eventually barfed them back up. With no shortage of bad luck today, Tom Anderson is mowing his yard at that same moment and accidentally mows over the tickets, chopping them to pieces which fly away. We must now search all over town to find the ticket pieces if we want to see the GWAR concert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We start our search in Beavis and Butt-Head’s house, which will act as a hub for the rest of the locations. In their bedroom, there is a GWAR poster which will hold any ticket pieces we find, as well as give us a password save so we can continue the game later. We’ll probably want to look at this poster every time we come home, and write down the new password. You only get one life, and the odds of dying unexpectedly are pretty high in this crazy world. The bedroom floor will act as a sort of storage for any items we find. Just drop them on the floor in the bedroom and they’ll be safe until we need them.

Back in the living room, the TV will be our literal window to the world. Just use the remote to channel surf until you find a location you like. All the locations in the game are open right from the start, and we are free to explore them in any order we want. So since we have nothing better to do right now, let’s jump over to the Turbo Mall 2000 and see what we can do over there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right away there are security guards attacking us. I know these two guys are screw ups, but what could they have done for security to just attack us on sight with no warning? We’re not even in the mall yet, we’re just trying to make it to the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but inside the mall is apparently haunted. There are shopping carts charging at us the whole time we’re inside and it’s really annoying. We need to get out of this hallway and into one of the stores or these carts are going to kill us. How about we duck into the ice cream shop where it’s safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then again, maybe it’s not safe in here either. I don’t know what these two did last time, but this ice cream man is out to kill us. Run before he impales you with ice cream cones! I’m not enjoying this trip to the mall so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We haven’t really found any clues to finding our ticket pieces. Maybe there’s something in the laundromat. It’s a good thing we brought our dirty pants off the bedroom floor or the security guard wouldn’t have let us inside. Now that we’re in here, I have the greatest idea. We should open all the machines and see what’s inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Death Count: 1

 

Bingo! We found our first ticket piece. It’s not that easy though. The door was very squeaky, and woke up granny over there and she’s none too happy about us digging through her delicates. She’s got us pinned in the corner with no escape and she will stab us to death with her knitting needle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we want her to stay asleep, we’re going to have to fix that door with some oil from the auto shop. Now that it’s nice and quiet, we really have gotten our first ticket piece. I have a feeling that’s how most of the tickets are going to be found. A combination of random exploration mixed with deadly trial and error.

Now it’s time to check out some other locations. Let’s start with The Street, that seems a good place to find some new information. Right off the bat, there’s this guy with a suction dart gun trying to kill us. It seems kind of odd with how controversial the show is that the game would tone down the violence to suction dart guns. Different medium, different censors I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It would seem we’ve returned to where all this started, Mr. Anderson’s yard. And he’s still on his rider mower. The grass can’t get much shorter before you start digging it up by the roots. He also for some reason hates us and starts throwing his beer cans around. Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but Mr. Anderson always seemed pretty nice to Beavis and Butt-Head in the show. Sure, he was kind of stupid, and way too trusting, but generally nice. So this random attack seems a little out of character for him. Guess they just needed to trick us into attacking him so we can steal his shed key from around his neck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

death count: 2

 

Having the shed key is one thing, but getting into it is another. Mr. Anderson’s dog continues to be an annoyance by attacking whenever anyone gets too close to the shed. It looks like we’ll have to come back later with some new item to distract the demon dog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There isn’t really much more to see in the street before it’s blocked off by a wooden barricade. Just look at it, it’s clearly impossible to get past. You can’t possibly walk around it. And walking under it would just be silly. No, we must do the only thing possible to get past this ungodly barrier. We must enter the sewers to go under it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

death count: 5

 

What fresh hell is this? What is wrong with the sewer system in this town? Is this what’s going through their pipes? That stuff looks so radioactive I feel like I’m still playing Toxic Crusaders. And what’s with all the skulls? How many people have gone missing down here? This has to be the explanation for both Beavis and Butt-Head’s general stupidity and their misshapen oversized heads. Living above this much radiation has to be at least part of their problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finally make it to the end of the radiation sewers and somehow we’ve only traveled about 5 feet. How is that even possible? We traveled at least a mile jumping over skulls and avoiding swimming in the toxic radiation. Why couldn’t we have just ducked under the barricade like I suggested before. And did we just pick up a bird and put it in our pocket? We did! What possible use could we have for a random bird?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In either case, we’re past the barricade, so let’s go play in the junk yard for a while. Of course there seems to be toxic waste spills in the junk yard too. This really isn’t a very safe town after all, is it? Not that the junk yard is the best place to be playing anyway, but there at least shouldn’t be all this toxic waste everywhere. All the way at the deepest part of the junk yard is a random bone. We must need this to distract Mr. Anderson’s stupid dog. OH NO! That means we have to go ALL the way back through the junk yard, and ALL the way back through the sewers again. But we barely survived the last time. I’m pretty sure I still have radiation poisoning from last time. Does anyone have a RadAway or something? Damn, that’s the wrong game, isn’t it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally back in Mr. Anderson’s yard, we can distract the stupid dog with the bone, and gain access to his shed. Inside we find a fishing pole and a chainsaw which Beavis absolutely loves. While it’s listed as a weapon, there’s really only one thing you can do with the chainsaw, and that is cut down the tree in the yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is all you need it for, because it nets you another of the ticket pieces. I guess all that radiation was worth it in the end. All that running around really worked up an appetite though. How about we head over to Burger World and see what trouble we can get into there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we head inside, how about we check around back and see if there’s anything weird that might help us. We’re in luck, someone threw out a perfectly good dead rat. Not sure exactly what we can do with a dead rat, but I’m sure something will come up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since Beavis and Butt-Head actually work here, let’s just head in through the employee entrance and get whatever we want. Looks like this customer is demanding we actually work though, and he’s being an ass about it too. It looks like we found our use for the dead rat. This will teach you to be an ass to the people that make your food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s right, eat it all up. Suffer for telling people to do their job. How dare you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And apparently he threw up a ticket piece. How did he even eat the ticket piece in the first place? He must have been standing there for a LONG time if he resorted to eating random pieces of paper that float in on the wind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re starting to build up a nice little collection of seemingly useless junk. So how about we head back to Turbo Mall 2000 and see if we can pawn off any of this stuff. The random bird from the junk yard, and the headset from Burger World were all we could sell, but even that little cash should be enough to keep us going. While we’re here, let’s check out the military recruitment center. Not much going on in here, but that folder on the desk just looks so stealable. Can’t resist, must steal military secrets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

death count: 9

 

OH WOW! The military secrets were actually hiding a ticket piece. SCORE! Or not, seeing as the general over there has no problem chucking grenades around inside the mall. Curiously, he has no problems with us stealing the bomb off the shelf next to him. These idiots definitely can’t be trusted with a bomb. Unfortunately we can’t scare him away with the bomb, so it looks like we must do something else to distract him if we want that ticket piece. Maybe he’s afraid of snakes. It’s the only animal we’re allowed to buy from the pet store, so it’s worth a try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good day shop keep, one of your finest snakes please. Packaged? Do pet stores usually gift wrap the pets? That doesn’t seem like the safest thing to do for the pet. But while he’s distracted wrapping up the snake, we can steal his keys. Didn’t really plan on stealing his keys, but they were just sitting there so unprotected, we just had to. I wonder what they open. Can we open all the animal cages and cause chaos? Let’s do it. Let’s let all the animals out. Or just the bird since that’s the only cage this key opens. WHY DOES THE BIRD HAVE A TICKET PIECE?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever reason the bird might have for sitting on our ticket piece, we have it back now. A quick stop at the army recruitment center later and sure enough he is afraid of snakes, netting us a second ticket piece. This trip to the mall ended up being better than expected.

Well, we’ve done well today. I think we deserve a movie at the Drive-In now. Don’t mind the fact that we don’t have a car, that’s discrimination, and I won’t stand for that. I wonder what they’re playing now anyway. Cool, Man-Eating Zombie Chicks. I love that movie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We need snacks for the movie though, so let’s hit up the snack bar. Ok, we need 2 buckets of popcorn, a couple of sodas, some Butterfinger BBs. They still make Butterfinger BBs right. Hello? Well this guy just isn’t listening to anything I’ve said. That’s just rude. So you know what, YOU CAN BURN FOR YOUR RUDENESS! Knew I brought this bomb with me for something. Stupid snack bar, not selling me my Butterfinger BBs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s just go find a bench or something we can sit at since we don’t have a car. Oh, what is this? That van is shaking pretty hard, and you know what that means. There’s some sexy times going on in there. Quick, take a picture of the sexy times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THAT’S NOT SEXY TIMES! I’M NOT EVEN SURE THAT’S A WOMAN! RUN! WHATEVER IT IS WILL CLEARLY EAT US IF IT CATCHES US. QUICK, HIDE IN THE SNACK BAR, MAYBE WE CAN LOSE IT IN THERE! It’s a good thing we blew this place up, I think whatever it was is dead now. And apparently a ticket piece was trapped in the folds of its fat. So this was a great trip to the movies. There were explosions, we killed a giant monster, and we got a reward. I wish all my trips to the movies were like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between the radiation in the sewers, being attacked by a monster woman, and everyone just generally wishing death upon us, we should really head to the hospital, at least for a checkup. Why are these security guards attacking us outside the hospital? What could we possible have done that would make the hospital angry enough to attack us on sight when we come to them for help? And is that a janitor throwing meatballs at us? I don’t even know what to think about that. There’s no way we could have done something so bad that the janitorial staff would throw meatballs at us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

death count: 18

 

Someone left their keys in the power scooter. I know we shouldn’t, but I’ve never driven a power scooter before. Maybe just a quick spin around this floor, no one will even notice it’s gone. SOMEONE NOTICED IT WAS GONE! I’m just going to take a wild guess and say this scooter actually belongs to that fat guy that was running on the treadmill a second ago and is now chasing after us. We better floor it or he’s going to crush us under his massive ass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

death count: 35

 

That would probably be easier if this hospital didn’t leave all its medical supplies just lying around in the hallway. No shelves or storage closets or anything, just throw the first aid kits on the ground and be done with it. That’s not good for inventory. Oh crap, there’s stairs coming up, can this thing go down stairs? I guess we’re going to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The answer to that is no, it cannot go down stairs. Luckily neither can fat guys. Ah stairs, the natural enemy to the weight challenged, you have saved my life. And it would seem a ticket piece was trapped in the folds of this monster as well. Those ticket pieces really did find their way into some weird places.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We need help and guidance. Clearly we have done such terrible things in the past that the whole world wishes death on us. We should head to school right now, get an education, and maybe people will stop trying to kill us. Help us Mr. Van Driessen. Thanks, I guess. That probably would have been helpful before I killed the monster of the drive-in, but not now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

death count: 36

 

Maybe Coach Buzzcut can give us some better advice. Um, Coach, I’d hate to tell you how to do your job, but I’m pretty sure you’re doing something wrong if balls of electricity are jumping off of whatever that is. And it probably shouldn’t be anywhere near whatever those chemicals are. Quick, do something to distract him so we can get those chemicals away from him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We need to report this to the principal. Coach Buzzcut has clearly gone insane. Principal McVicker, we have to tell you about…what is that on your head? We’ll trade you these chemicals for that ticket piece. Here, we’ll put them in the same bottle so it’s easier for you to carry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH NO! We didn’t mean to. I mean, we didn’t know that would happen. We’ll just take our ticket piece and we’ll leave. Are you ok? I’m going to assume he’s ok. We should probably go home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it. No one is left to help us. We should just accept that the world is trying to kill us and never leave the house again. We’ll just sit on the couch and fish for food out the window. Let’s cast out the line and see what lunch we can catch. I think we caught a big one, pull it in so we can all eat. And we caught…a ticket piece?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WAIT! How many pieces is that now? WE DID IT! WE’VE COLLECTED ALL OUR TICKET PIECES! WE CAN GO TO THE CONCERT NOW! I can’t believe it. I didn’t think we’d manage to find all the pieces in time. We should go, the concert is starting soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are our tickets, I know they look like crap, but they’re whole, and we’re seeing this concert. I can’t believe we made it. I can’t believe…how crappy these seats are. Didn’t our tickets say third row? I can barely see GWAR from here. I’m not accepting this. We risked our lives to see this show and we’re getting closer to the stage. I don’t care what anyone says now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GET OUT OF MY WAY SECURITY!! I’M GETTING CLOSER TO THE STAGE! Do you have any idea what we went through to get here?! We’re getting closer to the stage. No, we’re getting on stage, we’re going to be rocking it with GWAR right there ON STAGE!

NOW it was all worth it. We can die happy 10 minutes from now when security regroups and kills us.

Verdict

Gameplay – 6 / 10

The gameplay is an interesting mix of puzzles and action and it works great. The pitfalls of the game really fall to the many unpredictable instant deaths mixed with the horrible password save system. The fact that the password system uses uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols made it very frustrating to read the password the next day. Is that an “O”, “o” or “0”? I can’t tell, so this password is useless now. Have to start from the beginning. The only other gameplay complaint I can think of is the high number of random damage causing objects zooming around everywhere, like the shopping carts in the mall. They come at such high frequency that they really do become an annoyance.

Graphics – 7 / 10

The graphics are great. The sprites are big and detailed and they capture the style of the cartoon beautifully. My only complaint with the game graphically comes from the relatively short draw distance, for lack of a better term. Because the character sprites are so big, it means you can’t see very far around you. This becomes a problem because it doesn’t give you much time to react to enemies. By the time they’re on screen, they’re already in attacking distance. Also the combination of the enemy’s high health and the knock back from your attacks will often push the enemies off screen before they die. This leaves you wondering are they dead, or have I pushed them past the edge of rendering?

Audio – 7 / 10

The game makes great use of several sound bites from the show, as well as recreating the show’s theme song. The rest of the soundtrack however was a bit on the generic side. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It worked, and it was enjoyable. It just wasn’t particularly memorable.

Story – 6 / 10

Trying to recollect the shredded ticket pieces was a great way to set up this game. It’s a bit of a mystery how the pieces got where they were, but it’s a game, don’t stress it. It’s not like the game is very story driven anyway, and it didn’t need to be. It gave you enough reason to explore the whole town and a great motivation to keep you going.

Total Deaths – 36 Deaths

26 of those deaths were from the hospital level. That section was impossible.

Total Playtime – 2h 42m

A lot happened in that relatively short amount of time.

Overall Score – 7 / 10

I enjoyed playing this game. And at the end of the day, that’s the most important part of any game. It has some flaws, the unexpected deaths can set you back a while, and the hospital level is near impossible. But overall it was a fun game and one I would recommend anyone should play.

 

I hope you enjoyed Beavis and Butt-Head. If you did, like and follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Also leave your comments, suggestions, and recommendations. If you’re feeling real generous, you can even donate to help me keep the site going. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next time.