NES

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

The guys look and talk just like their excellent movie-selves. In the game, you get to pick different responses for the guys to use when talking to other characters. The story's fun, too. Your out to save historical dudes and babes who don't want to be saved. There are some weak spots in the game, however, as the Power Meter indicates. It isn't easy finding items, which means you spend ages wandering around and that's frustrating. Luckily, there's a good manual that should help. Control is awkward, too - also a minus. Check this one out to see if it's for you.

Though it does a reasonable job of making you feel like you're really exploring different historical periods, Bill & Ted's Excellent Videogame Adventure doesn't really do anything else right. Avoid it.

Over a decade ago, Abby Normal had this to say about Bill and Ted's Excellent Video Game in a review that she wrote for GamePro magazine: "In this just slightly excellent single player roleplay/action/adventure, B&T bee-bop through the Circuits of Time via their time-travelin' phone booth." Assuming that she meant "shameful excuse for a Nintendo game" instead of "just slightly excellent single player roleplay/action/adventure" and instead of "bee-bop through the Circuits of Time" she actually meant to say "rape my face," then I would have to agree with her.

Gamers hate licensed games. When a company announces a game based on our favorite movie, TV, or comic book characters, we feel our stomach's tighten because it's better than even money that they'll screw it up. E.T. for Atari, Total Recall for NES, and the recent Superman for the N64 have all proven this. Bill and Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure is difficult to review because it is a very rare exception to this rule. It fails at absolutely everything except the license.

I suppose every concern I have about Bill & Ted's VG Adventure could easily be answered with, "Games based on licensed properties are usually little more than Get Rich Quick schemes". I guess it should also be no surprise that a game in which you spend most of your time falling on your ass should land squarely on its, too. Thankfully, the Bill & Ted movie got a proper sequel to cleanse the territory stolen by this forgettable outing, which is more of a "bogus journey" than the real sequel claimed itself to be.