MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity

The Good
I’m a big fan of the TV show, but for some reason, when this game was released, I couldn’t get hold of a copy for several years (I don’t know why – maybe it didn’t ship as much here in the U.K.), so when I was delighted when I finally managed to get hold of a copy, and wasn’t disappointed with the game.

The game basically involves mischievous morons Beavis and Butt-head trying to "be cool enough to be in Todd’s gang”. There’s a sort of sub-plot involving Todd and a car stolen from a rival gang which isn’t really all that clear, but it doesn’t matter too much, as the game is more a series of silly situations than plot driven.

As with the television show, creator Mike Judge provides the voices of the disgusting duo, and this is what gives the game a lot of it’s appeal. Just about all of the main re-occurring characters from the TV series (hippie teacher Mr. Van Driessen, tough gym teacher Mr. Buzzcut, short-sighted neighbour Mr. Anderson, brainy student Daria, and many others) appear, and again their original TV voices are used.
Of course, it would be pointless to have anyone else do the voices, but even so, it’s the often laugh-out-loud voice-work that really makes this game.

The variety of characters is one of the things that really brings the game alive, with all of the characters used well, and keeping faithful to the TV show. (The only main regular character from the show that doesn’t appear is Stewart, and it's not particularly noticeable).

The game is a very faithful recreation of the TV series, capturing exactly the same feel. Even the opening is a direct recreation of the TV show’s opening titles, with the “don’t try this at home” warning, the gruesome twosome appearing laughing over the distinctive guitar theme, and the episode title.
And in the pathetic pair’s home, you can even get to sit down and watch one of four music videos (all of which first appeared on the TV show).

The (numerous) cut-scenes are wonderful, with animation that could easily be straight out of the TV show.
The in-game animation overall is good, with most of the characters quite closely resembling their television incarnations, and some well-drawn backgrounds that again are faithful to the style of the TV show.

Although there are puzzles in a few places that need some working out, there are others that aren’t really all that taxing, especially for anyone who’s got a couple of adventure games under their belt. But that doesn’t really matter, as the fun of the game is hearing the terrible twosome’s inane banter as you try various things. I found myself clicking on every available hot-point just too see what the duo said; and it’s one of those adventures where, even when you know the solution to a particular puzzle, it’s fun to deliberately try things wrong just to see what response you get – and the potty-mouthed pair never fail to provide adequately amusing responses.

The game is very easy to get in to, and whether you’re a “hard core” fan or just a more general fan of the TV show, you’ll soon find yourself immersed in it.
As with so many point-and-click adventures, overall game-play is rather linear, but again it doesn’t really matter, as there’s loads of things to interact with, and distractions such as several mini-games to cover the overall linear nature very well.

The pacing and development of the story is done well, and it’s good how new locations appear on the map the further you progress.

I found the adventure’s ending to be rather abrupt (see Bad), but the closing animation and the closing credits are hilarious, and wraps things up very well.

All-in-all, this game is just fun to play, full stop. Just as the TV series is a welcome anecdote to heavier-going shows, this game is the same to heavier-going adventure games.

**The Bad**
This was one of the first – quite probably THE first - adventure games specifically written to run under Windows 95, and it seems the programmers weren’t quite sure / decided on quite how to use the platform yet. The game plays in a window, and this is especially awkward during the mini-games, particularly “Hock-A-Loogie”, where it’s easy to keep accidentally clicking off of the window, and really needs to be played in full screen.
Thankfully, the window size can be adjusted to full-screen – though quite why they didn’t just default it to this in the first place is anyone’s guess!
But the cut-scenes can seemingly only be played in a window, changing back awkwardly if you’re playing in full-screen; and it might have just been my system, but the change verged on crashing my machine several times.
There’s a window bar menu, which isn’t the most helpful of menus, and is non-accessible in full-screen mode.

As mentioned, the animation overall is very good, but a couple of characters don’t look quite right in places; notably Beavis (not the easiest of characters to draw at the best of times), and Daria, who looks more like an artist’s impression than the original character. That’s only a nit-pick though, and doesn’t spoil things overall.

The mini-games are fun to play, and a welcome diversion from the main game, but sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you need to complete a mini-game in order to progress the main game or not. For example, you need to beat the “Hock-A-Loogie” game (where you basically lob spit onto the Principal from the school roof) in order to advance the game, but the “Court Chaos” tennis mini-game has no particular outcome – but there’s no way of knowing that. It’s often hard to tell which are there for a specific purpose and which are there just for fun.

Though the closing animation is great, the adventure itself finishes rather suddenly and abruptly; as if you’re in the middle of completing one of the puzzles and then slam, you’re crashing into the game’s ending. Things could have maybe been better built up towards the ending.

The game could have done with maybe being a bit longer; but then again, when CAN'T you wish that about an adventure game that you've really enjoyed playing?
A couple more locations, such as Mr. Anderson’s house, or Stewart’s house – both of which were settings for several of the memorable TV episodes – would have made welcome additional places to visit, but it doesn’t really matter too much.

Actually, despite these points under ‘Bad’, there wasn’t too much I really disliked about this game at all.

**The Bottom Line**
After so many wasted and misused TV licences, this is how a computer game adaptation SHOULD be done.
Obviously just how much you will like it depends on how much you like the TV show in the first place – If you like Beavis and Butt-head on TV, then you wont be disappointed in this game.
Definitely more satisfying than 1998’s disappointing sort-of-sequel ‘Beavis and Butt-head Do U’.

The Good
When dealing with licensed games you'll find that very few manage to capture the spirit and originality that made the original concept good (see: recent star wars games). Virtual Stupidity is one of those few, in fact, it's probably the most faithfull licensed title ever released, featuring all the wacky characters and situations from MTV's show, and producing a hilarously funny gaming experience. It's easy to get into, excellently scripted, and fun to explore and solve. Just like every good adventure should be.

The Bad
Some of the puzzles in the game border the completely illogical, and feel sometimes forced. Technically the game's just ok, the video compression rutines could have been better, I mean, even for the time the videos are excessively blurry, but that's it.

However the worst thing about this game is what I said earlier: this game is completely faithfull to the tv show in mind and spirit. So if you think Beavis & Butt-head are the most brainless inmature pieces of excrement ever spawned from MTV you ain't gonna have a good time with this game.

The Bottom Line
An extremely funny adventure made for those that quite simply, are "cool". If you are into it you'll have the time of your life, if not, this game's really not for you.

The Good
I have never seen a single episode of Beavis and Butthead in my life. I've seen little excerpts from commercials of that Time Life collection of them, and it seemed pretty funny. But I haven't seen the actual show before. And Virtual Stupidity is still one of the funniest games I have ever played in my entire life.

Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity begins the same way an episode of the show would. There is the "don't try this at home" warning, the duo laughing over the guitar theme song, and the episode name. It's familiar to some, but not to me, and kind of made me chuckle a bit. And soon, the game begins.

The plot of Virtual Stupidity isn't the deepest thing in the world. It's basically this: Todd is cool, Beavis and Butthead want to be cool, Beavis and Butthead try to get in his gang, things are laughed at. From what I've heard about the show, this seems a lot like it. And although it didn't take much thinking to come up with that, the plot totally fits. It's a great way to string all the silly situations in the game together.

The game interface is very easy to use. Like many point and click adventures, there are many cursor modes: look, use/pick up, talk to, walk, and use inventory item. Right clicking brings up a verb coin (one of the most pleasing looking verb coins I've ever seen, mind you) that you can use to select cursor modes or open your inventory from. The cursors are very well drawn, and are designed with Beavis and Butthead in mind. My favorite cursor is the use mode, which turns shows I Love You in sign language when it goes over a hotspot.

The graphics are quite well done, and are in the style of the TV show. They're nothing spectacular, but the fact that they remain true to the series is good enough for me.

The sound is one of the places that the game truly shines. The sound effects are something you'd expect from the TV show, as is the music. Since the TV show has very good music and sound effects, the game does as well. The voice acting is the best part of the sound. All the series' voice actors lend their talent to the game for their characters, and deliver extremely well. I think I at least snorted or chuckled out loud every time Beavis or Butthead spoke.

Virtual Stupidity is also side-splittingly funny. All the humorous tendencies from the show are here, such as Beavis and Butthead head banging as a short burst of rock music plays whenever something good happens. The game's script is also to-notch, and humor can be spontaneous, random, or stupid but always funny. Whenever you use the look cursor on something, Beavis and Butthead will say a different thing for each hotspot, and it's always funny.

The puzzles in the game provided a good challenge to me, as I'm a veteran adventure game player who usually needs a walkthrough.

The Bad
There are very few problems with Virtual Stupidity. They are notable however. One minigame is required to complete the game, called Hock-a-Loogie. The game isn't very easy, and not explained very well either. It took me 120 hits to figure out I needed to right click to spit a green loogie. The game felt very out of place, and I thought another cleverly designed puzzle could replace it with better results.

The game was one of the first Windows 95 games to ever be released, and the developers apparently felt obligated to make it run in a window. The size can be increased to up to three times the original 320x240 resolution, but this makes the AVI cutscenes very blurry. I also couldn't get the Full Screen option to work. It could be because I have Windows XP, a 17-inch monitor, or 1152x864 resolution, but I would've liked to see the full screen.

The Bottom Line
Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity is one of the funniest games ever released. If you don't get the point of the show, the game's no different, but for those who appreciate that kind of humor, you'll love it.

Now I need to get that collection of episodes. What's the number to call again?