Beavis and Butt-head Do U.
Review by Jen
I am one of those deprived Americans who doesn't have cable TV
and so don't have much exposure to Beavis and Butt-head, MTV's
music video commentators. What little I have seen, I have detested,
I believe mainly due to the fact that I think music videos are
stupid. However, I played Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity
a couple of years ago with much enjoyment, even going so far
as to rank it in my lifetime top games, and so I was really excited
to hear there was a new B&BH adventure game out. I was not
disappointed by Do U.
The eternal question in this game is whether the boys will score
with the chicks. Beavis and Butt-head's high school class, along
with their weenie of a teacher, Mr. Van Driessen, take a field
trip to the local state college in order to get a feel for what
awaits them in the arena of higher education. Our intrepid heros
have another goal in mind, howeverthey only want to drink
beer and score with some college sluts. However, Mr. Van Driessen
is firmthe boys must complete the college tour, which involves
getting eight different sign-offs in eight areas of the college,
in order to attend the reward party at the end of the field trip.
Of course, Beavis and Butt-head can't do anything the conventional
way or be bothered to expend much effort, so they endeavor to
obtain the sign-offs in their own unique fashion. Everything Beavis
and Butt-head do is aimed at the ultimate goal of scoring with
some college sluts, which gives rise to much juvenile humor. I
enjoyed the dialogue and the story quite a bit (I have very low
comedy standards, I readily admit).
In moving your cursor around the screen, when you encounter an
object or person you can interact with, a cartoon "thought
balloon" appears over B&BH's head (I will refer to them
as one character from here out because they might as well be Siamese
twins) indicating that you can do something. Your left mouse button
interacts; your right mouse button examines. Items you pick up
go into your inventory; to use them, you drag them out of the
paper bag on the upper right of the screen. Playing the game is
very straightforward, as is the method of moving from one area
to another. To see another area, you click on your sign-off sheet
and then click on the area you want to go next. The use of the
inventory items is rarely what you might expect, and therein lies
the challenge of the game. There were a couple of arcade sequences;
one such near the end of the game was very difficult for me, and
I lack any semblance of patience when I have to try things more
than about twiceI had to ask someone else to complete it
for me. I also got stuck enough a couple of times that I had to
resort to asking for hints, but when I found out the answers,
it turned out to be something I had just overlooked. I liked the
ease of the interface, and the puzzles had just the right level
of difficultysome easy, some hard, but mostly somewhere
in between. My overall rating would have been higher were it not
for that one arcade sequence.
The quality of the graphics is very goodas you all (should)
know, Beavis and Butt-head are cartoon characters and so this
is a cartoon game. The entire game, both the active portions and
the cut scenes, had TV-quality animation. Even when you, the player,
are idle, B&BH are always doing little things like picking
noses, checking privates, and falling asleep while standing up.
There are no great technological leaps hereno 3D rendering
or anything of that naturebut the simplicity of the game
allowed a great many scenes to fit on one CD with no slow load
times or other drawbacks that are inherent in more technologically
advanced games. I really liked the fact that relatively older
technology was still used to produce a fine adventure game.
The music is mostly heavy metal, as you might imagine, but there
is not enough of it. There is one portion of the game where the
music is some kind of seventies easy listening disco kind of crap,
which I just hated, and I was stuck on that part for a while.
I had to adjust the options to turn off the music there, and I
think the game designers were sadists for even putting it in there.
However, it was exactly appropriate for that particular portion
of the game. The voice acting is quite well-done, although the
characters are purposely annoying. B&BH did tend to get on
my nerves when I inadvertently made them say the same things over
and over again, and I would have liked to reach my hand into the
monitor and slap that wimpy Mr. Van Driessen upside the head until
he saw little birdies flying around his head. However, weenie-on-purpose
is much preferable to weenie-by-accident (like the main character
in Sanitarium). Sound effects in this game were greatlots
of "plop"s and "squelch"es, as you might image,
all exquisitely gross.
I leave it to you to play the game yourself to find out whether
B&BH did, in fact, score with some college sluts. I recommend
this game to any who are not offended by constant "dammit,
Butt-head"s and toilet humor. It has all of the elements
of a classic adventure game, and it was really fun to play. 
|
The Verdict
The Lowdown
Developer: Illusions
Publisher: GT Interactive
Release Date: 1998
Available for: 
Four Fat Chicks Links
Player
Feedback
Screenshots


System Requirements
Windows95/98
P133 MHz or better
16 MB RAM
2 MB video card
4X CD-ROM
Soundblaster-compatible sound card
Where to Find It
Playing
Games 14.95

Prices/links current as of 11/07/02
Links provided for informational purposes only.
FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into
by any party(ies).
|