Developer(s) – Viacom New Media
Publisher(s) – Viacom New Media & MTV Interactive
ELSPA – 11
Based on the immensely popular mature cartoon show created by Mike Judge, Beavis & Butt-Head: Little Thingies is a collection of games released in the late 90s based on the exploits and misdemeanors of the two teenage boys from the small American town of Highland. Being a fan of Beavis & Butt-Head, I’d played various other games released throughout the fourth generation based on the license, but in my opinion, not only is this the best of which but it also still holds up as a pretty enjoyable title compared to many others.
Graphics – 10/10
Because the game is based on a 2D cartoon, there was no need for the developers to splash out on making the visuals as realistic-looking or as technologically advanced as was possible for the time, so it looks as good as whatever should have been reasonably expected either at the time or even now. There’s variety in location design ranging from many iconic places in Highland, such as the boy’s high school, and the Restaurant Burger World where the two boys work, which nicely fit the tableau of each respective game in the collection.
Gameplay – 7/10
Beavis & Butt-Head: Little Thingies consists of seven separate games; Bug Justice, Hock-a-Loogie, Thank-U-Drive-Thru, Air Guitar, Wrecked ‘Em Ball, Court Chaos and Change It. Bug Justice revolves around the two boys burning bugs with a magnifying glass, Hock-a-Loogie follows them spitting at people from the roof of their high school, Thank-U-Drive-Thru has them trying to serve as many customers in their restaurant as possible, Wrecked ‘Em Ball revolves around Beavis trying to catch food thrown of windows by Butt-Head whilst avoiding oncoming bricks and heavy objects, Court Chaos has the two invading a tennis court and fending off as many tennis players as possible, Air Guitar is a music recording tool similar to that of in Mario Paint, and Change It revolves around the boys having to change the channels on multiple TVs in a shop windows for the highest score. Most of the games rely on the player earning the highest score possible, but despite the vulgar nature of each of them, the majority of them make for some very enjoyable gaming experiences. My personal favorite is Than-U-Drive-Thru since I found it to be the most addicting and satisfying to play.
Controls – 7/10
The controls are easy to get to grips with since for most people who play games in general, they become very apparent very quickly. The problem lies in the fact that none of the games can be played on full screen on later operating systems, which takes fluency out of the experience since it becomes very easy for players to click away from the screen and thus abruptly stop the game. It may only seem like a meager complaint, but after experiencing it a lot of times, which players will inevitably do, it can become frustrating, to say the least.
Originality – 8/10
Not only is the game based on a fairly unique license compared to many other licensed video games released at that time, and even afterward, but the games are even much better designed than many other arcade games released over the years that rely on points-racking in order to succeed. When I sat down to play one of these games after the best of twenty years away from them, I was expecting them to not hold up at all, remembering them as being much more casual experiences compared to what I was playing at that time. I was however pleasantly surprised by the amount of time that I ended up investing in them even after all these years.
Happii
In summation, Beavis & Butt-Head: Little Thingies is not only a very enjoyable collection of games that I would recommend to any fans of the series, but I would also recommend the collection to any fan of arcade games since they provide much of the same level of addiction that many classics in the genre have done; each game is satisfying to play, challenging, and has all the crude humor synonymous with the program thrown in for good measure.