Tag Archives: Mini Games

Beavis & Butt-Head: Little Thingies (PC)

Beavis and Butthead Little Thingies

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 them 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 expected either then 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 fits 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 out 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 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 is that none of the games can be played on full screen on later operating systems. This 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

The game is based on a unique license compared to many other licensed video games released at that time. But the games are better designed than many arcade games released that rely on points-racking to succeed. When I sat down to play these games after over twenty years away from them, I was expecting them to not hold up. Remembering them as being casual experiences compared to what I was playing at that time. I was 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.

Score

32/40

8/10 (Very Good)