A good many people like to reminiscence on how MTV was actually good back in the day. Not only do those old-timers recall the music videos, but they also recall the many series the channel had, like Aeon Flux, Daria, Celebrity Death Match and Beavis and Butt-Head. Given, that these shows were made in the 90s, it would follow that at least some game adaptations were made and as one of the MTVs most popular series, Beavis and Butt-Head was the dimwitted duo that got most of the attention.
Now, the idiotic, music video consuming teens aren't the first of the MTV based games. The first one was a 1989 trivia game called Remote Control, which was then later followed by an FMV adventure Club Dead in 1994. In that same year, a slew of Beavis and Butt-Head titles followed for consoles and in 1995, came out perhaps the best known of them, a point and click adventure Virtual Stupidity.
If you've ever seen an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head, you know what to expect. The series follows the exploits of two intellectually challenged teens, who spend their days watching MTV, commenting on the trash they see as well as causing misery to the good folk of the town of Highland. While the series might not sound like much, it has been many times mentioned among the best-animated series made by critics and viewers alike.
Virtual Stupidity is more or less a typical day for Beavis and Butt-Head. At school, the duo sees their hero, a small-time criminal Todd having an argument with another hoodlum on the street. The boys think it would be cool the be a part of Todd's gang, so they decide to get out of school early. After that success, their main aim for the day is to find Todd.
Like the series, Virtual Stupidity doesn't have much of a story. It was never a series about a story, it was about seeing how the two dimwits would go through their existence without realizing how stupid they were. The game is, more or less, the same. There's even a possibility to watch music videos from the TV and listen to the boys talk over them. In a word, if you liked the TV series, it's quite possible you'll enjoy Virtual Stupidity as well, at least as far as the humour goes.
As for the gameplay, Virtual Stupidity plays like any other mid-90s point and click adventure. The UI is inspired by the verb coin Lucasfilm games used at this point, so with a mouse click, you get a selector for using, walking, talking, looking and inventory. It's a simple system that works as well as you'd imagine, so there are no issues there. It's the kind of system that was adopted by many at the time when the user interfaces in adventure games started to go in a more simplified direction. The next step from here would be a smart cursor system, which would adapt to any given hotspot accordingly.
If there's anything wrong with the gameplay, it's a couple of easy to miss hotspots. While Virtual Stupidity is relatively fair in terms of noticing things, a couple of pixel-hunting situations have been left in the game. This in itself can lead to some aimless wandering looking for a way of progressing the linear narrative. Linearity might be, depending on what you like, another drawback.
I wouldn't call Virtual Stupidity a great game. It's certainly a passable adventure game and a pretty solid one for a licensed title, but I do think it requires for you to be a fan of the series, to begin with. Basically, it's the kind of a game that doesn't really offer much for people unfamiliar with the concept, as it doesn't really bother explaining itself too deeply for those, not in the know.
Visually the game looks pretty close to the original animated series, which isn't a surprise considering the cinematics and background were done by the same studio that made the animated series as well. The voice cast is also the same as it was in the series, so that should be familiar as well. In a way, it's like an extended episode of the show. Or better yet, a kind of a movie-length take long before the official movie was ever made.
Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of Virtual Stupidity is its lack of music. Now, I can't claim to know how much music the series had besides the music videos, but it does feel a bit odd, that besides the theme song and some short music snippets in the cinematics, the game is pretty silent in terms of music. Something of a mix of hard rock and metal music could have been pretty appropriate in this case.
Virtual Stupidity is the kind of game that was directly aimed at a very specific audience. How much you'll like it or how much appeal it has to you depends greatly on how much you liked, or if you even know, the source material. If you didn't like the series, you won't like Virtual Stupidity either. It's exactly, in good and bad, the kind of a game you'd expect from a series like Beavis and Butt-Head. I doubt it made any new fans for the show, but those fans who bought it were, probably, more than pleased with it.
Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity are one of those technically rather well-made titles, which have fallen under the cracks since their ínitial release. While it was a review and commercial success in its day, no digital outlet offers it at this moment. For those wanting to play the game, you'll have to check out other sources. On the plus side though, if you do find it from somewhere, it should be relatively easy to get it running, as ScummVM has full support for it.
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