Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head delivers a straightforward yet quirky gameplay loop that captures the spirit of the show’s dimbulb duo. Players guide Beavis and Butt-Head through four distinct levels—Highland High School, the Streets of Highland, Highland Hospital, and the Turbo Mall 2000—before finally making their way to the GWAR concert. Each level tasks you with finding a “cool” action to photograph, which serves as your ticket to the next stage. This simple objective structure keeps the focus on exploration and comedic set pieces rather than complex puzzle-solving.

The core combat revolves around a paintball gun that both Beavis and Butt-Head can wield against a series of low-level adversaries, ranging from hall monitors and janitors in the school to security guards in the mall. While encounters are never particularly challenging, they do provide a welcome break from aimless wandering. Scattered health pickups—mostly in the form of burgers, hot dogs, and other junk food—encourage players to scour every nook and cranny of each environment.

Between levels, the game introduces a “couch fishing” mini-game: you cast a line to snag TV dinners and snacks, attempting to boost your health meter ahead of the next mission. This tongue-in-cheek mechanic not only adds variety but also reinforces the lazy, couch-bound ethos of the characters. The time limit and risk of snagging a broken line injects a mild tension that offsets the otherwise laid-back pace.

Graphics

Visually, MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head opts for a 2.5D perspective that faithfully reproduces the chunky, exaggerated character designs of the original animated series. The duo retains their trademark blonde and brown hair, scrawny builds, and slack-jawed expressions, ensuring fans feel right at home. Environments are rendered with bold colors and simple textures, evoking the show’s limited animation style while still feeling cohesive in three dimensions.

Each level offers unique visual landmarks: the lockers and bleachers of Highland High pop with school-sports hues, the city streets are littered with neon signs and graffiti, the hospital features pastel walls and gurneys, and the Turbo Mall 2000 glitters with glass storefronts and escalators. Though polygon counts are modest by modern standards, the art direction leans heavily on nostalgia, and it works in the game’s favor.

Animations are serviceable, with Beavis and Butt-Head performing their signature laughs, head-bobs, and idle flops when left unattended. Enemy movements are more basic, but the occasional physics-enabled flick of a paintball peel or the comical bounce of a TV dinner during couch fishing trigger enough visual humor to keep things engaging. Lighting effects are minimal but sufficient to distinguish indoor from outdoor areas and set the mood for each level.

Story

The narrative premise is as delightfully dumb as you’d expect: while channel-surfing on their couch, Beavis and Butt-Head stumble upon an ad for a GWAR concert. Lacking any money for tickets, they concoct a plan to photograph themselves doing “cool” stunts to gain free admission. It’s a fittingly shallow motivation that serves as a thin thread connecting each level’s objective.

Rather than unfolding through lengthy cutscenes, the story is delivered in bite-sized interstitial moments: a few lines of text, a quick animation of the duo high-fiving on the couch, then off to the next misadventure. This minimalist approach mirrors the show’s rapid-fire humor but may feel underwhelming for players seeking deeper narrative engagement. Still, the jokes land frequently enough—especially when Butt-Head mistakens a cafeteria tray for a skateboard or Beavis accidentally triggers a hospital alarm.

Character interactions and environmental gags are woven into the levels themselves. Enemy NPCs offer brief quips upon being splattered with paintballs, and environmental hazards frequently evoke the slapstick disasters typical of the series. While the story won’t win any literary accolades, it remains faithful to the source material’s lowbrow sensibilities.

Overall Experience

MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head offers a niche but charming experience that will primarily appeal to fans of the classic MTV series and players who appreciate lighthearted, nostalgia-driven platformers. Its simple mechanics and short runtime make it an easy pick-up-and-play title rather than a marathon gaming session. The pace seldom peaks in difficulty, ensuring that frustration remains at bay.

The blending of exploration, brief combat, and the quirky “couch fishing” mini-games creates a varied enough session to stay entertaining across its five stages. Replay value hinges on collecting every food item and experimenting with different “cool” photos, though achievements in these areas feel optional rather than essential. For those who grew up laughing at Beavis’s “fire, fire” or Butt-Head’s curt “uh-huh,” the game serves as a time machine back to simpler days.

In the end, if you’re after a polished AAA blockbuster, look elsewhere. But if you’re in the mood for a lighthearted romp with these iconic slackers, replete with goofy humor and modest challenges, MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head delivers exactly what it promises: a brief, comedic trip through Highland with your favorite couch potatoes.

Retro Replay Score

6.1/10