Beavis and Butthead for the Genesis Is Too Smart for Its Audience

I fondly remember renting Beavis and Butthead for the Super Nintendo when I was a kid. It was nothing more than a dumb side-scrolling beat-em-up with humor from the show and a stupid plot about getting GWAR tickets. It made sense as a game, but it was definitely nothing special.

The other day I decided to pop in its Sega Genesis counterpart.

These multi-platform titles always seemed better on the SNES, but I figured I should experience the music on Sega’s system of the same era. Well, it turns out it has the same general plot, but the gameplay is a whole different affair.

This version of Beavis and Butthead is more like a Monkey Island or King’s Quest game. You’re tasked with gathering items and completing tasks around town to get your tickets back instead of just clobbering people. Truth be told, this makes so much more sense — the two boys were never known as butt-kicking badasses, but they did do a lot of stupid shit around their neighborhood.

The only thing that perplexes me is that at the time, the people most interested in Beavis and Butthead were people like me who had the brain capacity of Beavis and Butthead.

So, why make a puzzle-solving game aimed at dullards? Perhaps it’s the developer’s subtle way of pointing out how video games can be more than what the audience demands, or that we can expand people’s minds through the games we play.

Or perhaps I’m giving them way too much credit.