Beavis and Butt-Head (Blueprint Gaming): Review

Back in the early era of adult animated sitcoms—well before Stewie ever hatched his first devious scheme on Family Guy, before Stan and Kyle scandalised audiences with their foul mouths on South Park, and before Bart flashed his backside on The Simpsons—there was Beavis and Butt-Head.

In 1993, at the height of TV pop culture, Mike Judge debuted his tribute to—and send-up of—teenage idiocy on the then ultra-hip music channel MTV. Beavis and Butt-head follows two politically incorrect, socially clueless teenage troublemakers obsessed with pyromania, boobs and heavy metal. Marooned on a couch in a dead-end town with no real future and no hobbies beyond loud music, masturbation and pointless vandalism, they mostly just watch TV. On the rare occasions they actually venture outside their run-down home, chaos usually follows: they end up wrecking their frail neighbour’s yard, trashing their teacher’s precious 8-track collection, or driving the principal up the wall.

The franchise has since expanded into a feature film, loads of video games, and now a video slot. Developed by Blueprint Gaming, Beavis and Butt-Head is a 5-reel, 3-row, 20-payline slot in the same vein as other branded Blueprint titles like Mars Attacks!, Ted, The Goonies and Goodfeathers. Available on all devices with stakes from 10 cents to 500€ per spin, it packs in a big selection of randomly triggered modifiers, plenty of bonus action and, importantly, some genuinely funny animations. Expect extra wilds, fully stacked wild reels, colossal reels and more.

On the visual side, Beavis and Butt-Head sticks closely to the source material, right down to the chunky 90s TV set that frames the reels. You begin at home, then get whisked off to different settings as the game’s many features kick in—and if you’re a fan like we are, there are lots of entertaining cut-scenes and animations to enjoy. The reels include J, Q, K and A royals plus familiar faces from the show: hippie teacher David Van Driessen, Principal McVicker, Beavis and Butt-Head. The premium symbol is the show’s logo, paying 25 times your stake for 5 of a kind. A wild symbol is also present; it replaces everything except the scatter and matches the logo’s value.

Beavis and Butt-Head (Blueprint Gaming): Features

Much like the Blueprint games mentioned earlier, this one is loaded with extras thanks to the Couch Your Cash feature bundle. During the base game, when the two idiots start snickering, one of the following modifiers can activate:

• Die Fly, Die! – the guys smack the tv with their flyswatters, turning positions wild.
• Cornholio Wilds – Beavis’s schizophrenic alter ego Cornholio appears to give you fully stacked wild reels.
• Colossal Couch Fishing – Butt-Head pulls out his fishing-rod to hook a 3×3 colossal reel which can even land you a giant bonus symbol.
• So Nacho – as Butt-Head tries to open a bag of nachos, it explodes into a mess of nacho mystery symbols on the reels which will reveal matching symbols.
• Butt Flambé – Beavis chugs hot sauce which brings a sudden onset of flaming farts, potentially triggering the bonus. Yes, you heard us right.
• Some Like it Hot – Beavis and Butt-Head both drink the hot sauce, causing them to burp fire onto the reels, awarding you a big winning spin.

Two more modifiers may also occur after any spin. When Sofa Slugfest hits, symbols get punched off the reels and replaced with fresh ones in an attempt to form a win. If Change the Channel triggers instead, Butt-Head flips the channel and reveals a winning outcome.

On top of that, there are 6 Bonus Stuff Kicks Ass features, reachable via the Couch Your Cash modifiers or by landing 3 or more Hollywood Star bonus scatters anywhere on the reels. You’ll see 6 filmstrips and must choose one to uncover either a bonus feature or a Mystery Win cash prize. The Feature Gamble then lets you either play it safe or pick again—if you pick again and reveal the Mystery Win, you collect the cash and return to the base game. If you uncover a bonus feature, you can accept it or push your luck and try again. Here’s what’s on the menu:

• Don’t Be A Buzzkill Bonus – set in coach Bradley Buzzcut’s office, you’re asked to pick Beavis or Butt-Head to reveal either a cash win or buzzkill. When the buzzkill meter fills up, the feature ends.
• Customers Suck! Bonus – set in Burger World where Beavis and Butt-Head are working as cashiers, you’re asked to select food boxes to reveal icons. Each type of fast food will match up to a total bet multiplier. If the upgrade icon comes up, the multiplier is increased or the possible feature that can be triggered during the bonus. Moreover, collecting the Gold Super Burger activates an additional feature. The feature ends if 3 worm burgers have been revealed.
• To ‘B’ Or Not to ‘B’ Free Spins – set in Beavis and Butt-Head’s front yard, on each spin either the Beavis or the Butt-Head symbol is turned into a wild. You can also collect tokens to win Super Spins (all Beavis and Butt-Head are wild on every spin) or the Just Deserts Bonus.
• Maxi Mart Free Spins – set inside a grocery store, Maxi Gulp drink’s land on the reels to give you wilds. The token feature applies here as well. If the Super Spins are triggered, the Maxi Gulp wilds reappear and held in position for all spins.
• The Great Cornholio Free Spins – set inside the school bathroom, each spin will give you at least two fully stacked wild reels. You collect tokens here too, allowing you a chance to retrigger the feature or go straight to the Just Desert Bonus.
• Just Deserts Bonus – set in the desert, you are asked to pick an icon to advance the dynamic duo along the desert trail and collect cash wins. If they land on an Oasis position, a mystery award is won. Making it to the Super Big Money at the end of the desert trail will allow you to pick a Super Big Money multiplier which is then added to your total. 5 bonus scatters are required to trigger this feature unless you activate it through the Feature Gamble or in any of the other bonuses.

Beavis and Butt-Head (Blueprint Gaming): Verdict

Beavis and Butt-Head is a defining slice of 90s youth culture, and for anyone who grew up watching the two teen leads and laughing at their grimy misadventures, it delivers a strong hit of nostalgia. In that sense, it’s a slot that will immediately resonate with MTV-watching Generation X fans—kids who loved seeing their own boredom and inertia mirrored on screen.

As a slot game, though, it doesn’t fully reach the heights we’d hoped for. At its core, Beavis and Butt-Head feels like another near-copy of other entries in Blueprint’s branded line-up, even if there are minor tweaks—such as how the RTP is allocated. We also get the sense that the duo’s portrayal is a little thin, and that more could have been done to make them pop, for instance by including clips from the actual show or adding more nods to specific episodes. It’s also a shame that some key characters, like Daria and Stewart, aren’t included.

If you had fun with The Goonies, Ted, Mars Attacks! and similar Blueprint releases, this one should still land well. Volatility is high, there’s a ton of feature variety to keep things fresh for a long time, and the 10,000 max win potential is certainly a nice draw.