Bill & Ted’ Excellent Video Game Adventure is Terrible

This is a game that I don’t remember playing as a kid. There is a decent chance that my friends rented it, but I don’t remember playing Bill and Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure. It is, of course, a movie based video game published by LJN.

I’m going into this one with little to no knowledge of the game or the source material it is based on. I knew about the movies, but had no interest in watching them. Plus, none of my friends had them when I visited their houses. There is this sentiment in some parts of the internet that everyone watched or played the same things growing up, but this simply isn’t the case.

I have watched the AVGN episode of this game, but since it’s a comedy show, I want to form my own opinion about the game. It would be nice to play something decent. Movie based games have a bad reputation to say the least, so I’m going to keep an open mind and hopefully this one turns out okay.

TLDR: An overly ambitious game that falls apart quickly.

Narrative

This story is very confusing for the type of game we’re playing. The developers went to great lengths to explain why Bill and Ted aren’t on the screen at the same time, and I don’t understand why. Granted, most people wouldn’t have cared about the story back in 1991, but looking at it now, they could’ve made it much simpler.

Bill and Ted separately meet up with Rufus. He informs them that time-space rebels have traveled back in time and started kidnapping various historical figures. This will somehow derail Bill and Ted’s music career, which is way more important than anything else! I’m assuming that world peace, hunger, and poverty will all be fixed based on this Wyld Stallyns concert being performed, not being successful, just performed.

So, the boys use their phone booth to travel back in time. Here is the catch. Ted shows up first, and Rufus sends him on his way. Bill shows up some time later and then goes back in time on a seemingly different time machine. The two of them leave items for each other at various stages.

So, we’re supposed to believe that these two are traveling to the same time periods, leaving crap behind, and maybe finding the historical figures. Thankfully, none of this is overly disruptive to the timeline, and they don’t destroy everything by bumbling through time. This made me wonder what the plot of the movies was.

The video game is a reimagining of the movie. It isn’t really a sequel, and it is loosely based on the 1989 movie “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” The characters are here, but the reasons for their traveling through time are totally different.

I looked up the story in the manual (Link). The story told in the manual is a little different. The rebels are from the future, and they want to change it in their favor. That is what I’m picking up from this, but who knows? There is talk of Bill and Ted bringing about world peace with their music, which is apparently something the future rebels want to avoid.

Gameplay

Now that I’ve spent way more time on the story than I was intending, I’ll get to the gameplay. This is an isometric game, which means the controls are either going to be great or abysmal. There is seriously no middle ground for a game using this perspective at this time.

The gameplay is incredibly frustrating. There is a mini game where you enter a phone number and then go to a time circuit thing. It isn’t a bad idea to add a mini game like this, but it was horribly done. I would rather just go to the stage than deal with coins or try to line up a shot for one of the safe spots on the circuit.

This is the case of a developer coming up with something that sounded like a good idea, but it results in more frustration. The rest of the game is already frustrating, as you wander aimlessly searching for what you need. On the stage, some people give you items like coins and temporary weapons. Others steal your coins or throw you in jail.

Here are the items you’ll get during the game:

• Coins – Used for time travel and bribing people.
• Firecrackers
• Textbooks
• Cassette Tapes
• Pudding

You’re also looking for historical bait. These are special items used to lure the “historical dudes” back to their original time. The townsfolk give you clues as to where to find it, and good luck following their nonsensical ramblings!

There are sixteen people you need to find. This would be fine if the game was fun to play, but it isn’t. Here are the “historical dudes” in no particular order:

• Cleopatra
• Confucious
• Julius Caesar
• Christopher Columbus
• King Arthur
• Paul Revere
• Jesse James
• Al Capone
• Robin Hood
• William Shakespeare
• Rembrandt
• Sitting Bull
• George Washington
• Thomas Edison
• Elvis
• Marilyn Monroe

Even if it results in the world descending into chaos, I think we should let the future rebels win. It is better than fighting against the annoying level design and unhelpful hints from the townsfolk.

As you fumble your way through these levels, without a map by the way, you’ll get hints from the townsfolk. The clues are supposed to help the player find the items and historical figures you’re looking for. This would work if anything made sense in this game. The controls are okay, but you’re always fighting with the map to get anywhere.

Visuals

The graphics are fine until things start moving. There is a stutter when you advance the screen in any direction. Character sprites look generic, making it hard to know where you can and cannot go, and it is very easy to get lost in the stages.

I don’t like the isometric angle that is used in this game, but I’m not entirely sure how else they could’ve done it. If you’re supposed to be wandering through a city, then nothing looks like it. Nothing looks like what is described by the townsfolk.

It isn’t easy to see where you can and cannot go, and you have to find items that aren’t easy to see. This is an adventure game with fairly large maps, but I had no idea where to go or what I was looking for. The graphics in the game work against the player more often than not.

I was very disappointed with this game overall, and the graphics tease you with things that, at the very least, look good. Before you start moving, things look okay. Then the screen starts stuttering, the townsfolk randomly start chasing you, and the map continues to get more confusing as you wander through the stage.

Reviews at the Time

In 1991, this was seen as an average but frustrating game. The only “positive” review for it came from Nintendo Power, and even that one wasn’t all that complimentary. Other reviews I read seem to think it was okay, but should’ve been better given the premise for the game.

Nintendo Power’s score is a little misleading. There isn’t an overall score given for the game. The reviewer graded it on four categories. The controls were given a 2.2/5, graphics and sound was 3.4/5, challenge and excitement got a 2.9/5, and theme and fun was a 3.6/5. The overall score is closer to a 3/5, which is on the higher side for this game.

GamePro gave the game average scores. The reviewer said it could’ve been a “truly excellent video game adventure,” but wound up being “mildly entertaining.” They went on to say that the game is slow and lacks action.

The retrospective reviews are what you should expect. A bunch of people are trashing a game and using the word “unplayable,” which has seriously lost all meaning at this point. It is used as a way for someone to say that they don’t like it, instead of meaning that the game doesn’t work.

5/10. You can play this game, but I’m not sure why you would want to. The controls and gameplay are frustrating, and the graphics make the game harder to play than it should be.

Pros

• It is playable

Cons

• Graphics have a Negative Impact on Gameplay
• Confusing
• Easy to get lost

Conclusion

Seeing how the views of video games have changed over time is fascinating. Something that was initially seen as average or below average has become a terrible game by the time it was reviewed in the 2000s and 2010s. There are some reasons for this, but that is for another time, as I don’t want to use this post for it.

The game’s description makes you think it could be good. In fact, if the controls, level design, and graphics were better, then it would be a fun game. As it is now, everything works against the player in ways that make it not fun.

There is a middle ground between the reviews in the 1990s and those in the 2000s and 2010s. I think this is a below average game, but there is something there. I could see someone liking this, assuming they’ve taken the time to figure it out. It isn’t a broken or unplayable game; it is simply one of those games that was overly ambitious, to put it in a nice way.

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts about LJN games, such as Friday the 13^th or Jaws.