To start with the positives the
Game echoes the comedy and ethos that runs so thick in the TV show,
the shows humour has not been watered down at all and is just as offensive has
the show, to justify this claim you only have to look at the objective of the
game, which is to travel through time hunting down Scott Tenorman who
has stolen Cartman's Xbox hard drive, if that's not enough you will
find out that the main enemies in the game are robot ginger kids. The comedy
and authenticity are the two best features about this game and will appeal to
the fans of the show.
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| The visual style is impressive |
There is a lot of fan service in this
game, with references from the show littered throughout much of the game, if
your a fan of the show this could enhance your experience but if not act as a
major irritant, this game does though deserve some credit for presentation, the
game looks visually pleasing, the menus are well designed as are the cut scenes
and there are clear signs that the game was developed with the shows creators
on board. The game itself also doesn't drop the ball visually, the characters
look exactly like they do on your TV screens and at times you feel as if your
are playing an interactive episode of South Park which helps you become
immersed in the game.
The problem with the majority of
tie-ins is that they can't mirror what the original product does well in the
actually game play and I'm
afraid this is no different,
the game can mirror the comedy and the look of of the TV show but the actually
game play is nothing more than a run of the mill platform game, and not a good
one at that. The movements of the characters are sluggish and the jumping
mechanic is unpredictable which really damages the credibility of any
platformer. The way you attack your various enemies leaves a lot to be desired,
because of the slow moving characters the attacking variations are
bland and unimaginative, you spend most of your time jumping on the heads of
enemies Mario style or firing various projectile weapons.
Another game play element that lets this game down is the camera angle, for
some of the game it is fine but when you play coop and all four of you go in
separate directions the camera pulls out which results in visibility being
minimised and the game just becomes a mess of jumping characters and
collectibles, along with this the camera will struggle to keep up with you at
times which results in many leap of faiths often resulting in death, and after
multiple examples of this it starts to get very frustrating.
 |
| The camera angle is poor |
Although I said that the game remains
true to the TV series is most ways it doesn't in one crucial way and that is
the diversity in the playable characters, the show is build on the diversity
between Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny but in the game this aspect suffers, yes they
each have their own special powers which may seem impressive but in practise
they are disappointing. I would find it hard to recommend this game to anyone,
if you scratch beneath the surface of this South Park tie-in all you get
is a mediocre platformer with little imagination in the way of game play,
poor game play mechanics and a poor camera angle. If you’re a die-hard fan of the show you will
get some enjoyment out of the authenticity but I would suggest waiting for Obsidian's version on a South Park gaming coming out later
this year
Pros
- Authentic voice acting and characters
- Visual pleasing and imaginative graphics
- Four player coop
Cons
- Sluggish control
- Poor gameplay mechanics
- Terrible camera angle
Score 4 out of 10
A
copy of this game was provided by the developer for review purposes.
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