The newest installment of the “South Park” game franchise, “South Park: Snow Day!,” reinvents itself, and, just like recent seasons of the show, it isn’t good.
A direct sequel to previous video games, “Snow Day!” continues to follow the storyline of the New Kid.
The game centers around the New Kid during a snow day playing in a “The Lord of the Rings” inspired fantasy war between the local neighborhood kids as humans and elves.
Players now have the option to either play solo with three ally bots or in multiplayer with friends.
The first two games, “South Park: The Stick of Truth” and “South Park: The Fractured but Whole,” are animated in a 2D style similar to the actual show; however, “Snow Day!” opens with a 2D prologue before transitioning to a fully 3D world.
The biggest change made in the new game is straying away from a turn-based RPG to introduce a hack-and-slash style game with card-based mechanics.
The main game is broken up into five chapters where the New Kid must battle through waves of elementary schoolers to finish quests. Each chapter includes a final boss at the end.
At the beginning of each chapter, three modifier cards and three “bulls–” cards are randomly shuffled for the player to pick one of each.
Modifier cards can increase attack damage or speed up health regeneration, while “bulls–” cards can give you or your enemies overpowered abilities like summoning meteor showers or an army of minions to fight.
Cards have varying levels to them, like uncommon or legendary, and can be upgraded using the game’s newest currency: toilet paper, a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Players have the choice to use three different melee weapons – sword and shield, daggers or a two-handed axe – and three projectile weapons – bow, staff or wand.
According to How Long To Beat, the main story should take about 4.5 hours to complete, making “Snow Day!” the shortest game of the franchise.
The controls in the game are pretty clunky.
On the Nintendo Switch version, sprinting requires players to hold down the “A” button; dodging attacks also uses the same button but is just a single press.
The problem with this is when you want to sprint, you end up accidentally dodging. And even if you don’t dodge, half the time the sprinting doesn’t even work properly.
A lot of the charm that the television series is known for is lost in this recent release.
“The Stick of Truth” had players fighting an aborted Nazi zombie fetus and escaping a gay man’s colon.
None of that shocking or offensive humor is really seen in this game.
If you want to play a “South Park” game, just stick to the first two and pass on this disappointment.
