South Park: Snow Day! (PlayStation 5)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): March 26, 2024
- Publisher: THQ Nordic
- Developer: Question
- Genres: Action-Adventure
- Also For: Computer, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S
Game Features:
Snow days are supposed to be fun; any child who grew up in an area of the world that gets regular snowstorms can attest to this. There’s few greater rushes than to wake up to the morning sun reflected off of a fresh coating of snow blanketed across the yard, drifts as high as the eye can see, and rushing to turn on the news and see if you’ll get to read those magical words “Snow day. Schools are closed.” It’s a sign that your day is going to be filled with fun in the snow, free from the stresses of school… with nothing but games and play to occupy your day. It’s a magical, childhood feeling that’s distinctly absent from South Park: Snow Day!, the latest game adaptation of the South Park franchise. Taking place after the events of the last two games, South Park: The Stick of Truth and South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Snow Day! marks a distinct turning point for these games, leaving the hands of Obsidian Entertainment, and thus leaving the RPG genre to become a hack and slash online extravaganza. Change isn’t always a bad thing, but in this case? I ended up finding the game as disappointing as learning school wouldn’t be closed after all, all those years ago.
Goin' on Down to South Park
The story for Snow Day! sees us witnessing the town of South Park experiencing a snow storm of apocalyptic proportions, threatening to bury the city overnight; through the lens of Cartman, however, we experience that childlike glee of not caring about the actual implications of the weather, but just hoping for one of those magical snow days to get school canceled. When morning breaks and the entire town is buried under a comical amount of snow, it becomes clear that Cartman’s wish has come true. Leaving all of the kids in town free of any scholastic responsibilities, and able to return to the latest chapter of their fantasy-turned superhero-turned back to fantasy LARP games throughout town. You, as the player, once again take up the mantle of The New Kid, the silent protagonist of the previous two games in the series, working to help Wizard Cartman and his army of fellow humans take on the elf king Kyle in a small variety of skirmishes that consist, mostly, of just mashing the attack button until you win. Joining you are three fellow new kids in town, who help you on your way. This slimmed down story marks the end of the large, open world epic that was the last two games; instead becoming a linear romp, that is significantly less engaging, captivating, and just overall less fun to go through. On the bright side, the base campaign only has five missions to take part in, which each take roughly an hour a piece, leaving you with only five hours of gameplay to slog through - no wonder this game was only $30.
One of the most jarring changes to Snow Day! was definitely the change in graphics. Where the previous South Park games went with a 2.5D design to make it feel like you were playing an episode of the show, the latest game returns the franchise to 3D for the first time since 2000’s South Park Rally kart racing game, though most are likely more familiar with the 1998 first person shooter game, South Park, which first saw the property brought to life in 3D on the Nintendo 64. By all accounts, it’s a nostalgic return to form; both bringing South Park back from the art style it’s known, and dare I say beloved, for, but also for managing to look just as bad as that N64 game did. Okay, maybe that’s a bit too mean, but it’s my genuine opinion. Yes, the game looks significantly more polished now than anything in 1998 would have, but there’s a reason future gaming endeavors for the property strayed from this; the art style just doesn’t look good in 3D. It’s a lesson I thought we would’ve learned 24 years ago, but, well… here we are now. What’s even worse is that this change doesn’t even push any limits with its graphical needs; sure, it looks right at home on something like the Switch, but on the PS5, where I experienced this game? It’s as unattractive and plain looking as some of the worst games the platform has to offer. To be fair to the game, it does start in the classic South Park artstyle for our opening cutscene... only to shift to 3D the second gameplay starts, and mark the immediate disappointment I'd continue to feel throughout the game.
Beyond my personal distaste for the art style’s looks in 3D, another major change that came from this is the lack of South Park’s map, which series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone famously had to fully draft for the first time for 2014’s Stick of Truth, in order to give that game the ability to be an exploration-based RPG, which also had the added benefit of helping to fully immerse the player in town. Now? The mountains of snow and 3D environment killed any sense of continuity I had with Snow Day’s “map," instead handing us the occasional monumental location from the show, but intersplicing the between sections with generic, snow covered battlefields that all tend to somehow look the same. At worst, it’s completely robbing the game of any charm that you’d normally expect from a South Park game. And at its best? It still just doesn’t look that good.
Friendly Faces Everywhere, Humble Folks Without Temptation
Gameplay is the area where Snow Day! stands out the most, in my opinion - in the worst way possible. Gone are the days of RPG exploration and turn-based combat in this latest addition to the franchise. We’re treated, instead, to linear levels with hyper-simplistic goals, and the most basic form of hack and slash combat possible. Despite the return of the fantasy-inspired game that the kids play, your traditional class structure is entirely absent, opting instead to give every character access to the six weapons available in the game; three melee choices, and three ranged choices. Even then, though, I found myself defaulting to the melee options even when I actively tried to use the bow or magic staff; combat moves so quickly that the aiming and recharge on ranged weapons just waste time; it’s much easier to just rush into the hordes of enemies and mash the melee button until they stop getting back up. There’s a semi-interesting card mechanic that was added this go round, to buff your weapons and give you new abilities, but even those aren’t enough to get away from the slog that is the core of the combat mechanic; hacking and slashing your way to victory. Sure, Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole had their combat issues, but neither have the chief problem that I’d ascribe to Snow Day!: It’s. Just. Boring. It’s a mindless slog that takes no effort, no thought, and just feels lazy above all else.
Multiplayer is the name of the game, when it comes to Snow Day!, which can be accomplished either online via matchmaking, in a private group with friends, or on your own with bot-controlled New Kids who pop into your game whenever combat begins, and leave you to your own devices outside of combat. No matter how you choose to receive your help, you’ll always be playing in a group of fellow New Kids, leaving the South Park characters you know and love not to be your allies in battle this go round, but relegated to support characters met throughout missions, and cutscenes. This compounds with the lack of a recognizable map and the lack of the trademark papercraft artstyle to just really make Snow Day! stand out amidst the catalog of South Park games, and feel as though the property was an afterthought.
If it isn’t clear, I don’t like this game. At all. I’m not even the biggest South Park fan in the world, but even I know the entire reason the franchise won any popularity in the gaming world was the clever writing, charm of premise, and overall love and care that the series put into making that transition from show to game finally worth something. All are aspects that distinctly don’t exist in South Park: Snow Day! The only positive thing I can really say is that the game got me interested in South Park again for the first time in a long time; though through no merits of its own, primarily in that it got me rewatching episodes and finally making the time to play The Fractured But Whole, in an effort to remind myself how much fun this franchise is supposed to be. Some of you may think that I’m spending too much time comparing Snow Day! to the previous two games in the series, which is normally a fair criticism; on the whole, I try to review what a game does offer, not what I wish it did. In this case, though, I think it’s a fair thing to be hung up about; South Park, as a franchise, is one that comes with its audience pre-installed. I can’t think of many people who would even let this game blip onto their radar if they weren’t at least fans of the show. So when two nearly perfect South Park games already exist, and they’re followed up with this lazy piece of gaming? How the fuck could I not spend my time comparing them. And more importantly? How the fuck could I ever recommend something like this.
Verdict
- Return to the timeline of Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole
- Change to objectively worse 3D graphics
- Boring and mindless gameplay
- Lack of distinct South Park charm
