South Park: Snowday! Review (PS5) – Cartman’s wish for a Snow Day has come true! Fresh off two immeasurably outrageous South Park games with The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, South Park returns with another imaginative and quirky offering in South: Park Snowday!.
A fantasy adventure featuring the iconic Colorado kids. Despite its meager price tag, this latest outing from Cartman and company is a pleasure, even if it’s slightly impaired by its straightforwardness and unsurprising nuances.
South Park: Snowday! Review (PS5) – A Satisfying If Slight Slice Of South Park
Snow Day Means It’s Time To Play
A massive blizzard has engulfed South Park causing traffic disruptions and death, yet Cartman’s only wish is for school to close, so that him and his buddies can go outside and play another gloriously epic fantasy game.
Cartman proceeds to gather up his pals starting with the protagonist so called “The New Guy,” who has previously been considered too overpowered playing The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole by Cartman, that the rules can hardly contain your legendary status.
Despite that he proceeds to invite you to this new quest-laden adventure anyway.
Dark Matter has gripped the residents of South Park, turning them into possessed undead creatures. Most of the victims are little minion children who fight alongside enemy captains, but as you progress, you’ll learn that this volatile material has also corrupted the adults as well.
To put it simply, this evil force needs to be quashed and “The New Kid” and his posse must restore order and take back control through means of skirmishing…..and stealing Cheesy Poofs and toilet paper.
To Battle!
The new game the South Park kids have concocted pertains to pitting you and your army of kids against an opposing army, lead by one of the esteemed South Park four.
Snowday! Teams you up with three A.I or player characters, where you’ll be tasked with storming snow-drenched bases to scrap against a deluge of kids, tracking down and then slaying the end-level boss. Once the snow has settled, that fallen boss has no choice but to join your war effort as an ally thereafter.
The general set-up is a promising excuse for the South Park clan to embark on another silly, entertaining and imaginative escapade, and it’s a good hearty laugh as you’d come to expect from the irreverent brain children of Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
However, it is a shame that you can’t battle alongside any of the iconic South Park kids during actual gameplay, which makes the effort of defeating them to gain their services largely unfulfilling.
Unlike the two previous South Park high-fantasy turn-based RPGs, South Park: Snowday! Is a straightforward action-RPG, so now you don’t need to take turns and properly strategize your attacks.
You can simply whack away at your itty-bitty foes until they drop, perhaps with some squelchy bleeding damage too.
You start with daggers to rip at enemy anatomies, but eventually your arsenal opens up to ranged alternatives such as bows and a staff that can keep you firing at a distance without as much vulnerability to enemy fire.
But the lack of brunt behind the shots make ranged options less desirable than the up-close and personal alternative.
The new visceral and direct approach to combat courtesy of the action-RPG bent is a good alternative to the turn-based formula. Unfortunately, some of the magic and imagination that made the previous two games big hits, don’t translate as effectively in the action RPG format.
Missing The Magic
In the previous turn-based efforts, much of the pleasure of combat was witnessing the insanely weird and wholly immature attacks that both the player and the opposition could discharge.
Memorable moments such as those suggestive beads the priests use in The Stick of Truth to clobber you, or that Subway sandwich used in that one particular boss in The Fractured But Whole, come to mind.
The shock value inherent within these attacks echoed the essence of South Park’s soul, though sadly this essence is missing from Snowday!.
While the boss encounters reflect the crudity of South Park, they aren’t as memorable, diverse, or unexpected as either of its predecessors.
The boss fight with Princess Kenny is by far the most pleasing, as the whimsy and colour shines through, but don’t expect anything out of the ordinary or surprising this time out.
Pick A Card, Any Card
Snowday! introduces special card power-ups that can bolster your invasion efforts. At the start of every battle, both sides select power cards that they can equip during the conflict.
For example, you can hurl cat urine at your Dark-Matter possessed foes, so that they momentarily fight alongside you, and erecting a totem that’ll replenish yours and your allies’ health gradually. Snowday’s powers weren’t created equal, as some of the don’t feel very useful.
There’s a bullrush power-up, which may feel aggressive and agile, but its devastation is limited to a single hapless grunt at a time.
The Fart Escape is quite useful though, where you can get out of dodge while leaving a putrid smokescreen behind that can gross out your foes while gliding you to safety, making it a timely strategic tool to evade danger.
Each power-up and ability can be further enhanced by visiting Jimmy at a sporadically appearing vendor; he’ll offer up three cards ranging in value related to their commonality or rarity, which will give you offensive boosts that can be further evolved for a price.
Enemies can lay down so-called “Bullshit” Cards, which are cards that bend the rules of the game, and imbues them with amplifications that make them more dangerous, such as making them more formidable, and infusing them with red-glowing electricity.
Hearing the deep voice shouting “BULLSHIT!” is intimidating, but the heightened threat won’t be too much bother if you utilize your resources properly and heal when your health bar is at a state approaching critical.
Regarding healing, you can revive your comrades by standing inside of a giant dark blue circular ring until it’s fully charged in and overlapping bright blue colour.
This revival system takes an agonizing long time and leaves you vulnerable to the onslaught of pesky knife-wielding kiddies. The A.I can find itself in a jam easily, showing that playing with other humans is the best way to tackle Snowday’s missions.
There are several types of collectible currencies in Snowday! That will help you to accrue new powers and abilities. Toilet Paper can be found in breakable chests and trash cans, and is important for bolstering your abilities.
Platinum Pieces can be earned by completing challenges and will unlock new emotes and clothing items for “The New Kid.” And finally, Dark Matter is central to the energy with Snowday! And is used to upgrade attributes including health, stamina and strength.
The Toilet Paper and Dark Matter collectibles are all well and good for boosting your attributes and skills, but Platinum Pieces seem needlessly superfluous; yes they can unlock cosmetic items for “The New Kid,” but the rewards don’t resemble the preciousness of platinum.
Withholding clothes, merch and taunts behind Platinum Pieces thankfully don’t require real-world money, but the rewards are worth the effort of satisfying the challenges the game makes you do to acquire them.
A Slight Slice Of South Park
Snowday! looks a bit peculiar with its chunky new animated style, a bit of a reminder of how The Simpsons Hit N’ Run looked, not that they’re in any way similar.
The faces of the characters on these bulky character models don’t look right.
Thankfully the fantastical aura and the myriad of environments are boxy but wonderfully coherent with a giant game of fantasy South Park Style.
One of the most commendable aspects of Snowday! is that it’s a reasonably priced game at just under $30, you’ll be getting a properly decent South Park adventure, even if it isn’t as long or as insatiably funny as the previous two games.
The good news is you won’t need to shell out triple A-level funds for this latest South Park, so it’s an extremely tempting game to consider-and a pretty good one at that!
A breezy and affordable South Park curiosity, South Park: Snowday! is a delicious slice of immature humour pie that sits comfortably in the stomach.
Turning to an action-RPG experience away from a turn-based one isn’t an entirely successful one, as the lack of the unexpected will become noticeable throughout, but the pleasure of slashing your way through a short, affordable and gratifying South Park adventure will win out.
Snowday! is ultimately a nice and welcome treat as long as you keep your expectations in check.
South Park: Snowday! is available on PS5 on March 26, 2024.
Review code generously provided by publisher.