South Park: Snow Day! review: repetitive action makes for a co-op stinker

South Park: Snow Day! MSRP $30.00 Score Details Pros

Fun premise
Throwback humor

Cons

Dull visual style
Repetitive combat
Roguelite hook lacks depth
Useless AI teammates
Sloppy bugs

As I trudged throughSouth Park: Snow Day! like a kid forced to finish homework, a long-lost childhood memory returned to me. I was at my aunt’s house in Cape Cod when I found my cousin’s Nintendo 64. I had never played one before or even seen one in person, so I was eager to try it out. I had a few games I could fire up, including the excellentThe Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, but the thing that actually caught my eye was a South Park game. I was a huge fan of the then-young series and felt it could do no wrong.

No more than 10 minutes later, my excitement had faded. I was baffled as I tried to figure out the clunky first-person shooter, which had me awkwardly tossing snowballs at turkeys. Eventually, I gave up and plugged in Majora’s Mask instead, leaving with a formative life lesson: You can’t allow blind product loyalty to obscure your judgment, or else you’ll find yourself defending a lot of turkeys.

South Park: Snow Day! brings the cartoon’s up-and-down foray into gaming full circle. The co-op adventure underwhelms with sloppy action, repetitive combat, and a poorly implemented roguelite structure. Fans of the show’s first few seasons may get some laughs from its throwback humor, but the fun setup gets flushed down the drain like Mr. Hankey.

Goin’ down to South Park

South Park: Snow Day! opens on the right foot. Its opening cutscene, animated to match the adult cartoon’s signature style, plays out like a classic South Park episode. As a deadly winter storm ravages the town, Cartman prays that school will be canceled. He gets his wish, gleefully celebrating a snow day as a news report shows the dead, frozen bodies piling up in the streets. It’s the kind of plot line I loved growing up before the show’s hyper-focus on clumsy social commentary, mixing childhood innocence with