South Park: Snow Day!
MSRP $30.00
“South Park: Snow Day! flushes a nostalgic multiplayer premise down the toilet.”
Pros
Fun premise
Throwback humor
Cons
Dull visible type
Repetitive fight
Roguelite hook lacks depth
Useless AI teammates
Sloppy bugs
As I trudged by way of South Park: Snow Day! like a child compelled to complete homework, a long-lost childhood reminiscence returned to me. I used to be at my aunt’s home in Cape Cod when I discovered my cousin’s Nintendo 64. I had by no means performed one earlier than and even seen one in particular person, so I used to be desirous to strive it out. I had a number of video games I might hearth up, together with the superb The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, however the factor that really caught my eye was a South Park sport. I used to be an enormous fan of the then-young sequence and felt it might do no incorrect.
No greater than 10 minutes later, my pleasure had pale. I used to be baffled as I attempted to determine the clunky first-person shooter, which had me awkwardly tossing snowballs at turkeys. Eventually, I gave up and plugged in Majora’s Mask as a substitute, leaving with a formative life lesson: You can’t permit blind product loyalty to obscure your judgment, or else you’ll end up defending a whole lot of turkeys.
South Park: Snow Day! brings the cartoon’s up-and-down foray into gaming full circle. The co-op journey underwhelms with sloppy motion, repetitive fight, and a poorly applied roguelite construction. Fans of the present’s first few seasons might get some laughs from its throwback humor, however the enjoyable setup will get flushed down the drain like Mr. Hankey.
Goin’ all the way down to South Park
South Park: Snow Day! opens on the correct foot. Its opening cutscene, animated to match the grownup cartoon’s signature type, performs out like a basic South Park episode. As a lethal winter storm ravages the city, Cartman prays that college will probably be canceled. He will get his want, gleefully celebrating a snow day as a information report exhibits the useless, frozen our bodies piling up within the streets. It’s the sort of plot line I beloved rising up earlier than the present’s hyper-focus on clumsy social commentary, mixing childhood innocence with pitch-black comedy.
THQ Nordic
That’s the old-fashioned strategy that developer Question goes for right here, for higher and worse. Rather than relationship itself with well timed riffs on present occasions (save for one Taylor Swift joke), Snow Day goes again to a extra basic South Park properly — and by properly, I imply rest room. The bulk of its jokes revolve round poop, crap, and turds. It’s scientific potty humor for anybody who nonetheless will get a kick out of seeing somebody showered in diarrhea, nevertheless it’s a disgrace that South Park’s extra intelligent comedy is misplaced in that brown wave.
Snow Day feels prefer it was made by followers who grew up with the sequence however stopped watching round 2002. The premise performs on Season 6’s basic Lord of the Rings send-up, the place Cartman donned his wizard gown for the primary time. Characters like Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo and Jimbo are closely featured in a five-hour story concerning the children’ snow day hijinks. There’s a Chinpokomon namedrop in a single mission. If you outgrew South Park 20 years in the past, you’ll really feel proper at residence right here. There’s a nostalgic attraction to that, although it’s an odd determination within the context of the present’s advanced voice.
If you’re simply trying to return to the cruder South Park of the late 90s, you’ll get your fill of crap right here.
That could be on objective. Snow Day does really feel prefer it’s meant to be a religious successor to the Nintendo 64’s dreadful South Park sport with its winter setting, emphasis on motion, and a bland 3D artwork type that’s much more disappointing positioned instantly subsequent to its animated cutscenes. Despite drawing on the present’s bobble-headed characters for its designs, the visible type trades in lo-fi attraction for boring environments and characters that really feel flatter than their 2D counterparts. It’s a disappointment coming off of Ubisoft’s two sturdy South Park RPGs, which nailed the present’s type so properly.
Still, I’m Facebook pals with sufficient individuals who completely put up nostalgic media from their childhood to know that this strategy may have its followers. If you’re simply trying to return to the cruder South Park of the late 90s, you’ll get your fill of crap right here.
It’s not that deep
What’s a bit more durable to understand is Snow Day’s weak multiplayer-focused motion. The story unfolds over 5 story quests with a unfastened roguelite spine. Players begin every gauntlet of hack-and-slash encounters with one among three weapons, a ranged device, and a few sub-abilities which can be activated by utilizing vitality on a “Pissed Off” meter. In between phases, gamers seize improve playing cards that diversify their construct. My therapeutic tower will be altered to drop mines on enemies, whereas my daggers will be modified to extend backstab harm.
THQ Nordic
It’s a well-recognized sufficient format, however one which’s completely devoid of substance or depth. Combat itself is a weightless mess. My melee swings hardly really feel like they join with enemies, whereas ranged arrows do such pitiful harm that I hardly use them except I discover some impactful upgrades. While there’s a dodge roll, a protect, and a few standing results at my disposal, each battle comes all the way down to me urgent the identical assault button repeatedly with out feeling any impression in return.
That’s the place a roguelite improve system would often fill within the gaps, however I hit the underside of that system shockingly quick. In my first run, I’d buff my daggers to deal additional diving harm and lift what number of arrows I’d shoot directly. When I began my second run, I’d virtually completely see the very same improve playing cards each time I used to be given a selection of three. I made some barely completely different selections, nevertheless it hardly felt like I used to be making a construct. I’d get completely different selections once I outfitted different talents, however each weapon’s improve choices are disappointingly restricted. Even the sport’s collection of “Bullshit!” playing cards, which give me an final energy like turning big or summoning a meteor storm, is extremely slim.
Was I actually anticipating extra from a poop sport?
Snow Day tries to tease that out extra with gradual unlockables, however that development system is just too gradual for its brief story. There’s a everlasting improve tree that I can spend “Dark Matter” on (take one guess as to what that could be), however these positive factors are gradual and lack impression. By the time I beat the story, I’d solely unlocked 11 of 30 upgrades, the majority of which had been gradual well being or assault boosts that I might barely really feel. Some new playing cards and beauty choices for my avatar unlock by way of challenges all through, however nothing I get adjustments or improves the hole motion.
All of that makes for an unrewarding motion sport with tacked-on roguelite development. By the tip, I used to be shifting by way of the repetitive battles on auto-pilot, hoping for a post-game twist, like its free day one DLC replace, that will require even a touch of technique. The remaining joke was on me; was I actually anticipating extra from a poop sport?
Don’t belief a bot
If you’re going to search out enjoyable in Snow Day, your greatest hope is to deliver alongside some pals. Even then, your antics in voice chat will in all probability do a whole lot of the heavy lifting. With no actual depth to fight, there isn’t a whole lot of potential for crew synergies, one thing that powers co-op titles like Back 4 Blood. There aren’t even 4 melee weapons to select from regardless of it being a four-player sport. Abilities like a turret or cat piss (lastly, a change of tempo) add some gentle selection, however nothing will change the crew dynamic a lot.
I used to be left questioning if the system was one elaborate troll created by Cartman himself.
And in case you can’t persuade some pals to hop in, run on your life. When enjoying solo, Snow Day pairs gamers with three ineffective bots. There’s no AI coordination nor any option to wrangle the braindead tykes as they aimlessly run round attacking patches of enemies at random. My frustrations would come to a head when enemies knocked me down in a single mission. Players can revive each other by standing within the blue circle that seems round their physique for a number of seconds, however my teammates didn’t appear to get the demo. I needed to restart one stage from scratch after watching my one residing bot teammate run round in circles for a superb two minutes, refusing to revive any downed character till he died. At some level, I used to be left questioning if the system was one elaborate troll created by Cartman himself.
That sloppy chaos will get compounded by the occasional run-killing bug. One mission had me working from a flame-spewing snow plow. To progress by way of a gated space, I’d have to kill sufficient enemies within the space earlier than the truck reached me. I used to be too gradual in a single try because the plow pinned me up towards a gate. My crew didn’t wipe, although. Instead, my useless teammates and I had been pushed by way of the wall into the following space. One bot survived, however he, sadly, was on the opposite facet of the fence and unable to get to us. I give up the run as quickly as I completed pulling my hair out.
THQ Nordic
It’s very clear from the opening menu’s rudimentary UI that Snow Day is probably going meant to be a finances sport. It’s retailing for $30 at launch and may be very restricted in scope. I’ve no downside with that strategy; the truth is, I embrace extra bite-sized multiplayer experiences like this that aren’t constructed to make gamers log in every single day. But Snow Day finally ends up feeling like an alpha construct of an IP experiment; it’ll take a whole lot of loyalty to the South Park model to squeeze some raunchy enjoyable out of it.
As I sat all the way down to get this all out of my system like some dangerous Cheesy Poofs, I made a decision to return to the notorious South Park sport of my youth for the primary time in over 20 years. Maybe I might come to search out some misunderstood attraction there that will assist me respect the enchantment right here. It solely took minutes of fidgeting with clumsy controls and brainlessly pelting turkeys with pee-stained snowballs to simply accept that I hadn’t missed some secret complexity as a child: It would all the time be a foul sport from my childhood that taught me a small however lasting life lesson.
I hope South Park: Snow Day! will maintain the identical nostalgic spot for some edgy 12-year-old navigating their relationship with media at this time.
South Park: Snow Day! was reviewed on PC and Steam Deck.
Editors’ Recommendations