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South Park Snow Day! is a brand new major South Park title from the creators of the iconic TV series Matt Stone and Trey Parker. This time around, the developers helming the project are Question Games, the studio known for co-op horror The Blackout Club and adventure puzzle game The Magic Circle.
Snow Day! is a smaller game when compared to The Stick of Truth and especially Fractured But Whole. It has a total of five missions and each of these can be completed in 30 minutes to an hour depending on your playstyle and difficulty level.
Despite that, it's an enjoyable experience that hardcore South Park fans will love from the first to the last mission.
STORY
The story kicks off when a massive blizzard hits South Park, causing total chaos on the streets and the death of many citizens. Eric Cartman doesn't care about that much as his only wish is to get a snow day so he doesn't have to go to school.
As soon as the school is cancelled, Eric, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and you, the new kid, kick off their usual "Game of Thrones" shenanigans but it doesn't take long for them to find out that there's more behind the blizzard that covered South Park in piles of snow.
The story in Snow Day! is truly excellent as it brings exactly what you'd expect from South Park - quality satire on real-world problems and a bit of disgusting, goofy and hilarious parody of whatever is trending in our real world at the moment. I've lost count of how many times I laughed out loud at some of the jokes and even gameplay mechanics that make Snow Day! a proper South Park game.
From the game's toilet paper currency, hilarious items and boss designs, to goofy Bullshit ultimate abilities and more, Snow Day! truly nails that iconic South Park humour that millions of fans adore.
Dialogues are written in the same fashion as the TV series and there are plenty of familiar style gags and banter between the characters here, although, I'd wish we got more time with some of the most iconic characters like Randy or Butters to name a few.
GAMEPLAY
The mission structure in South Park Snow Day! is fairly linear. There's a central hub area where you can select a mission and difficulty on the war table before you venture out into the wild. There are no checkpoints during missions so every time you die, you'll be send back to the hub area from where you can start again.
Such design can be a bit painful, especially if you get killed right at the end of the run but the good thing is that levels and quest order in missions change every time so you'll never play the same mission again. So for example, each level has several quests that you need to complete to get to the boss.
The game will mix these quests in random order so sometimes, you'll play the last quest first or start the level with a quest that was previously somewhere in the middle of the mission. This also means areas within levels are randomised so you'll never really feel like you're replaying the same dungeon again.
It's a very neat concept that tries to compensate for the game's relatively small number of levels. In terms of game modes, you have the already mentioned story and a Horde Mode in which you battle against endless waves of enemies and get to choose different power-ups after every wave. The Horde Mode is a welcomed addition that brings the best out of South Park Snow Day!'s engaging combat loop.
Just like pretty much everything else in South Park Snow Day!, the combat too is fairly simple but enjoyable. You have a total of six weapons at your disposal - three of them melee and three ranged weapons. Melee include daggers, a sword and a shield and two handed axe while ranged weapons are a bow and arrow, a staff and a wand for casting magic.
In addition to weapons, you also have eight special powers which range from farts that launch you in the air while leaving enemies in the cloud of toxic gas, heal totems, shield charge, a drone that drops bombs and cat urine power which drugs the enemies, making them fight for you. Incredible stuff.
To make things a bit more interesting, South Park: Snow Day! introduces card upgrades that unlock powerful new variations for your powers and weapons. Cards can make your farts last longer, make your special attacks more powerful or increase the range of your fire spell, to name a few examples.
Then there's the Bullshit mechanic which serves as an ultimate ability that can be used only a couple of times during the run. These are the most powerful cards in the game and can rain down meteors, make you bigger to allow you to stomp your enemies, or summon an army of minions to fight for you.
When combined, all these combat mechanics gel extremely well, creating an engaging and fun experience that results in chaotic battles, especially in co-op, where the combat can truly shine.
South Park: Snow is first and foremost a co-op hack-and-slash experience where you and your buddies can join each other's sessions and tackle all story missions together. I'm not saying that there's nothing here for solo players since the game can be beaten solo with the help of AI companions but it's in co-op where the game truly delivers as you and your teammates can choose different weapons and abilities to support each other on the battlefield.
South Park Snow Day! is by no means an easy game, especially on the highest difficulty, even though it may look that way. In co-op, you'll have to work closely together with your pals to take down challenging bosses.
Speaking about bosses, there are five bosses in the game and each of them come with unique abilities and weapons. I don't want to spoil much but all bosses are characters from the South Park series, as you've probably expected, and the fights against them are quite enjoyable, especially the battle against one particular Princess.
I also have to mention the final boss fight which has one of the most hilarious boss designs I've seen in a while but won't spoil the surprise as I really want everyone to get a laugh attack when they see it and its name for the first time.
GRAPHICS
I have to admit that I was quite doubtful about the 3D nature of South Park: Snow Day! when THQ Nordic and South Park Studios initially announced the game last year. As a huge fan of the TV series and the first two South Park games - Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole - and their unforgettable 2D nature, I was of the opinion that South Park should stick to its roots, regardless of the medium it's expanding into.
However, I must say that the 3D perspective did not bother me at all in Snow Day! Quite the contrary, it was refreshing to see the world of South Park in such a different perspective so if you had similar concerns as yours truly, put those to rest as Snow Day! is more than capable of delivering a true South Park experience in 3D.
In terms of visual fidelity, the game looks fine. Graphics are certainly serviceable and there's not much here that one would want in terms of level of detail. Perhaps level variety could be a bit better but it's a snow day so piles of snow are what you're getting.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, South Park: Snow Day! is a great game that offers plenty of the classic South Park humour on top of engaging and fun combat and an interesting main story. While it's quite short and strongly focuses on co-op which some may find as a drawback, I still think it's worth the 29,99€ price point.
The Good
Great story with hilarious parodies and satire- Classic South Park humour is everywhere
- Combat is simple but fun
- Cards and Bullshit abilities give combat a nice boost
- Rich character customisation
- Surprisingly, 3D graphics are not a miss
The Bad
It's too short- An extra mode or two wouldn't hurt
