Fans of Comedy Central's cartoon hit will enjoy this first person shooter, thanks to the humor being left in tact. However, once the potty talk and sight gags get old, there won't be much to hold your attention (in 1 player mode) in this mundane, unoriginal game.
South Park the game earned an honorable mention in my "Look Back at 1998". Why did it? Because the game was so amazingly awesome? No. Because Nintendo allowed it in the first place, bad language, fart jokes, piss jokes and all. But is that a good thing? Yes, for those who enjoy South Park and the right to Freedom of Expression and Speech. No, for those parents who want to keep SP out of the hands of their babies. SP is a game that you'll either love for awhile or hate forever.
As a first person shooter South Park only half succeeds. It has none of the imagination of Goldeneye or level design of Turok 2. Aside from the graphic upgrade, it doesn't offer much more than Castle Wolfenstein. Actually, it offers less. Due to the humorous nature of the game, there is no tension at all. Nothing has you on the edge of your seat, because this isn't that type of game. This is a "Ha Ha look at that!" game. And pretty soon the novelty of saying, "Hey I'm shooting piss balls at turkeys" gets pretty lame. And fast.
The four player mode is decent, but again don't expect Goldeneye. The amount of characters to choose from is great and is one of the only reasons to play South Park.
Graphically this game actually outshines the show, which isn't that hard mind you. All the character voices are faithfully represented and of course the bad language is in there as well. Be prepared for words such as "Bit*h" and "A**hole". The other words are bleeped. Won't Grandma be pleased with her $80 purchase when she sits down to watch you enjoy it?
The variety of weapons are nice and add to the humor in the game. Oddly enough there are no real guns in this game per se. There are snow balls, yellow snowballs, Cow Launchers, Egg Launchers, Terence and Philip Dolls which fart and an alien gun which can do 3 different attacks. You can't accuse this game of over-the-top violence at least. There's a selling point for the parents, kids.
Final Thought: Personally I enjoyed the game until the laughs wore off. Then it became horribly apparent that I wasn't doing much except waiting for the next wave of turkeys or clones or aliens... This game is for fans only. Everything is executed well enough and is actually a faithful representation of a license for once, but in the end that isn't enough to warrant a purchase.
Final Analysis: