The town of South Park is once again in chaos in Snow Day, the latest video game adaptation of the animated series, developed by Question Games. Moving away from the more traditional RPG roots of its predecessors Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole, Snow Day is a roguelike brawler that can be played with up to four players. It’s also noteworthy because it’s the first 3D South Park game to be released in two decades.
Snow Day picks up right after the events of the previous two South Park RPG games. Here, a violent snowstorm has engulfed the town, which has led to the cancellation of school and the residents have resorted to purchasing toilet rolls. Now that school is cancelled, the boys return to their Dungeon and Dragons-inspired antics, but they’re forced to play a new fantasy game after the new boy (the player) undergoes another operation. The story has a “back-to-basics” approach focusing on children’s imaginations and not political satire.
While I absolutely loved the way the developers combined the show’s visuals and Snow Day’s 3D presentation, I found the story felt rather paper-thin and uninspired. There are minimal cutscenes during the story chapters, and in the latter half of the game the story takes an incredibly predictable turn that felt neither clever nor fun. This is something the game itself makes fun of when you unlock a trophy/achievement called Inevitable Betrayal.
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That said, even though the story is pretty weak, there were a few moments that made me smile as a huge fan of the series. Moments like when Stan’s father Randy supported him in the boss fight to defend the toilet paper, or when the boys reinvented the rules of the game along the way, were hilarious, but those moments were rare.
As previously mentioned, Snow Day is a cooperative game that can be played with up to four players. Fortunately for those playing solo, the AI is quite capable as it fights by your side and helps you recover after falling in battle. It’s also possible to play alongside random players (or randos) in online co-op, but strangely it’s not possible to play local co-op, which feels like a real missed opportunity as playing as a group is so important .
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When it comes to combat, you get a melee weapon, a ranged weapon, and two special powers that can be used when the Pissed Off meter is full. These powers contain many fun references to the series and give players both defensive and offensive advantages. For example, the Cheesing power causes enemies to temporarily turn on each other, and the fart escape can be used to fly to safety if it gets too much.
What sets Snow Day apart from typical brawlers is a card-based system that provides a sense of variety. During the game, you are offered cards that can improve the power of your attacks and special abilities, and these can be upgraded using toilet rolls that you obtain. There are also special “bullshit” cards that give you and your opponent special, limited powers, but these can only be used a handful of times. My most used bullshit cards were one that allowed me to shoot lasers from my eyes and another that turned me into a giant.
There are some interesting ideas with the card-based mechanics, but overall I found the battles boring. You spend most of your time hacking and slashing your way through the same group of first graders by pressing the square button over and over. You don’t earn XP by knocking out waves of enemies, and they don’t give you new weapons or perks, so bashing them in the head never feels satisfying.
The game also does very little to vary the action during the pitifully short five-chapter campaign. Most of the game involves going from area to area clearing out waves of new enemies before you can finally progress. Snow Day occasionally tries to spice up the action by having you defend a certain area during an ambush or collect a random assortment of items, but this is unfortunately rare.
With creators Matt and Trey at the helm of projects like Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole, it seemed like the dark days of the South Park games were behind us, but unfortunately, Snow Day marks a significant step back for the series. The five-chapter story feels much longer than it should due to the uninspired script and boring and repetitive gameplay. With this in mind, it is difficult to recommend the game to even the most die-hard fans.
