South Park 64
Reviewed by Raymond Almeda
This game begins with a warning:
"The following game contains coarse language, and due to its content
should not be played by anyone."
Well, they almost got it right. In the above sentence, just insert "lack of"
between "its" and "content."
A long time ago, a company named Acclaim had a bad reputation. They
were notorious for putting out horrible games with great licenses, just
to try and sell a lot of product thanks to name recognition. Acclaim was
more than a little bit responsible for the current thinking that games with
big licenses suck. That was the old Acclaim, though. The new Acclaim is
responsible for the great Turok series, as well as some great sports games.
Gone are the days of big licenses, and horrible games at Acclaim, right?
Nope. Just take a look at South Park!
"Wha? Wha? What?" you're probably asking yourself. ANT's first impression
raved about this games brilliant use of humor, and great translation of the
South Park universe. All of that is true. When you first turn on this game, you
will be laughing your head off. You will be awed by the sight of the entire
town of South Park rendered in full 3D. You will burst a lung laughing at
Cartman. Your first impressions will be ones of amazement, too! The problem
starts when you look past the game's humor and into its actual gameplay. Or,
rather, the lack thereof.
South Park's single player mode is virtually nonexistent. You walk around,
you find the other kids, and you "knock-out" hundreds of turkeys (or clones,
or toys, or whatever). That's it. No objectives, no mazes, no puzzles, nothing.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes a little straightforward shoot-em' up action
can be fun. South Park, though, is simply one of the most repetitive games I
have ever played. You will quickly grow tired of doing the same things over
and over, I promise.
Let's take the very first level, for example. You "knock-out" turkeys. That's
it. Okay, you do have to find the other kids, but it isn't much of a search. You
simply follow the street, and there they are. Then the turkeys start coming.
Then you hit them with snowballs. Over, and over, and over, and over..
Sound like fun?
The really sad part about South Park 64 is that it had so much potential.
The technical aspects of the game are great. South Park's translation of
the 2D show into 3D is spectacular. If you've ever wondered what it would
be like to step into a cartoon, then you need to try this game. The graphics
are wonderful, no way around it, especially in high-res via the RAM Expansion Pak.
South Park's use of speech is also extremely impressive. Some of the
funniest audio clips you'll ever hear are included in this game. Acclaim
must have sweet-talked the censors at Nintendo for many months to get
in the amount of profanity that comes bundled with this game. This
game's use of audio will have you rolling on the floor, at least the first
couple of times you play it. Then it becomes as repetitive as the rest of the game.
South Park's controls are exactly like Turok 2's. If you liked T2's control
scheme, then you'll love South Park's. If you are one of the people that think
Turok 2's control scheme should die a miserable death and go to hell, well
then you'll think the same thing about South Park. You can try and guess in
which group you'll find this reviewer.
South Park's one redeeming quality is the game's multi-player mode. This
game is the ultimate party game. With its element of humor, this game's
multiplayer ranks up there with the best. Although GoldenEye is still the
best overall, South Park takes the cake for humor and attitude. Besides,
when was the last time you heard James Bond exclaim, "I'm gonna kick
you in the nuts"?
South Park 64 turns out to be a fun fix for those of us who love the show,
but a mediocre game for the rest of the world. The game's multiplayer may
be fun enough to warrant a purchase, but definitely rent the game first and
see for yourself. If you don't, you may be screaming, "Acclaim killed South
Park! You bastards!" You didn't actually think I was going to go through an
entire South Park review without working in that quote, did you?
Overall 7.25 out of 10