South Park: Snow Day follows on from The Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole, although that is not immediately obvious at first glance. This is because a pretty drastic design change has been implemented this time around, taking things from the 2D realm into 3D. It also places a multiplayer co-op mentality first and foremost across all of the game’s core mechanics, which again seems like a strange departure.
Fortunately, despite these arguably unwelcome changes, there is still fun to be had here. The question is; are there enough of these fun moments to smooth over the drastic departures from past games for fans to get on board?
South Park: Snow Day releases on March 26th for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
When it was announced that the next South Park game would employ a 3D visual aesthetic, it had me scratching my head. Why ditch the 2D look that was already mastered in the past 2 games? It allowed the game to look almost exactly like the TV show source material and it also kept the South Park games from looking generic, as the rudimentary 2D animation is synonymous with South Park makes for something pretty unique in the gaming space.
The answer to that was apparently twofold. The developers wanted to do something different, rather than just another repeat of the same aesthetic. The other reason was due to a change in gameplay. Instead of being a turn-based RPG, Snow Day is a co-op roguelike featuring real-time combat requiring a great deal of button mashing.
If you know me or have any idea of my taste, you’ll know that I have never been a fan of turn-based combat outside of Pokémon Red/Blue, so for me to advocate for it is unprecedented. However, turn-based combat actually suited these South Park games so much better than the scrappy-feeling real-time combat seen in Snow Day.
Neither melee nor ranged attacks in this game ever feel precise, and every battle is won purely by you and your party incessantly mashing buttons without requiring any real thought or care. It all feels very sloppy and so much lazier than the combat systems seen in the previous two games. The movement mechanics aren’t much better, feeling floaty and imprecise.
Bigger is not always better
Aside from the jump from 2D to 3D, and the change in combat mechanics, there other big change is the new focus on co-op multiplayer. Despite the fact that you are still playing as the ‘New Kid,’ seen in The Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole, a 4-player co-op focus is cast over almost every element of the game, from the hub world that you start in, to various quests that the game has you embark on.
Again, this doesn’t seem like a change that anyone who enjoyed the first two games was asking for, given that neither of those titles included any sort of online co-op functionality. Don’t get me wrong, adding a party-based co-op mode into an already humorous game can make for some good laughs. We did have some fun during our playthrough as a group, even if the whole experience felt somewhat redundant.
The reason that the game feels redundant is simple; why would your party waste their collective time playing a sloppy roguelike that feels like a dilution of the previous South Park games, when they could be playing Helldivers 2? There are much better co-op games on the market right now, and I sadly don’t see this title being able to compete in that saturated market.
At times, this experience feels more like a spinoff title as opposed to a mainline franchise entry
If you are looking for a quick, dumb laugh with your mates that requires barely any thought or strategy, then you could definitely do worse than South Park: Snow Day, but you could also do a lot better. The humorous writing and quotable voice acting from the show and past games is present here too, although I never found myself belly laughing at any of the risqué dialogue or awkwardly crass situations the way that I have in the past.
In summary, I cannot call Snow Day a bad game. At the very least it functions well, unlike certain other online multiplayer titles that have launched recently. There are a few chuckles to be had here if you are looking for a mindless way to kill a few hours with friends, but beyond that, there isn’t much else going for this title.
In a market where there are always a ton of different properties doing their best to pull the player’s attention, Snow Day isn’t quite able to do enough in order to stand out. The fact that it isn’t being released as a full-priced title does do it a lot of favors, although given how forgettable the game is, I don’t see it ever making its way onto anyone’s GOTY list.
South Park: Snow Day – 6/10
