South Park: The Stick of Truth
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have essentially won television. Since South ParkSince its inception in 1997, it has earned double-digit Emmy nominations and won about half the time. It has been on the ‘Best Television Show’ and ‘Best Cartoon’ lists, of Hour, television guide, Weekly entertainment, Y Rolling Stone, Just to name a few. It didn’t take them long to get to the big screen, performing in Baseballand writing, starring in and producing multiple commercial and cult hits as Orgazmo, cannibal! The musical, Y Team America: World Police. Sucker Punch South Park The film treatment was a huge success and it was even nominated for an Oscar for “Best Original Song.” In more recent years, Trey and Matt have even encountered Broadway breakthroughs. His great success The book of Mormon He went on to win numerous Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Trey and Matt hope to bring that success to the gaming arena by bringing their fictional ‘quiet mountain town’ to life on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the recently released South Park: The Stick of Truth.
That doesn’t mean that The stick of truth is the first game based on the show. In the early years of the series, some South Park titles were released for the Nintendo 64. However, no one would call them really successful. It’s true that Trey and Matt were not involved in the development of those early efforts and, as gamers, even they weren’t happy with the ‘cheap licensed games’ these third-party developers were producing. They decided to put the game on hold for a while, and when they were ready to try again, they did it their way. Rather than wait for a developer to come up with a good idea, Trey and Matt reached out to Obsidian Entertainment to discuss making the South Park game they wanted. It seemed like a perfect fit. Obsidian has a long history of developing licensed property-based RPGs, in particular Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and the exclusive one for PC Neverwinter Nights 2. One caveat that was important to Matt and Trey was that the game had to retain the 2D rendering and animation style of the show. When Obsidian showed a proof of concept that they could pull it off, the first South Park The game with a script written by the creators of the show themselves took shape and development began.
And it was quite a troublesome development. This game could very well not have seen the light of day. Many titles that faced the trials and tribulations that the The stick of truth did it would have been canceled; Difficulties including, but not limited to, the bankruptcy of THQ, the company that was originally signed as publisher. Fortunately, Ubisoft was able to acquire the publishing rights at an auction for THQ’s properties and believed in the product enough to continue its development. The game was finally available almost a year after originally scheduled for release in April 2013.
If you consider yourself a fan of South Park At any level, the end product is worth the long wait. The game is just as satirical and fun as the show (not to mention it’s offensive and crude; it’s South Park after all). The writing and voice work are flawless, and the plot, which includes live-action RPGs, aliens, Taco Bell, and Nazi zombies, is just as ridiculously entertaining as anything that’s done on the show.
Graphically, seeing The stick of truth in action is like watching an episode, despite the pause screens. If it took an unconscious viewer several minutes to realize that a game was being played instead of watching a cartoon, it would be absolutely understandable. The 2D animation style is well suited to the old school RPG that pulls out all the tropes from turn-based combat to powerful summoning abilities like Mr. Hankey’s, well we’ll call it ‘Number 2’ Storm.
As for the environments, they are well done and packed with fan service. From voices coming from Stan’s closet, to junk items like Okama Gamesphere, the game is saturated with over 15 years of South Park Canyon. There are thirty Chinpokomon to collect scattered around the city, and also a host of side quests. Whether you’re looking for Mr. Slave’s parcel package from the post office, helping Al Gore track down Manbearpig, or just exploring the city (some of those people really should lock their doors by the way), there is much to save. South Park-phile busy for quite some time.
The game is not perfect. Some of the scenes that require you to demonstrate your mastery of the GI-based magic system can be frustrating due to poorly timed on-screen signals. Fortunately, some of these demos can be skipped, which in turn only begs the question why some of them can’t. The flaws that are present don’t detract too much from the overall experience. Still, the game could be a perfectly bug-free technical marvel, and it still wouldn’t appeal to everyone. If you do not mind South Park the show, South Park: The Stick of Truth he will not change his mind. Parker and Stone’s sense of humor is not to everyone’s liking. But if it’s yours, hoo-boy, it’s your lucky day. Look for it in your local Slackers today.