5. South Park: Stick of Truth
The Original: If you have somehow never heard of South Park, just go ahead and skip this page, because there is really nothing I am willing or able to do to help you. It would take more words than I have the time to write (that's not true, my students are watching a movie right now so I've got tons of time) to explain what South Park is. So lets just agree that it's a revolutionary cartoon invented, voiced, and written by Matt Stone and Trey Parker that changed the way comedy is done one television. Also, it has a lot of dick and fart jokes, so that part didn't actually change all that much. The original
South Park Game came out in 1998 for PC, PS1, and N64. Rather than making a game that really explored both the childishly vulgar and surprisingly political humor of the hit TV series, South Park's video game adaption was nothing more than a crummy FPS with all of the familiar people and places from the series. Though the FPS version was entertaining, it offered little that set it apart from the hundreds of other shooters from the time, except for the fact that it was part of the South Park IP. In short, it was a game made for the sole purpose of getting a bit of extra money from the IP, but it was at least a decent game.
So Why Did They Wait? Well they did and they didn't wait. In 1999,
South Park: Chef's Luv Shack came out. The blatant rip off of Mario Party consisted of a few mini-games and a trivia game based on South Park knowledge. Unsurprisingly, it got
less than stellar reviews from several sources. The following year (that's 2000, Art History majors),
South Park Rally, a sub-par racing Mario Kart rip off game that capitalized on fart noises and a series of about 5 quotes from each minor character that got repeated in an infinite cycle.
Utterly disappointed with the first few South Park games, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the IP, vowed not to make another game until they could make one that didn't suck ass. True to form, they waited nine years before releasing the
mildly successful tower defense title on Xbox Live Arcade, and the less successful,
Tenorman's Revenge, also on Xbox Live Arcasde. But, among all of these, not one full length, decent game has been released. The early attempts at South Park tie ins were nothing more than flimsily tossed together exploitation pieces, and the more recent games, while good, haven't had the meat of a full length game. And so, we have be deprived of our unexploited meat, until now......
It's Finally Here: South Park: The Stick of Truth is, by all sources, THE South Park game that other people have been trying to keep out of your hands for decades.
Reliable sources have informed me that this game has been in the works for ages, but has been subverted by
other worldly intervention. But, it's here now, and that's what's important. Why is it so important? What makes this game better than the others? Who is making it this great? Where will it take place? When will it release? How did I use all of the question words in a row? Well, two things set this game apart from the others, before it's even out of the gate. Right off the bat we know that Matt Stone and Trey Parker have written the story for the game, and personally overseen the development of the entire title. Now, usually when someone gets too involved in the production of their product in an industry they don't understand, it spells disaster. But, usually when someone gets too involved, they're not working with acclaimed developers Obsidian Entertainment, who brought you games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian has already sat down and demonstrated the
new character model style they will be using to do the entire game in 2D to the owners of the IP, and they are pleased. Having already taken
Best in Show in the RPG category, Stick of Truth is showing promise as not only the first and only great South Park game, but a seriously entertaining RPG, with all the loot hording, character development, and action you could want. In other words, after years of crappy rip offs, pointless ports, and shameless exploitation, a South Park game worth getting excited about is finally getting made.
