South Park

The four-player mode saves the game's replay value, but is it too much to ask for an enjoyable single-player experience as well? Unnecessarily repetitive gameplay reduces South Park to yet another licensed cash-in.

The foul-mouthed heroes of TV?s hit ?toon, South Park, have finally arrived on the N64--but when fans look past the license and actually play this lackluster first-person shooter, in the words of Eric Cartman, they?re going to be so?pissed?off!

Hanky?s Comet?
Like any given episode, the game starts with a far-fetched premise: A comet is on a collision course with South Park, setting all manner of weird events into motion--like giving the town?s turkeys bloodlust or unleashing mutated clones into the streets. It?s up to you--playing as Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, all at once--to face each challenge with dodge balls, foam-dart guns, cow launchers, and other wacky weaponry.

Now if only the quest was fun. There are only three basic kinds of enemies, and most of the time you?ll have to backtrack through the level chasing them down, which makes progress needlessly slow. However, finishing the levels is the only way to unlock the game?s many multiplayer characters. There are no side quests and no puzzles to solve; it?s challenging, but unrewarding, gameplay. You can shoot toilet plungers at waves of carbon-copy enemies only for so long before you want to tell the creators to take their turkeys and stuff ?em.

Dude, That?s Sick!
The game is full of appropriately lowbrow humor and some amazingly coarse language, including many dirty words never before heard on a Nintendo system. All the character dialogue was sampled by creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone, so it?s authentic and hilarious.

The little runts look great in 3D; even the TV show hasn?t offered us a three-dimensional view of Cartman?s fat ass. The town looks good, too, when you can see it; there?s a dreadful and inexcusable fog sitting just a few dozen feet in front of your character at all times. At least the controls are comfortable.

"Screw You Guys, I?m Going Home"
The four-player mode saves the game?s replay value, but is it too much to ask for an enjoyable single-player experience as well? Unnecessarily repetitive gameplay reduces South Park to yet another licensed cash-in.

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