REVIEW: ‘South Park: Snow Day!’ Is A Chore (PC)

South Park is a titan of adult animation. Spanning twenty-six seasons, one theatrical movie, and 9 video games, it is a bona fide pop culture juggernaut. But the series’ immense scale can make it difficult for its newest additions to stand out from the crowd. There are always previous great seasons or standout video game releases for fans to compare new content to upon release. South Park: Snow Day!, developed by Question LLC and published by THQ Nordic, is especially weighed down by the weight of its franchise.

Snow Day is built on very basic concepts. It is, of course, set in the small town of South Park just after it has been hit with a cataclysmic snowstorm. The snow buries the town, forcing the school to declare a snow day and close its doors. The town’s children take advantage of the day off by resurrecting their fantasy LARP characters from The Stick of Truth. Cartman recruits the player in the form of the customizable New Kid to help him fight Kyle’s faction of elves.

South Park: Snow Day!‘s narrative foundation is adequate for a game its size, but it is disappointing how little it takes advantage of the franchise’s wider context. Players are rarely shown much of South Park beyond the snowy trenches of its streets. It fails to translate the satirical absurdism of the show by staying too close to where it starts. The game’s attempts to match the show’s previous quality primarily take the form of half-hearted ‘memberberry references. The lack of variety or effort leaves the story and setting of Snow Day woefully disappointing, especially as a long-time fan of the franchise.

South Park: Snow Day! also fails when it comes to gameplay. It marks a pivot for the franchise’s recent games, moving away from 2D rpgs to a 3d beat ’em up. The developers over at Question LLC did bring some novel ideas to the structure, including franchise-first multiplayer and a rogue-like card system for upgrades during levels. These elements are the game’s standout features. Co-op adds a needed layer of complexity to combat while the cards do an admirable job of pushing players to adapt and play differently during each level.

The problems with gameplay in South Park: Snow Day! comes from its weak foundation. Players confront dozens of Kyle’s elves during each level but fighting them quickly devolves into little more than button mashing. Most of the variety found in enemies is whether they attack with melee or ranged weapons. Beyond that defeating them takes very little thought or dynamic approaches. Combat arenas are so repetitive and unimaginative that they fail to help. The only small piece of variety comes from your weapon choice, but it is not enough. Each weapon is little more than a combo of left-clicking.

With past titles like The Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole, it is extremely disappointing just how bland the combat of Snow Day is. Both previous RPGs brought interesting takes on turn-based RPGs while staying true to the show and introducing novel concepts. Snow Day instead presents a barebones take on an action RPG. The simplicity feels akin to a children’s game that breaks down the genre in the name of accessibility. South Park: Snow Day! is undoubtedly intended for adult audiences, but the game is far from playing like such.

Outside of the repetitive missions players upgrade their gear and customize their character. Upgrading one’s gear is little more than making bigger numbers. Some more weapon variety or effects to formulate builds around would go a long way, but they are unfortunately absent. Player customization has been more fully realized with players being able to kit their New Kids out with myriad options. The majority of the options given to payers are references to episodes or homemade imitations of typical fantasy equipment. Some of the options are worth a chuckle when you first see them, but it does feel like the developers largely played it safe.

It is hard to discern just who South Park: Snow Day! is for. Diehard South Park fans will not get much out of its lackluster references and lack of new ideas for the franchise. Meanwhile, those who care more about playing a fun game won’t find the mechanical complexity that can be found in previous franchise RPGs. Sure, playing a game with friends is always fun. But, there are plenty of other co-op games more worth your time.

South Park: Snow Day! is available on PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S.