While it may look very little like its predecessors, South Park: Snow Day is a follow-up to The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, and it feels destined to live in their shadows. It is a budget game at a budget price, releasing at $29.99 instead of its full-priced predecessors, and that shows through every element of its design. Overall, there's some fun to be had here, but that fun wraps up far too quickly and doesn't strike the tone someone might expect from a South Park game.
The plot of South Park: Snow Day reveals that the main characters—Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny—have been fighting over the rules of their role-playing adventures since the New Kid (the player character) has become OP in the past two games. At the same time, the blizzard blanketing South Park is of unnatural origin, and the plot goes in some fun directions with these two elements at play. However, Snow Day makes it clear that the story is not as important as in The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, with the humor also not hitting the same benchmarks the franchise is known for.
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It Lacks That South Park Feel
The humor in South Park: Snow Day is as irreverent as ever, with the entire game being focused on the juvenile humor associated with butt and fart jokes, but it comes out in microdoses. The cutscenes throughout the game are well-done, with South Park: Snow Day's jump to 3D being a fine change, but what comedy there is finds itself largely limited to these scenes. There are a couple of one-liners said during gameplay, but the writing doesn't hit the same level as an episode of the TV show. It's also almost exclusively butt, fart, and feces jokes, while the other games had more range in displaying that beloved, crude South Park humor.
One upgrade and plot element is Dark Matter, (it's exactly what anyone thinks it is) which serves as a fair, encompassing representation of the in-game humor. The result is that these jokes grow old quickly, which is quite jarring given South Park's brand is built on juvenile humor. Because of the game's limited focus, it also omits or simply backgrounds several key elements of the franchise.
For example, the Goths only have one representative serving as a vendor in the game, while obvious picks for a snow/winter-based game in South Park like the Woodland Critters are omitted. Characters like Terrance, Phillip, Al Gore, Towelie, the Aliens, and pretty much any non-core South Park character have limited roles as Easter eggs, at most. The representation of its greater cast of characters is incredibly lacking, which also applies to the city. There is no real exploration of the city of South Park. In the hub, players are limited to the area surrounding the kids' houses, and each mission doesn't show much of the city like in prior South Park games. Instead of featuring the story, humor, and worldbuilding the franchise is known for, South Park: Snow Day invests more into its core gameplay loop that, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired.
South Park: Snow Day's Core Gameplay is Repetitive
There are five core missions in South Park: Snow Day, which follow a loose roguelike structure. Players will fight through ambushes and complete quests in each of these missions, and a run through each one will take players between 30 minutes and an hour. Predictably, there is a boss character from the core South Park cast at the end of each run. Going into it, players are equipped with a starting melee weapon and a ranged weapon, and they will unlock more as they progress throughout missions. Notably, however, there are only three melee weapons and three ranged weapons, so any builds feel limited. Players can supplement these weapons with two Powers, as well as upgrades and Bull**** cards. These features feel like something players should swap between and experiment with, but they are lackluster in any combination.
Powers are special abilities that players can use as they build up their Pissed Off Meter. Examples of these are summonable snow ball turrets, healing totems, bull rushes (powered by farts), or quick escapes (also powered by farts). Meanwhile, upgrades improve the damage or change certain elements of these abilities, while Bull**** Cards are something both players and opponents can utilize. These are limited abilities that change the "rules" of the game, letting players summon a Chaos army from Butters, grow in size and deal damage by jumping, cover the field in fireballs, and more. While this may sound like a lot on paper, it's not enough to carry the game in the long term, and players will see the same ones a lot due to the lack of variety in the game.
During each run, players will be able to claim new upgrades from Jimmy (in his Stick of Truth Bard garb) at key checkpoints, while they can restore their Bull**** Cards or or make Dark Matter-related decisions if they find Henrietta. This structure quickly becomes old hat. Beating the game unlocks a third person to find in each run, one who unlocks key challenges for rewards, but she's not enough to reinforce replay value. Using these systems and vendors should allow players to experiment with their builds, but because their powers and arsenal are so limited, they'll get a lot of the same cards and quickly find what jives with them.
There are three currencies in South Park: Snow Day. Toilet Paper is used with upgrades, PP unlocks new cosmetics, and Dark Matter unlocks permanent perks.
Level-wise, players will see all they're going to by the end of Mission 3. There's not enough variety in a mission to encourage playing through it more than once, and despite it featuring some elements of roguelike gameplay, it misses the point of repeating the runs entirely. That's not to say it doesn't attempt as much, but that it falls short of achieving any meaningful replay value. For example, one mission sees players complete up to 3 "Feats of Strength." These feats can appear in any order on the run, with one run of the level in our experiments only forcing us to do two, but it's the same feats regardless of the run.
It should be noted that South Park: Snow Day will also launch with a free, day-one DLC called "To Danse With Ravenous Shadows." After players complete Mission 2, they will find Henrietta in the hub, and she offers players new missions in exchange for more resources and rewards. The DLC is essentially an additional horde mode, which lets players try out the same builds and collect upgrades between waves. This game mode offers more of the same, limitations and all, so it's a fine addition to the game but nothing to write home about.
South Park: Snow Day is a Muted Experience
With the limits of its build/level design, there's not a lot that South Park: Snow Day offers. The story, the humor, and the gameplay have their fun moments, but they're so few and far between in a rather short game. South Park: Snow Day is better in co-op, but that's just because players aren't doing the runs alone. Co-op doesn't elevate the experience of the game, it only helps mask some of the shortcomings.
South Park: Snow Day is a budget game, but instead of something brief but replayable with a lot of South Park humor and bursts of fun, players get something muted, limited, and shallower than even that detail would suggest. It offers some fun across its short runtime, but it's ultimately forgettable for any roguelike or South Park fan.
South Park: Snow Day!
South Park: Snow Day! finds the town of South Park descending into pure chaos as all-out war breaks out. Supporting co-op or solo play, Snow Day! is an action-adventure game that tells a new story.
- Mildly Entertaining Story
- Fun Gameplay Moments
- Limited Builds
- Lack of Replay Value
- Doesn't Feel Like a South Park Game
South Park: Snow Day releases on March 26 for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S. Game ZXC was provided a Steam code for the purposes of this review.
