South Park: Snow Day! Review

thesixthaxis.com:

The South Park gang is back and this time, it’s a Snow Day! Taking a departure from the two previous entries’ RPG venture, the most recent being The Fractured But Whole, South Park: Snow Day! sees Cartman and crew enter the roguelike adventure territory with mixed results.

You once again take on the role of ‘new kid’ during a particularly terrible snow storm. School has closed and the kids once again don their outfits to play war games, beating the ever-loving crap out of each other for glory and cheesy poofs. Not all is as it seems with the snow refusing to let up, so it’s down to the kids to figure out what’s going on.

The general moment-to-moment gameplay sees your customised new kid going through levels, battling other kids and taking on bosses in the form of main cast members. You start off each run with daggers and a bow and arrow, but unlock a few other options as you progress through the stage. Alongside this, you have bonus powers which you can use to aid you in battle, such as being able to put down a healing totem, or using fart powers to propel yourself skyward, out of danger and dealing poison damage to enemies.

The combat itself is fairly simple to get to grips with and is definitely made with co-op in mind. Some enemies carry shields which mean you can only hit them from the back – this presents a slight problem if you’re on your own, but is much easier with mates. If you are playing solo, then bots will fill your lobby when a fight kicks off, meaning you’re never alone. They aren’t always that helpful, though, throwing themselves into situations that often got them killed. I spent one level walking around trying to revive all my dead teammates because the AI couldn’t keep itself out of danger for longer than two seconds – this was a very frustrating five minutes! Playing with others the best way to play, and I really hope the AI can be improved.

Snow Day’s roguelike elements come into play in a few more flavours. At the start of each level run, you get