South Park: Snow Day's Biggest Mistake Is Cutting One Key Element Of The Show

screenrant.com:

is the most recent entry in the rejuvenated video game series, which began with 2014's and was followed by 2017's. Unfortunately, whereas the previous titles were extremely well received upon their release, parodying the fantasy and superhero genres with the series' trademark sense of humor and 2D animation that made them feel like extended episodes of the show, has not had as much acclaim.

The previous two titles were turn-based role-playing titles that saw players taking on the role of New Kid, a mostly silent, customizable character who wasn't present in the TV show and is exclusive to the games. In Obsidian's, New Kid embarks upon an epic quest to become "" with plenty of fun nods to other fantasy RPGs — New Kid's «real name» is revealed by the Big Bad Government Guy to be Dovahkiin, for example — and Ubisoft's has New Kid finding themselves in a -esque superhero rift alongside Coon and Friends

THQ Nordic's opted not to be a true sequel in terms of gameplay, despite also having New Kid as the playable character and referring to the previous two games as canon in its story. Instead, shifted from the series' distinct 2D style to 3D animation reminiscent of the games on the N64 and original PlayStation, and became an arena battler, with series co-creator Matt Stone previously explaining that the team wanted a title focused more on replayability.

The overall response to these changes hasn't been positive, with most criticizing the lackluster combat, and surprisingly sparse amount of comedy from a franchise as renowned for its humor as ​​​​​​, wondering why the series would make such changes after seemingly having found a winning formula with the previous two games. Some notable reactions from critics can be found below:

is a co-op arena battler with only the basics of combat and the basics of holding it together, and unless you are absolutely dying to see the snow-covered town represented in three dimensions for the first time since 2000's it can safely be skipped.