South Park: Snow Day! review — Just blame the New Kid!

South Park has had an… interesting history with video games. However, after Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole, I feel us fans can say they’ve made up for any past transgressions and can be trusted to provide a fun time in the world of South Park. Snow Day! (Snow Day from here on) is no exception. For the price and amount of content, any South Park fan should be excited for this next stage of South Park gaming.

Snow Day both is and is not a sequel to Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole. While the characters will reference everything that happened in the past two games, they make it clear that this game is different thanks to the jump from the 2D style of the TV show to a 3D animation that translates quite well. The South Park gang blames the New Kid (your character) for ruining the past two games they played. Now, it’s Cartman’s goal to make sure the New Kid cannot ruin this game by becoming OP. Well…

For the first part of my experience, I felt SEVERELY OP even on the normal difficulty by myself with AI bots alongside me. While this game is meant to be played with others, you can fully play by yourself with the bots. While they’re not the smartest, I completed the entire game with just the bots. However, after chapter three I found myself having to lower the difficulty due to the sheer number of enemies spawning at once and the bots not really having the understanding to do what needs to be done, especially in the final mission.

The gameplay is pretty easy to pick up. You have three melee weapons and three ranged weapons that unlock as you go through the main story. For melee, you have dual blades, sword and shield, and a third weapon that I’ll leave blank to not spoil the related mission. For ranged options, you have a bow, a magic wand that does AOE damage, and then a magic wand that acts as either a tesla coil or a flame thrower. Of all the options, I used dual blades and flame thrower/tesla coil. This setup gives you range that can help in close combat as well, and the bleeding effects really start to stack as you get further in the game.

Alongside your weapons, the new game mechanics for the South Park gang are their ability cards. Just like in any TCG, each of these cards can be collected through the game. During a Pre-Battle Trial hosted by the amazing Butters, you’ll get a random selection of these cards that you’ll start the battle with to help you along. After most every areas, Jimmy will provide you with new cards to add to your abilities that can boost powers you already have or add on new powers. A side set of abilities actually come from the Goth Kids, who will give you Dark Abilities that can boost powers, replace powers, or give you extra currency. These sometimes have a cost, though. For example, you could boost all your other card abilities by one, but you have to destroy one of the powers you already have. It’s a give and take to ensure that, once again, New Kid cannot become OP.

The story seems very classic South Park. There is a random snowstorm killing thousands in the area and Cartman begins the game waiting and waiting for school to be called off. As many residents are dealing with power outages, freezing to death, not having the food/water they need, etc., Cartman calls for all kids to start playing. As the story goes, you’ll be facing some of the most iconic South Park names such as Kyle, Stan, and Kenny, plus more I won’t spoil. The biggest difference for me was being unable to have these characters in my party like the previous two games. Instead, the joke of, “why are there so many New Kids” becomes the centerpiece for combat while our favorite characters will stick around at Kupa Keep. There are five main chapters to Snow Day. Each took me 30ish minutes to complete if I didn’t die, totaling me up at 5-6 hours to complete all five chapters and one side mission.

After the story is over, don’t worry. All of the missions change slightly every time you play them when it comes to order of tasks inside each mission. Post game also adds a “Pact” system with Nichole acting as a Warlock. It’s small, but adds replayability, as she provides Dark Matter for you completing the tasks.

Back at the HUB world, you’ll have the ability to visit the street New Kid and Cartman live on, and the back yards of quite a few of the houses. The main area is the back of Cartman’s house and the next-door neighbor. Here, you’ll be able to get cosmetics from Tweek and Craig, change your weapons or powers with Tolkien, and gain Dark Power from Mr. Hankey. In Kupa Keep, you’ll also be choosing your missions either from Cartman himself or the Emo Kids who send you to a Dreamscape.

These Dreamscapes are called To Danse with Ravenous Shadows, and there are four main missions that require you to defeat waves of enemies that get harder and harder. Jimmy and the Goth Kids will provide you with bonuses every level, so keep checking back with them. These CAN be done by yourself, but they are significantly harder than the story and the game warns you to play with friends if you can due to the difficulty.

All of this Dark Matter is to boost your abilities with Mr. Hankey. Everything from raising your health pool to adding damage to attacks, you’ll have a skill tree in a porta-potty to help you make yourself into the overpowered New Kid once again.

I have yet to face any glaring glitches or issues with the game itself. The game runs pretty steady on PlayStation 5 both online and in solo-play. The animation looks great and their ability to transition from 2D to 3D and back to 2D throughout the game was refreshing.

Multiplayer works one of three ways: playing with random players on another player’s server, playing with random players on your server, or playing with just friends on a private server. Playing with random players is amazing in concept, but not great when those random players don’t progress the missions, either because they go AFK or aren’t paying attention. Playing with friends or solo will probably be the majority of how I’ll play Snow Day! moving forward past launch.

If you’ve been a fan of South Park for any amount of time, you’ll enjoy the story and find easter eggs everywhere. Snow Day is VERY different from Stick of Truth and Fractured but Whole, yet keeps the energy going from the past two games. The price is also just right at $29.99 at launch for how much you’re getting content-wise. I had a great time and think you will as well.