South Park - Editorial @ Gamemoir

Gamemoir's Jack Rooney has written a new article for South Park: The Stick of Truth were he calls the game a wake-up call for RPGs. So do any of you agree with him?

Just this past weekend, I found myself shrunk to the size of a mouse in the midst of a journey through a grown man’s lower intestine in an effort to save all of South Park, nay, the world, from extinction and caught myself wondering what had led me to this point. Was it my love of RPGs? Perhaps I could credit my decision to play South Park: The Stick of Truth to my appreciation for the work of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Whatever it was that brought that moment into my life, I was exceedingly happy to be there and was having as great a time as I can remember while playing a video game.

Let’s deconstruct that last paragraph a little bit. Magic and wondrous technology are prevalent in the town/universe of South Park and, like many other RPGs, are used in your character’s combat capabilities and world navigation. However, unlike other RPGs, South Park does not rely on high fantasy or convoluted reasoning to give your character his powers. Teleportation? Alien anal probe. Object destruction? Farts. Character size manipulation? Underpants Gnome magic dust that is snorted into your system. In true South Park form, the game resists the urge to explain everything and take itself too seriously and remains hilarious the entire way through, provided you can get past the “South Park-ness” of it.