Published , by Nick Tan
Published , by Nick Tan
A gigantic blizzard has hit South Park, and the adults have no idea what to do about it. Fortunately, the kids do. And with school closed, that means an epic roleplay battle in the snow where you, The New Kid, can fight alongside Cartman, Kenny, Kyle, and Stan. Developed by South Park Digital Studios and published by THQ Nordic, South Park: Snow Day is a four-player roguelike that has you and three friends defeat waves of enemies throughout the snow-laden town. A thirty-minute demo was available at the Nintendo Switch Partners event during GDC 2024, and I had the chance to try it out with all the fart cloud attacks and poop jokes included.
As a co-operative action game, South Park: Snow Day is an immediate departure from the studio’s other notable RPGs like The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole. It also renders the characters and world of South Park with 3D models and environments, which is an interesting choice since a 2D beat-’em-up in the vein of, say, Castle Crashers would have made sense too. But the developers, inspired by Hades and other roguelikes, wanted to create something wildly different to keep things fresh and allow them to play with their friends.
Starting off in a multiplayer lobby area, I got my character ready by selecting various options for costumes and loadouts. I equipped myself with some daggers for short-range combat, a bow with chargeable attacks, and two skills that could be used once the pissed-off meter became full enough. The Fart Escape vaulted me into the air with the aid of a fart cloud, while the Health Totem — it’s just a stick with Cheesy Poofs — casted an AoE healing spell. Then for a Bullshit power, which is effectively an ultimate attack, I was able to grab Laser Eyes, a concentrated beam that I saved to inflict a lot of damage against mini-bosses near the end of the run.
Fighting off enemies around the battlefield is easy enough, though combat can get hectic. So long as I paid attention to long-range foes, either picking them off with several shots or finding cover while in melee, it wasn’t too difficult to keep myself healed. When I wasn’t sniping from behind a tree or the side of a building, I tried to maintain the advantage by jumping toward high ground. Working together with co-op partners is important for coordinating skills, especially on the harder difficulty settings, so while there’s an option to play solo with AI bots, it’s better to find other players through matchmaking.
For progression, exploring each area thoroughly can lead to treasure chests filled with resources, like toilet paper for upgrading skills and dark matter for permanent upgrades back at the main hub. Smashing destructible objects littered about the battlefield will also provide additional resources. As for the roguelike element, skills come in various rarities and free upgrades for them are granted randomly during a run whether through treasure chests or meeting Jimmy the Bard before entering the next area. I decided to concentrate most of my upgrades on the bow, eventually improving it with multishot and the ability to cause explosions by hitting enemies twice in succession.
With my weapons and skills boosted, defeating Kyle’s elves by decree of the Grand Wizard Cartman was mainly a breeze. Along the way, I was able to find the keys and gas for a truck that smashed through some ice blocking a cave entrance, saving Randy Marsh in the process. The rest of the story was kept understandably vague, but the party will eventually discover that the snowstorm isn't stopping and that something is causing it. At any rate, getting through the campaign will earn players Platinum Pieces, purposefully abbreviated as PP, that can be used to purchase new cosmetics and emotes.
South Park: Snow Day will release in less than a week on March 26, 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Crossplay is unfortunately unavailable, as confirmed by a developer on site. Additional DLC is being planned for the game, including a new game mode, new upgrade cards, and new weapons like an exploding snowball.
This preview is based on a hands-on demo at the Nintendo Switch Partners event during GDC 2024.