South Park Snow Day review: A huge step in the wrong direction

South Park Snow Day leaves much to be desired as a mid-range title not quite a full premium release but not quite a cheaper hit either, offering not a lot of content in a world devoid of the iconic characters we’ve come to love.

South Park Snow Day is the third video game to be released in the modern era. With banger single-player RPGs The Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole coming before it, Snow Day takes a departure from the series, much to its detriment.

With limited amounts of gameplay and a lackluster story, Snow Day leaves players wanting far more than the game can deliver, resulting in an underwhelming experience that feels more like a letdown than anything.

South Park Snow Day: Key Details

• Price: $30 USD | £25 GBP | $60 AUD
• Developer: Question Games
• Release Date: March 27, 2024
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S

South Park Snow Day Trailer

You’ve probably seen this before

South Park Snow Day sees the ‘New Kid’ join the crew once more for even more shenanigans. Following on from the canonical events of the games before it, the kids return to their fantasy setting, complete with Elves, Humans, and a new mystical Dark Matter.

Throughout the game’s relatively short playtime, the New Kid will experience a linear story that isn’t anything special. Its overarching structure is overly rigid, making each level predictable as you progress through the game.

This predictability means by the final level you know exactly what’s going to happen, and leaves the player not particularly invested in the events that take place.

Into a new dimension

One of the stronger aspects of Snow Day is the jump from 2D to 3D. South Park looks pretty damn nice in the 3rd dimension, with locations and characters feeling right at home after the transition.

This unfortunately is dampened quite a bit due to the overwhelming amount of snow covering each level. While there are certainly recognizable and iconic locations, it’s hard to tell where exactly the story is taking place due to the ever-present layer of white thrown across the levels.

A subpar beat ’em up

Snow Day departs from the turn-based RPG that we’ve come to know with South Park games in recent years. Instead, the new title opts for a multiplayer-style beat ’em up, complete with special cards and powers to augment players’ gameplay.

The game will have you running around battlefields, taking down a variety of enemy types like Rangers, Assassins, and Bruisers, all whilst helping your AI or player companions.

Players have the option of three different melee and ranged weapons, with two powers they can equip from a possible eight. This gives a reasonable amount of variety from level to level, which helps as there are only five levels to choose from.

Each of these levels is comprised of stages that players fight through, eventually clearing it to move on to the next stage. The final stage of every level is a boss fight, where players have to work together to take down the foe before them.

At the end of some levels, players encounter Jimmy, who will offer the player a selection of cards that can augment their fighting capabilities. Similar to this, Henrietta offers the player cards that can alter their currency or card levels. These cards only grant power for the run they’re active on.

Stumbling in the snow

One of the biggest issues Snow Day has is its sheer lack of content. With an incredibly short story, the game relies heavily on its replayability, urging players to repeat levels using different weapons and powers. Though the gameplay itself of Snow Day doesn’t hold up well enough to draw the player back in, at least not without others joining them for some online coop.

As a solo player, your party is filled with AI New Kids, which can reduce the experience. There’s no option to remove the AI from your party either, which means you’re stuck permanently with the companions.

There is a reason to rerun levels though, as the Dark Matter you collect throughout your gameplay can be traded in with Mr Hankey for upgrades that are maintained between runs. This includes increasing your damage, your stamina, or even the rarity of cards that appear in your levels. But it’s not the most enticing aspect after you roll credits the first time.

Are we still in South Park?

Ultimately, the biggest flaw with Snow Day is that it just doesn’t feel like a South Park game. Unlike Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole, Snow Day barely features the characters we’ve come to love. Nor the show’s trademark sense of humor.

The main crew (Kyle, Cartman, Stan, Kenny) barely show up throughout the game, only being featured as NPCs who don’t even battle alongside you. Even when you play with AI party members, you end up with completely random AI new kids, who hold no relevance to the story and just feel hollow.

Even when you are playing with the AI, none of the main characters chime in or have conversations with one another, commenting on the events taking place. Most of your gameplay ends up being filled with repeated lines from the enemies you beat up, all of whom are not known characters in the show.

Snow Day feels like any other multiplayer beat ‘em up, with a South Park skin slapped on top, which is such a letdown when the games before it did the world so much justice.

Verdict: 2/5

South Park Snow Day feels like a step in the wrong direction for the franchise. With fantastic RPGs that nailed the vibe of the show so well, it’s hard to understand why they would instead move the games in such a misguided direction.

With an uninteresting gameplay loop that relies on other players for its fun, the release just simply doesn’t hold up when put against other heavy hitters of a similar genre. And even when the game does feel good, it seldom feels like a South Park project, leaving players wondering what could have been.

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