51) South Park: The Stick of Truth (2014)

Though it debuted in 1997, South Park's origin dates back to 1992 when Trey Parker and Matt Stone created a roughly four minute short about a group of boys in a small town who accidentally trigger a fight between Frosty the Snowman and Jesus Christ. The original short, filled with crude humor, was made using construction paper and an old 8mm film camera, and was made while the two men were attending the University of Colorado. Three years later, in 1995, the pair were commissioned by a Fox executive, Brian Graden, to create a similar film as a video Christmas card which Graden then emailed to friends and colleagues. The second film, featuring a fight between Jesus and Santa, became one of the first viral sensations of the internet, and eventually led to what is now one of the longest running animated shows in history, which is currently on its 28th season with no sign of slowing down.

Over the years, numerous games have been made featuring the cast in a variety of settings, though they tended to lean toward a focus on multiplayer or a very limited single player endeavor. Stick of Truth, on the other hand, saw creators Matt and Trey getting much more involved in development. The pair, big fans of Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas, approached the studio wanting to create a role-playing game for the series. Drawing inspiration from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the original script was over 500 pages long and the animation team worked closely with the studio to ensure the game felt as much like the show as possible.

The game begins as our character, referred to only as "The New Kid", moves to the town of South Park with his parents. There's a small hint of something being different or odd about our created character, and we're urged by our parents to go outside and play. In doing so, we quickly meet Butters, who joins us and acts as a bit of a tutorial, informing us that the boys in town are currently involved in a large game that sees humans versus elves with many of the characters falling into tropes common of the fantasy genre. We're taken to meet the human king, the Grand Wizard, who is tasked with protecting the Stick of Truth, which has the power to shape reality. Cartman, the Grand Wizard, has us pick a class and choose a name, though whatever name we choose is changed to "Douchebag". The four classes available to us are your standard RPG fare: Fighter, Thief, Mage, and of course, Jew. As a long time fan of the class in any setting, I chose to play as a Jew, a class marked for being able to deliver more damage the more they hurt or abuse themselves.

It doesn't take long for a conflict to arise, and in true South Park fashion, it escalates to truly ridiculous heights. As the Stick of Truth goes missing, we find ourselves on a quest to gather allies and to return the Stick to its rightful place. As we explore the town of South Park, we get to meet its eclectic residents and visit many of the locales from the show. There are a ton of references to the series and plenty of secrets to uncover, along with quite a few sidequests which can range from fighting Mongolians or the homeless, to finding Jesus, or helping Mr. Hanky find his wayward kids. A lot of the exploration and combat is heavily inspired by, fittingly, the Paper Mario games. Whereas in my article on Bug Fables I lamented that the paper aesthetic didn't make sense, it works incredibly well for South Park.

As we proceed, we find a myriad of equipment, allowing us to customize our appearance and giving a surprising amount of options for how we play our character. It's incredibly impressive just how many options we're given, and even when I found equipment that didn't fit the way I wanted to play, it gave me a ton of ideas for different builds I want to try out in the future. This extends to our companions, each of which have fun gimmicks to try out and explore, though I admit I usually stuck with Butters simply because I think the poor boy deserves a friend.

As a long time passive fan of the series, I understood and appreciated most of the references hidden within the game. There are a LOT of references for die hard fans, and the series' trademark humor is on full display. If you find you're not a fan of the show, the underlying game and mechanics are still great fun, though I imagine it would diminish your enjoyment. If you find the show to be crass and offensive, know that the game doesn't pull any punches, whether it be anal probes, infiltrating an abortion clinic, or simply watching your parents have sex, the game almost dares the player to be offended. For a casual fan such as myself, I found it all to be humorous, often pushing the shocking material to such an extreme that it becomes absurd. There were a few times that the constant references to the show began to get to me, but complaining about that would be missing the point.

South Park: The Stick of Truth succeeds in ways that few other games do. It shows a great love for its source material, allowing fans to fully immerse themselves into the quiet mountain town. It also shows a great reverence for video games and the RPG genre, lampooning different facets of the industry, whether it be the silent protagonist, the ridiculous nature of turn based combat, or just playing with how convenient things somehow tend to be. Even if you're not a fan of the show, there's a lot to love about this game, though if you find yourself easily offended, it might not be for you. I've talked before about how making a game with a licensed property can be tricky, but the approach here, with the creators being heavily involved, works exceedingly well. It feels like a natural part of the series, and succeeds not only as a licensed game, but as an incredibly entertaining game in its own right.