South Park: The Stick of Offensive
It has to say something about the game, that I have no idea on how to introduce it.
As a gamer, I have tried a ton of different video games of all genres. While I mainly stick with the action adventure type games, I do love a fun RPG, like Paper Mario or Pokemon. It’s a type of game that rewards you with a good story, while mixing in fun and rewarding gameplay. Why do I bring this up ? Well it’s because South Park The Stick of Truth is a game that looks like the Paper Mario formula, covered in the turd nugget that is the South Park charm.
It’s a fun RPG, that mixes up the usual standard tropes of the genre. Status effects, like poison, confusion, and paralysed, get replaced by effects like bleeding, grossed out, and stunned. The game also eliminates the need for the player to grind in order to beat a boss as enemies are auto leveled to what your current level is. From the moment I saw a commentary on this game, to the moment I played it for myself, this game had me hooked on the fun factor, and laughing the whole ride.
The game revolves around a new kid, who just moved into South Park, and is immediately thrust into the larping adventure of humans vs elves. The new kid can be customized by the player to match themselves, unless you happen to be female, in which case, no dice til later in the game. Soon enough, the story goes from the quest for the Stick of Truth, to stopping the Outbreak of the Nazi Zombie virus, and trying to figure out what the government is hiding. The whole way though, your goal is to make as many friends as possible.
The whole game is enveloped with the South Park charm: Make fun of everything! This can lead to an offensive time if you are not prepared for it, and even then, it still has some unexcusable things. For starters, I can count on one hand, the number of times I saw a race other than white in this game. Hate towards a race or religion is one of those things that South Park has in spades. From the one black kid being named Token, to a class in the game being called Jew, to which Cartman remarks that he and the player can never be friends if you choose that class, to even a chinese man hating on Mongolian culture, this game has it all. It even depicts Canadians as living in a less developed county, by having the Canada section be done in a 16 bit game style.
Gender in this game is also poorly represented. At one point in the story, the player needs to recruit the girls of the town to the army in order to stop a kid who’s using the green goo, that turns people into Nazi Zombies, to his advantage. How does this go about ? Why with plots of finding out if a girl is, to quote the game, “A two-faced bitch,” going through an abortion clinic, and then taking the record to Canada to get the abortion record translated to english in order to find out if a girl is spreading gossip. Did I mention that most of the kids you interact with in this game are under 13 years old ? After you go through these things, the girls are just used as part of the final mission. You don’t get to play as a female, or have one in your party of buddies you take along for the journey. Closest thing is main character, Kenny, dresses up like a princess.
South Park is one of those shows that has no problem offending anyone. It’s sewn into the roots, with Cartman being a huge racist and hateful to the Jews. It’s one of those things that South Park prides itself on, It will find a way to offend you, over the course of it’s long running. The game takes that schtick (pun intended) and runs with it, trying to create a game that is faithful to the show. In this regard, it succeeds. If you watch the show, or play the game, something is most likely gonna offend you. I don’t condone it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t amused by some of the jokes in the show.
Gamer beware, this may not be a game for you.
