South Park (Nintendo 64)

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South Park (Nintendo 64)
Unlike the other ports, this game can go to South Park to meet friends of theirs.
Protagonist(s): Cartman Stan Kyle Kenny Genre(s): First-person shooter Platform(s): Nintendo 64 Release Date: NA: December 21, 1998 EU: May 3, 1999 Developer(s): Iguana Entertainment Publisher(s): Acclaim Entertainment Country: United States Series: South Park

South Park is a first-person shooter released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, and in 1999 for the PlayStation and PC.

This page only focus on the N64 version, since the PS1 and PC versions are terrible.

Plot

A mysterious comet is approaching the earth, described by the opening narration as a force of concentrated evil that no force of good can stand against. As it comes closer, South Park is beset by enemies, including rabid mutant turkeys, deformed clones of the townsfolk, alien visitors, berserk robots, and sentient killer toys. Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny hear about the dangers from Chef, and take up arms to investigate their sources and defend the town.

Kickass! Qualities

1. Fun gameplay, especially in comparison to the other versions that are really bad and the PS1 version being so bad that it's wasn't even fun to play as.
   • Not only that, but despite being the first version of the game, it feels like a massive upgrade to the PC and PS1 versions that were released later, and were really bad, especially because of the draw distance and the poor controls. This N64 version also had poor controls, but still not awful enough to make the game playable.
2. Decent story with some funny storylines that can be compared to the show, and considering that this game had better cutscenes' quality than the PS1 version, the story is more enjoyable to know what happens.
3. Good graphics for a 1998 Nintendo 64 game, along with the PC version since the character models look pretty decent and the lightning is far better than in the other versions, especially the PS1 version, which looks extremely terrible due to how bad the textures and character models are.
4. Multiplayer is really great and makes the game even more fun than before, since you can choose much more characters than in the story mode; you can even play as Liane Cartman, Mr. Mackey, or other characters. Not only that, but you can play as them only in this game, so that makes it even better than it's already been.
   • You can also play as other children than the main 4 boys, such as Wendy, Pip, and even Ike, the latter two being playable only in this game.
5. It had two more levels than the PS1 version, showing that the developer of this port put more care into this version than the other developer who made the horrible PS1 version, in which they for some reasons removed two levels from the other versions.
6. Decent soundtrack, despite having some bad music in the game due to the annoying tone or the fact that it might be repetitive to listen to.
7. The sound quality is much better than the PS1 version, despite still being a bit flawed compared to the PC version.
8. The cutscenes are both epic and funny. Since the storylines are as good as the series and the voice acting in these cutscenes is way better than what we got in the PS1 version, they also had better image quality than the PS1 port.
   • Some of the cutscenes even include some Kenny deaths, which are still pretty decent and are original and not just taken from the series.
9. The Kenny death in the Iguana Entertainment logo is funny and is also one of the best Kenny deaths of the game, despite not being that original.
10. The game, much like the other versions, is faithful to the series, and the storylines are pretty true to those of the show, despite being an original story that was made for this game.
11. Decent voice acting that sounds clean and is also similar to the show since the voice actors of the show reprise their roles here, but the voice acting can still be annoying since the characters often repeat their lines.

Qualities That Killed Kenny

Note: Some of the bad qualities are also shared by the other ports.

1. The draw distance is still pretty poor, even with the extension pak, since it is blurry and you could have a hard time seeing some enemies or obstacles, making the game unintentionally harder at times.
   • Not to mention that the extension pak doesn't even expand the draw distance but rather increases the resolution of the screen, making it even worse.
2. The PS1 and PC versions are terrible ports, especially the PS1 version, which downgraded the graphics and had absolutely horrible sound quality.
3. The game is rather short, since you can easily beat the game in only 3 to 4 hours, not to mention that with the exception of the multiplayer mode, there are no replay value, and the chances of going back and playing this game in the story mode are really low.
4. The controls, despite being responsive, are rather poor since the button placement is abysmal, thus making the game hard to play when playing for the first time, not to mention that you can't adjust them in the options.
   • Although despite that, if you play in some emulators on mobile phones, you can still adjust the button placements to where you feel most comfortable using them, and then they are pretty good and more fun like that.
5. Some of the levels are very frustrating and are more frustrating than the other ports, either due to the massive number of enemies or because of the poor level design.
6. While good, the graphics didn't age well (mostly due to the textures or some of the character models), although they can still be good-looking.
   • Also, the models for the main boys and other characters in the multiplayer mode, while fine, are reused for the other games, at least in South Park Rally.

Reception

Unlike the other versions, this port received mixed to positive reviews by critics and positive reviews by South Park games and is even considered to be the best South Park game on the console, the game had a score of 67% on Gameranking, making it the highest rated port of the game.

Later, the game received strong cult following where South Park fans still talk a lot about it even nowadays, and is very popular to the multiplayer public and is even the most popular version of the game, beating out the popularity of the PS1 and PC versions.

Planned Sequel

A sequel, tentatively titled South Park 2, was announced at the time of the release of the first South Park game, with a prospective 2000 release date. However, it was cancelled prior to release, instead focusing on cheaper, simpler releases in the franchise like South Park: Chef's Luv Shack (1999) and South Park Rally (2000).

A separate followup in the style of a sandbox action-adventure game was in development for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox, but also went unfinished and unreleased. Little was known about the game until a build was found on an Xbox development kit. No playable version has been released, though video footage has leaked onto the internet, including a cutscene showing Cartman in a mental hospital.

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