{"id":51125,"date":"2018-09-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/south_park_the_stick_of_truth"},"modified":"2018-09-28T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:00:00","slug":"review-south-park-the-stick-of-truth-blame-canada-for-this-excellent-switch-rpg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/09\/28\/review-south-park-the-stick-of-truth-blame-canada-for-this-excellent-switch-rpg\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: South Park: The Stick of Truth &#8211; Blame Canada For This Excellent Switch RPG"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/cb3b596e12c0e\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/cb3b596e12c0e\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"South Park: The Stick of Truth Review - Screenshot 1 of 3\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/92806\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/92806\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"South Park: The Stick of Truth Review - Screenshot 1 of 3\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>With <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/south_park_the_fractured_but_whole\"><strong>South Park: The Fractured But Whole<\/strong><\/a> proving that turn-based RPGs set in Colorado\u2019s most famous made-up town really can work &#8211; and work <em>really<\/em> well, at that &#8211; it was only a matter of time before the original made its way onto Nintendo Switch. Originally developed by Obsidian &#8211; of <strong>Fallout: New Vegas<\/strong> and <strong>Pillars of Eternity<\/strong> fame &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/south_park_the_stick_of_truth\"><strong>South Park: The Stick of Truth<\/strong><\/a> was something of a revelation when it dropped in 2014 and those four years have done nothing to dull the sharpness of its humour and the simple joy of its combat.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from a memorable (if a bit rubbish) foray into first-person shooters on N64, Cartman and company had gone well over a decade without a <em>good<\/em> video game to their name. Some came close, but none of them could replicate the magical formula of the TV show in a genre that made it all <em>fit<\/em>. Then Obsidian came along and through some form of dark magic (read: <em>very<\/em> clever game design) did just that. South Park: The Stick of Truth &#8211; much like the sequel that followed it &#8211; looks, sounds and intrinsically <em>feels<\/em> like one long glorious episode of South Park.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"South Park: The Stick of Truth Review - Screenshot 2 of 3\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/92804\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/92804\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"South Park: The Stick of Truth Review - Screenshot 2 of 3\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>With creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker full on-board, South Park: The Stick of Truth is as authentic as any South Park boxset sat on your shelf. Designed to look exactly like the show &#8211; right down to the way your 2D avatar will turn to the side when walking, or how each every character you meet has their own recognisable (and completely original) dialogue &#8211; Obsidian recreates South Park so well even a passing fan of the show will get a kick out of exploring the town and picking out all the little references to 20+ seasons of in-jokes and running gags.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not the real selling point of South Park: The Stick of Truth. No, the real revelation here is how a studio that knows <em>exactly<\/em> how to build a deep and almost intimidating turn-based RPG has found a way to create one that\u2019s instantly easy to pick up and enjoy. The South Park licence simply provides a familiar backdrop; once you start exploring and jump into battles, then the real fun begins. With a party of characters at your side &#8211; all hand-picked from the show\u2019s most memorable pre-pubescent cast, including Butters, Jimmy and Kyle &#8211; you\u2019re gradually introduced to the game\u2019s systemic combat model.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"South Park: The Stick of Truth Review - Screenshot 3 of 3\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/92808\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/92808\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"South Park: The Stick of Truth Review - Screenshot 3 of 3\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>You can add extra strength to every attack by hitting \u2018A\u2019 whenever your avatar\u2019s weapon flashes, or press \u2018Y\u2019 to add a Power attack. This costs PP, but is worth it to drain an enemy of their last drop of HP. You can do the same thing while defending, so you\u2019re always involved in the battle, even when it\u2019s not your turn. You can use Bow of Sucking to grief enemies further back on the battlefield, employ special Abilities unique to each character and use the power of farts as a foul-smelling form of magic. They key is finding how best to use each member of your party in battle &#8211; such as Jimmy\u2019s ability to buff the squad\u2019s stats &#8211; to overcome some of the tougher encounters found in the latter half of the game.<\/p>\n<p>The pastiche of the fantasy genre &#8211; which serves as the conceit that lets Cartman and the rest of the game partake in action-packed battles in the fight to control the titular wooden weapon &#8211; never undermines the systems that facilitate its combat, exploration and questing, and serves as a neat way to tie everything together. You can use your bow to shoot Chinpokomon out of trees, turn everyday items into medieval armour and experience some of the most bizarre encounters you\u2019ll ever play in a game. And just wait until you reach Canada&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve played South Park: The Stick of Truth before, there\u2019s nothing new here to convince you to double dip, but like so many ports to Nintendo Switch, being able to play this instantly gratifying RPG in handheld form is a selling point in itself. The performance issues found in the old PS3\/Xbox 360 versions have been patched out, as have the sometimes overly-long loading times, so you\u2019re getting a version of the game that\u2019s ideally optimised for Switch. If you haven\u2019t tried this little slice of black-humoured silliness before then you\u2019re in for a treat. It\u2019s perhaps a little overpriced on the eShop considering it\u2019s a four-year-old game, but it\u2019s definitely worth your time once it gets a bit of a discount.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Benefitting from the performance tweaks made by the transition from old-gen to current-gen hardware &#8211; and the same smooth mapping of its controls to the Joy-Con &#8211; South Park: The Stick of Truth proves itself just as good a fit on Nintendo Switch as South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Both a pastiche of classic RPG tropes and a wonderfully empowering example of how to make a great modern example of the genre, this is still one of Obsidian\u2019s best exports and as authentic as any episode of the cult TV show it\u2019s so closely tied to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With South Park: The Fractured But Whole proving that turn-based RPGs set in Colorado\u2019s most famous made-up town really can work &#8211; and work really well, at that &#8211; it was only a matter of time before the original made its way onto Nintendo Switch. Originally developed by Obsidian &#8211; of Fallout: New Vegas and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}