South Park

Rushed out in six months and just in time for the holidays, South Park makes use of the Turok 2 engine, obviously only to save development time and not for any logical reason. It often feels like a straight reskin of Turok 2, probably because it is, and it inherits the game's horrible framerate and input lag, making it infuriating to play at times.

South Park touts itself as featuring "episodes", yet there's nothing episodic or TV-like about its levels--the story and dialogue is vapid and unimaginative. You play as the kids from a first-person perspective and, using either Turok or GoldenEye-style controls, battle swarms of repetitive enemies as you make your way through huge, barren and depressingly lifeless maps towards a finish line. The entire concept is unbelievably dull.

South Park's greatest asset is that it remains impressively true to its source in terms of visuals and sound. The game does look like the show brought to life in 3D, and there's a huge amount of recorded dialogue. Like in the show, though, the sound effects are annoying, as are the stupid edgy voices. The kids often call enemies nonsensical things, such as referring to a turkey as a tree-hugging hippie, diminishing what little comedic aspect the lines have.

I'd find it difficult to believe that even a fan of the show could derive any enjoyment from South Park. When you're swarmed by enemies in a dark corner for the hundredth time, fighting against a chugging framerate and input lag, you really have to wonder why you're playing such garbage.