‘South Park’ Video Games Are Great Because Trey Parker and Matt Stone Have ‘Totally Different Taste in Games’

Ahead of the much-anticipated release of South Park: Snow Day!, Trey Parker and Matt Stone explained how their taste in video games varies from mindless button-mashers to esoteric, strategy-oriented games. So, basically, World of Warcraft was perfect for both of them.

Thus far in the South Park franchise, 3D video games haven’t exactly been Parker and Stone’s bread and butter. The first ever South Park game, simply titled South Park, came out in 1998 on the Nintendo 64, and the reaction to this first-person shooter from the gaming community was only slightly warmer than the Catholic Church’s review of the episode “Bloody Mary.” Frankly, for the first 15-or-so years of South Park’s existence, South Park video games were steaming piles of poorly animated crap as panned party games and a bland tower defense failed to impress fans of either South Park or playable video games. Then, 10 years ago this past Monday, that all changed when Parker, Stone and Obsidian Entertainment released South Park: The Stick of Truth, a game that answered the question, “What if a South Park video game actually looked and felt like you were in South Park?”

Now, Parker and Stone are ready to hit their biggest milestone since Stick of Truth crossed “first good South Park game” off the list — they’re attempting to make a good game in 3D. Speaking to IGN, Stone says that he’s confident Snow Day will continue South Park’s current streak of making good days because it appeals to both his and Parker’s disparate preferences. “Trey and I have totally different tastes in games. I could basically just button mash, I could just play fighting games all the time. … Trey likes RPGs and Dungeons and Dragons and real strategy games,” Stone said. 

Funny how neither of them like brutally boring kart racers.

South Park: Snow Day! will feature the player character New Kid, as was the case in both The Stick of Truth and its sequel, The Fractured But Whole. This entry tells the story of the South Park kids’ fantasy war games during a canceled school day turning into real battles against mysterious winter threats. And, unlike its 2.5D turn-based predecessors, Snow Day! will be chaotic, real-time action and adventure, complete with co-op experiences for more social South Park fans.

“The 2D stuff — amazing as it was to make those games — it was really, really hard when you think about what you have to work with. It’s just very confined, how we even made those fights work. And it’s the freedom here to create, it’s just a lot easier in the 3D realm,” Stone explained to IGN. “For me, I just accept that these are the South Park kids. I know it’s a new look, but to me that makes total sense. I think we’ve learned a lot about the animation. And I think now we could really go further.”

As for the differences between Parker and Stone’s video-game habits, Stone said of his partner, “He’s a total board game freak and (into) just kind of more cerebral and rules-based things. And again, I don’t (play those) at all so then how do we make a game? So we talked about replayability and playing with friends, and that was also a big reason to do the 3D is like, wow, that would be really cool to be able to be with your friends and do this.”

In case expectations are too high, I’ll just remind eager South Park gamers that the N64 game had 3D, multiplayer and even snowball fights — hopefully, in this one, you can actually see more than four feet in front of you.