Deep in the lands of Zaron, the humans of Kupa Keep struggle to stay alive as they are attacked by the wicked Drow Elves of Larnion. Darkness falls as the humans beg their King to save them. A noble King, known only as the Grand Wizard. For a thousand years, the battle has been waged, with only the bravery of the Grand Wizard to protect his human followers. But even though the Wizard King is undeniably cool, the Drow Elf armies continue their attacks. They seek the humans’ most treasured relic — the Stick of Truth.Welcome back to another month of TA Playlist. In order to have a good discussion about the games we play, Playlist winners tend to be games with heavy themes, deep stories, and complex narratives. But not always. Sometimes, a game just needs to be funny.September’s Playlist theme was “Back to School,” with four nominees that featured action in and around schools or universities. There were two Japanese magical high school games (the excellent RPG Persona 3 Reload and the strange visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!), but they quickly fell behind in the polls compared to two adaptations of well-known franchises from other media. It was a bit of a back-and-forth battle, but in the end, the witches and wizards of Hogwarts Legacy weren’t able to overcome four elementary school students from Colorado, with South Park: The Stick of Truth emerging victorious.The concept for what would eventually become South Park grew out of a student animation project by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who met at the University of Colorado in 1992. Using crude construction-paper cutouts and stop-motion animation, they created their first short film featuring characters that vaguely resemble Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny as they bring to life a murderous Frosty the Snowman. At the request of a TV executive, Parker and Stone re-made their short in 1995 as a video Christmas card (this time with Jesus fighting Santa Claus instead of Frosty), and bootlegged copies of this second Spirit of Christmas short quickly became one of the internet’s first viral videos, even leading to a recall of 100,000 discs of the PlayStation version of Tiger Woods 99, when an employee at Electronic Arts included a copy of the short as an Easter egg on the disc. The viral popularity of the short led to the development of the concept into a TV show which was eventually picked up by Comedy Central, and in the summer of 1997, South Park was born.TymanTheLong said:I have strong feelings about South Park, it showed up during my college years when I was very close to an actual starving college student (there were weeks when a jar of peanut butter and a 49 cent loaf of white bread were all I had to eat, even 50 cent Rice o Roni cost too much) going to a very rich kid college. But South Park was something we all sat on a floor and watched on a tiny TV, 20 of us piled into the same dorm room. Everyone who could agree on nothing agreed that Cartman was an asshole, a funny asshole, but an asshole and we all were like, “WTF?!” when Kenny was just back with no explanation in episode 2, and then realized he’d be dying every week and looked forward to whatever way that might happen (and then the “wait something’s wrong and Kenny yells “Woohoo!’” episode ending). I even remember finding my first box of Cheesy Poofs in Fallout and being really excited.The Stick of Truth is not the first video game based on the South Park TV show. The first South Park game was released in 1998, just a year after the show first aired. It was a first-person shooter featuring Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, shooting aliens, throwing snowballs at turkeys, etc. This was followed up a year later with South Park: Chev’s Luv Shack, a game show-style party game featuring trivia and mini-games, and then a kart-style racer, South Park Rally a year after that. All three games, published by Acclaim Entertainment, were met with middling reviews, with the general consensus being that these games were mildly enjoyable for South Park fans, but were basically just South Park skins on top of fairly mediocre games. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were not involved in their development, but they later came out and criticized Acclaim’s handling of the IP. “We currently don’t have a game developer. Acclaim did such a good job of fucking up the games that now no one is really that interested in the license. I will say this… Trey and I had little to nothing to do with the first games, and if we do another video game, it will be R-rated. We wanted to do that in the first place, but everyone said it was impossible. Now everyone is doing adult-themed games.”Forum question answered by Matt Stone, October 1, 2001To that end, South Park Digital Studios was created to oversee projects related to South Park outside of the TV show itself. In 2009, Parker and Stone approached Obsidian Entertainment about making a Skyrim-style RPG but keeping with the show’s artistic style and themes. Parker and Stone worked closely with Obsidian to keep creative control over the product, including writing the script and voicing many of the characters. After a somewhat troubled development, during which the original publisher, THQ, filed for bankruptcy and sold the asset to Ubisoft, South Park: The Stick of Truth finally released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in March 2014.JohnnyInterfnk said:I can’t believe it’s been 10+ years since this game came out. Time really flies.This game really needed to do one thing, which was to feel like you were in a South Park episode. In that, it WILDLY succeeded. Probably why I like it so much. Shares a lot with Hogwarts Legacy (the second-place game for this month for TA Playlist) in this respect,Its sequel, Fractured But Whole, was also really fun.It’s a shame they stopped making this series of games. South Park games were garbage before these two, and they are garbage after. Wish they’d go back to the formula that worked.Most of the commenters who enjoyed this game said something along the lines of what JohnnyInterfnk pointed out – that the main thing that elevated Stick of Truth above previous South Park games was that it really does feel like you’re playing an episode of the show, with all the insanity that entails.Kariyanine said:Like a lot of people, I got into South Park when it first came out, and it kinda became my one constant show for a bit. And like a lot of that group of people, I fell off of it at some point. I do still have a soft spot for it, but it’s not must-watch television anymore. Obsidian and Matt & Trey did a great job making Stick of Truth an interactive showcase of what the show was when I watched it regularly.Flumptigan said:That rarest of things, a game that is genuinely funny. Decent enough to play, but the comedy is the main thing for meOf course, comedy is subjective, as we saw with the July 2023 TA Playlist game, High On Life, and while most of the positive commenters said they loved the game because it felt like an episode of the series, there were also some gamers who didn’t like it for precisely the same reason.THE DEADLY DOG said:South Park humor was never my stick. Tried over the years to get into it but could never enjoy it enough.Allgorhythm said:Same here. The sophomoric humor doesn’t appeal to me.It’s not for everyone, certainly, and they do have a tendency to cross the line twice when it comes to offensive comedy and sensitive topics, but for a show that’s been around for 26 seasons, it must be doing something right.RamonGamer01 said:Um game incrivel, que apesar de ser RPG que pode afastar muitas pessoas se voce gosta dos desenhos logo logo voce esquece que esta jogando um RPG e passa a achar que esta vendo um episodio, a trama é engraçada e as piadas pra quem gosta desse tipo de humor sao otimas, esse foi um dos primeiros games que eu fiz o 1000g.via Google Translate: An incredible game, that despite being an RPG that can drive away many people, if you like the cartoons soon you forget that you are playing an RPG and start to think that you are watching an episode. The plot is funny and the jokes for those who like this type of humor are great, this was one of the first games that I made the 1000g.Your character is a New Kid in the town of South Park, Colorado, quickly stuck with the nickname “Douchebag” (given to you by Cartman, of course). Usually, in these wrap-up articles, I try to include a brief outline of the game’s story, but as anyone who’s experienced an episode of South Park might suspect, the plot summary for this game sounds like the ravings of an insane person. On the one hand, you’ve got a bunch of kids running around town playing a live-action RPG as humans versus elves on a quest to control the Stick of Truth, and on the other hand, you’ve got alien abductions, anal probes, government conspiracies, Taco Bell, and green goo that turns people and animals into Nazi zombies.Wicelow said:Played both this and the sequel. LOTS of fun and references if you’re a fan of the show, honestly if you’re not, I don’t understand why you’re playing it.Here’s an actual paragraph from the plot synopsis on Wikipedia: “Out of desperation, Douchebag is told to invite the girls to play. They agree to join after Douchebag infiltrates an abortion clinic and travels across Canada to discover which of their friends is spreading gossip. Flanked by the girls, kindergarten pirates, and Star Trek role-players, the humans and elves attack Clyde’s dark tower. Randy arrives and reveals that the government agents have planted a nuclear device in Mr. Slave’s anus to blow up South Park, forcing Douchebag to shrink and enter Mr. Slave to disarm the bomb.” It’s sheer madness, but somehow it all comes together in a way that feels very authentically South Park.ShinUkyo said: I loved this game when I played it ages ago, and it still stands out in my favorite gaming memories. As folks have said here, it legitimately feels like the TV show in playable form. Not to mention all the weird/surprise changes in gameplay style as you go through it. It’s rare that a licensed property gets this kind of love and quality put into it.In addition to the spot-on South Park vibes, most of the commenters in our forums also had good things to say about the gameplay design and combat systems as well. Combat takes place in a turn-based RPG format, where your character and his companion (Butters, Princess Kenny, Jimmy, Stan, Cartman, or Kyle at various points of the game) choose from a variety of standard attacks or special abilities in each round. You can collect new weapons, armor, and accessories throughout the game, some of which affect your stats in combat, while others are purely aesthetic. Outside of combat, you’re free to roam around the town looking for collectibles and side quests, although some areas are not accessible until later in the game when you’ve unlocked certain special abilities.HawkeyeBarry20 said:It’s been a long time, but I really enjoyed playing this game. And I could tell it was different right away. I’m walking around that opening camp and Cartman is making fun of me taking so long and checking everything out. The comedy is the selling point of this game as long as that’s your thing. The dialog, weapons and settings are all hilarious. The combat is simple and solid. They didn’t try to do too much which made it enjoyable. There were a few missables but I didn’t think they were that bad as long as you knew what the next missable event/collectible was. I really enjoyed running through the town to find new people and legitimately want to help them to hear what the next wacky thing was going to be. This game is the pinnacle of what tie in games should be.The collectibles seem to be the one sore point from our commenters who otherwise liked the game. There are achievements for collecting all the weapons and outfits, becoming friends with everyone in town, collecting all the Chinpokomon, farting on people, and more. In total, 25 achievements are missable, including many of the collectibles, due to actions that need to be taken before certain areas of the game are completed and locked off. This, of course, is never a good thing for achievement hunters.jimbobvaquero said:Man, I got stuck with the the missable achievements left on this game. It was only a couple of costumes that I didn’t get. I think I started a new playthrough, but I have no idea how far I got into it just to track down a couple of items. Maybe I’ll go start the X1 version just for funsies.SiegfriedX said:Fantastic game, loved every moment of it both times I played. Achievements are not the best with tons of missable stuff so it begs for you to play with a guide by your side.Osmo76 said:I enjoy the show (although I haven’t seen any new episodes in like 10 years), but this game didn’t captivate me. It was probably one of the first games I completed while meticulously following a guide so that might be the reason for my negative memory of it. TymanTheLong said:I find that following guides can really kill the fun for me as well. It’s primarily why I don’t play Adventure games much anymore (plus those guides often commit the additional sin of having you skip most of the story). There’s something about staring at a guide every few seconds to try and match what it’s saying to what you’re seeing that just sucks the fun right out. It’s stressful and tedious.The achievement list for this game is so chock-full of missables; Stick of Truth even earned an honorable mention in the Top 5 Bad Achievement Lists article (written by TA Playlist’s own ChewieOnIce) back in 2015. Aside from the missables, though, the achievement list is quite interesting and funny, with several notable achievements earning call-outs from our commenters.ManicMetalhead said:I loved this game, the devs and series creators manage to balance the mix of references and gameplay just to the right spot for it all to be enjoyable. I remember genuinely struggling with some of the flights (like Manbearpig) but having a blast while plaything through it nonetheless. Plus I liked seeing the transitions between what the kids playing saw and what the others around South Park saw (like stopping fighting in the street to let the car past etc).Who else other than South Park could get away with these achievements also;Speaking of achievements, how about some stats?A total of 1,147 tracked gamers unlocked at least one achievement in either version of South Park: The Stick of Truth during the month of September, with 585 starting the game for the first time, and 103 tracked gamers earning a full completion. That adds up to 13,080 achievements unlocked during the month for 247,850 total Gamerscore and 396,337 TrueAchievement score – an overall ratio of 1.599 for the month.Most of the people joining us this month were playing the Xbox One version of the game, with “Poco Chinpoko”, for collecting 5 Chinpokomon, as the most-earned achievement, at 411 unlocks during the month. It was also the most-unlocked achievement for both versions combined, with 448 achievements across both versions. At the other end of the spectrum, another collectible achievement, “Parkeologist” required opening all the garages in South Park, and due to a few tricky and/or missable ones, only 23 people unlocked that achievement in the Xbox 360 version. However, even the least-earned achievement from the Xbox One version (“Full Arsenal”, for collecting all weapons and outfits, unlocked 67 times in the Xbox One version, and just 96 times overall) was popped more than the most-earned achievement from the Xbox 360 version, “Acceptance”, which saw 45 people during the month choose to call themselves “Douchebag” before Cartman could do it. The things we do for achievements!Even though this is an older game, we still had a total of 37 Gamers earn their way to the September 2024 Shout-Out List, led by GamerMD1995, who unlocked all 50 of the game’s achievements in just 15 hours between September 14 and September 15. Impressive!That will wrap it up for this wrap-up of the September 2024 Playlist game, South Park: The Stick of Truth. We’ll be back soon with our wrap-up for the October 2024 Game of the Month, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, and in the meantime, head on over to the Spoiler-Free and Spoiler Discussion Threads for the November 2024 featured game, Spec Ops: The Line. See you next month!
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