Licensed games have a peculiar relationship with not only video games as a medium, but also the people that play them. On one hand, they are the source of many cases of nostalgia. If a child grew up appreciating a particular work in pop culture in the last 40 years, the likeliness of them owning a video game based on said work is rather high. On the other hand, licensed games are infamous for being their tendency of being promotional products and not being ambitious beyond that. Some of them, like the South Park RPGs, challenge this common conception.

Released in 2014 and 2017 respectively, the two South Park RPGs, The Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole, are recognizable for being among the most well-received licensed games of all time. They might not have reached the level of acclaim of games such as Batman Arkham City, but they are nonetheless appreciated by both South Park fans and people that are only passively familiar with the show. One of the reasons these two games succeeded is the faithfulness to their source material. As a result, the two South Park RPGs are games that developers of other licensed games should seek to emulate.

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Using South Park’s Signature Traits to Their Advantage

south park bus stop wallpaper kyle broflovski stan marsh eric cartman kenny mccormick

When South Park first became a cultural phenomenon in the late 90s, it became one of the many victims of poorly made video games, with the first-person shooter sharing its name with the show being the most infamous of its kind. The games used 3D models for character designs that are recognizable for their cutout-like simplicity, making the characters look like cheap polygonal figures. Additionally, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the show, had little to no involvement in the games’ development cycles aside from providing voice acting. They disowned the games 20 years ago, and they do not think fondly of them now.

South Park is unique among animated shows not only due to its art style, but how closely Trey Parker and Matt Stone are involved with it. Parker has directing and writing credits for each episode, while Stone heavily covers the production aspects. In addition to those roles, they also voice nearly every male character on the show. For example, some major characters voiced by Parker include Stan, Cartman, Randy, and Mr. Garrison, while Stone’s biggest roles have been Kyle, Kenny, and Butters.

Unsurprisingly, Parker and Stone were heavily involved with the development of the South Park RPGs. Not only were they needed to begin with as the two main voice actors, but their input was certainly appreciated from a writing and design standpoint. The Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole’s scripts were mostly written by the duo, who also returned to voice their characters alongside the show’s other voice actors.

Parker and Stone’s involvement was not just important when it came to the writing and voice acting, but the very fundamentals of how the games are designed. The South Park RPGs are meant to be interactive episodes of the show. As a result, the graphics look exactly like the show’s art and animation style. The characters move in their notoriously choppy way, while several key landmarks can be visited, such as the kids’ houses, South Park Elementary, Stark’s Pond, tons of local businesses, and even Canada. To end it off, there are so many songs, recurring minor characters, and references in both games that they might even rival The Simpsons: Hit & Run in the department of thanking long-time fans for their support of the source material.

The South Park RPGs are not everyone, and not only because of the show that spawned them. Still, few licensed games were blessed with the deep involvement of the source material's creators, an overwhelming set of cameos, and a perfect recreation of the property's aesthetic in the way that these games were. For those interested in licensed games as a topic, the faithfulness of these two games to the South Park world is something to be studied.

A New South Park game is in development.

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