South Park Rally Review @ Gaming Target

Written by Matt Connors on July 04, 2000

Review: Screw you guys, I'm going racing!

South Park aired on Comedy Central for the first time in 1997. Since then, we have seen tons of merchandising from the show, including T-Shirts, mug, plush dolls, and in December of 1998 we saw the first video game based on the show, the South Park first person shooter. Since then we have also seen the release of South Park: Chef's Luv Shack, and just recently South Park Rally. The South Park games have so far not been all that great, so how does its newest N64 incarnation rate? Well see...

The visuals of the game aren't the best, but they aren't very bad either. The colors similar to what you would see in the show. They are very plain and simple, and show poor attempt to create 3D characters. I don't think the developers were going for realism when they had all the cars made with no roof, so the very big heads and chest of the characters pop out of the car. Seriously, the characters heads look humongous, and each character looks like they are twice as tall as the car they are driving. The game's graphics overall are really not that different for the show, and it seems like developers of South Park games always go for a South Park look which makes the graphics seem bad.

Probably the game's strongest part is its audio. Like in graphics, the game's sound really takes you into the weird little Colorado town. The sound effects are mostly made up of fart noises and dirty words, but they are used in the correct places. Should you bump Mr. Garrison, he might say "Next one to hit me gets detention!" and when the next person hits him he would say, "OK! Detention!" All the characters have a fair amount of comments that they might say, but after playing for a while you will get tired of hearing Wendy say "Outta my way, dumbass!" a million times, it really gets monotonous. For a true South Park fan though, these sounds might be the jewel of the game. In my opinion, the music is great. It has a country style for the most part, but it is really fitting for the game and is in my opinion hilarious, in a good way.

The gameplay feels entirely like an arcade racer, and nothing else. If you're looking for a simulation racer this game is way off of what you're looking for, but then again why would anyone look at a South Park game for realism? The controls are really basic making the game a bit more playable but the physics ruin the control scheme. The car is nearly impossible to control in turns unless you master the brake-turn, which is very unrealistic but helpful. The game is quite basic to control overall though, and it is easy to master. It shouldn't take you over a week to beat this game.

The game sports countless modes to play in. Listed they are South Park Rally Races 1 & 2, Cow Days, Valentine's Day, Spring Cleaning, Read a Book Day, Easter Egg Hunt, Pink Lemonade Race, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and finally, Millennium New Year's Eve. Each has their own special little thing that you have to do, for example in the Pink Lemonade Race you must deliver Pink Lemonade to waiting tables, and the first to deliver all their lemonade wins. The game doesn't really have any set tracks, but for that matter it has streets and roads that make up a level. There are 7 levels plus 1 multiplayer level. There is the City of South Park, The Farm, Big Gay Al's house, The Sewer, The Forest, The Mountain, and The Volcano, all of which have their own little roads and passages and all of which have their own level of confusion. Also lots and lots of characters have been put into the game, ranging all the way from Cartman to Jesus, and each character has their own vehicle.

South Park Rally features no support for the Expansion Pak, which really isn't that amazing, as you cannot make a South Park game look great. Controller Pak support is required for you to be able to save in the game, and Rumble Pak is supported, though not well.

Multiplayer in the game is a joke unless you play with other people who are experienced in the game. For first timers the courses can be confusing and irritating, not to mention the controlling and what you have to do in each special mode. Possibly the only fun that can be found in the multiplayer mode with inexperienced friends is the sounds and what the other characters might say. But playing with experienced friends though can be fun for a while, and notice I said for a while. The game is like the show, it is hilarious for about half an hour, and then you just can't bear anymore of it.

The replay of the game is minimal. After beating the game, you just don't want to play it anymore for any other reason than unlocking the other characters, and attempting this is annoying. To unlock characters you must do things that you'd never expect to have to do such as go through a race without getting any pickups, or lose the race completely by just staying in place. Without a cheat sheet from somewhere, it is virtually impossible to figure out what you must do, and I think this was intentional when the game was made so it would have some replay value category.