Over the years I’ve seen various South Park games come and go with each one seemingly worst than the last, especially the Mario Party clone: Chef’s Luv Shack. So any new game with the South Park name attached to it makes me nervous. Fortunately South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play (phew what a mouthful) is actually quite good fun, although perhaps nothing more complicated than a frivolous distraction.
As the name suggests, South Park: LGTDP is a tower defense game meaning that each stage consists of you having to protect your ‘base’ by positioning some towers to destroy the impending threat that’s coming at you at a steady speed. In the case of South Park: LGTDP it’s a little different from the norm. For starters there’s no cursor to position the towers, instead you control one of the main South Park characters in your endeavour to keep the area safe. This also means that the four main South Park characters are all controllable within a few levels of the campaign starting. Each of the four characters has their own special move as well as the ability to throw snowballs at the impending threat. This impending threat tends to consist of typical South Park villains, i.e. hippies, gnomes and the ever terrifying ginger kids. To stop them there are plenty of different towers to construct ranging from typical lasers to baseball pitching machines and even cranes that can drop heavy objects on the fearsome hippies.
At first it’s all quite simple stuff with the early levels being more of a tutorial than anything else, and a gentle introduction to the abilities. However as things progress it all gets a lot harder to the point that playing on your own is simply too frantic to succeed unless you can think and react at superhuman speeds. Luckily you can play with up to three other players either via local co-op or online. This is where the game comes into its own and provides cheap thrills at a fairly reasonable price of 800 points.
The astute amongst you may have noticed that South Park: LGTDP is nearly a gigabyte to download, a hefty size for such a simple game you are no doubt thinking. This is thanks to the various video clips that can be unlocked throughout the progression of the campaign mode, as well as a number of challenge levels. The video clips, although a little short, are a nice bonus for fans who will no doubt appreciate this game the most.
South Park: LGTDP is a sure fire hit for fans thanks to its cartoon charm. However for those after a good tower defense game rather than a good TV tie-in, the likes of Defense Grid: The Awakening is a better game thanks to being more complex and detailed in nature. That doesn’t stop South Park: LGTDP being an enjoyable title though, just not the best of its genre.
VideogameUK verdict: 7/10
