Junkman
Dec 13 2004, 02:17 PM
Game: South Park Rage
Creator: Mark Hadley
Genre: Compilation
Description: Try your luck at five different games! Patrol South Park as Cartman, go on a magical adventure with Ike, shoot and saw off some zombies, get lost into a deadly maze and wage a snowball war against a friend!

Rating: 91%

Review: Three compilations down, another one had to follow. South Park Ultra did a good job of offering fun, yet more unique games that started showing off better clicking skills. With Mark Hadley's fourth and final compilation, South Park Rage, he delivers his best project up to date. The 5 games that he shows off in this release easily stand up as being the best games he's created with Klik and Play; not only are these games are fun to play, but they also are damn unique as well.

The first game offered on South Park Rage is Cartman and Conquer. Before you ask, it's not closely related to the Command & Conquer games at all. It's mostly an action game that is tied up together by a RTS-like engine. You move Cartman through the game using your mouse, telling him where to move or shoot. Each of the game's six levels are comprised of three still screens which are filled with different enemy types that each have their own characteristics. At the third still frame, you either need to place dynamite sticks at key spots of the levels whilst avoiding the enemy (and killing them, of course) or fight a boss. The levels offer quite a fair bit of challenge and the different enemies found in each level keep things pretty interesting. It also is an actually unique concept for a click game, it's not only a great concept for a South Park game, but for a click game as well.

Ike's Odyssey is a quite unique platformer, too. It has to be one of the only games ever that entirely focuses on Ike, but the game also has a blend of action elements remniscent from Mark Hadley's older platform games (such as Platform Kenny) but it also features some puzzling elements there and there. Obstacles such as Cartman, Kenny and grinders stand in your way and your method to deal with those obstacles will be Ike's incomprehensible speech. With his speech, Ike can manage to infuriate Cartman and have him chase you in a ballistic way, falling into pits if there's any in the way. He also can set grinders in motion, thus getting them out of the way and might even kill Kenny in the process. Like Cartman & Conquer, it's a rather lengthy game and it certainly isn't easy to beat, neither. Yet, this game is so addictive that you'll want to try again. It certainly is pretty cool indeed.

Zombies Ate My Cheesy Poofs! makes a comeback through South Park Rage, although it's been slightly updated this time around, adding new features but it also removes some stuff as well. Instead of shooting off swarms of zombies that attack the kids by using a bare handgun, you now have various weapon powerups that randomly appear, making the zombie hunt a bit more interesting and delightful to watch, which are a shotgun, bazooka and flamethrower. However, none of them are more welcomed and as cool as the chainsaw. This little nifty item makes sure that you'll want to move quite more with your characters. Once you'll pick it up, the character in control of the chainsaw can cut through waves of zombies happily and destructively. Seeing this powerup only appears as Wendy is alive, Stan's special ability to have her follow him is quite more helpful this time around. Speaking of special skills, Stan isn't the only kid who can do something special. Cartman and Kyle can insult the zombies. They will now attack either Kyle or Cartman only, thus leaving the other kids in safety for a while longer. Kenny can still be controlled when he's dead, thus not making him an immediate threat to the others if he dies. The low points of the new version is the absence of difficulty settings (The game's only setting is the Easy skill) and the fact that the player that controls Stan actually control Kenny at the same time, thus rendering things a bit more confusing. Otherwise, this game's another welcome addition to South Park Rage.

The last two games aren't as cool as the three previous games, but they still hold up well nonetheless compared to the past compilations released by Mark Hadley. South Park Snowball fight is a 2-player game in the same vein of Artillery, although you can move your characters through a restricted section of the game field. The first kid to pelt the other one with a snowball wins the game. The aiming scheme used by the game isn't quite intuitive and can be frustrating sometimes, but it still is a fun game you might find yourself returning to. South Park Berzerker is the only real lowpoint to the game, taking on the arcade game Berzerk. You're being thrown in a endless maze of corridors and you must make your way through the rooms, killing the Death opponents before they touch you or fry you. You also must act quick, or else the mighty Ike spirit will appear and will start chasing you until you die or until you manage to leave the room. The game's bad point is that it's unbeatable, plus it gets repetitive rather fast. There's not a lot of variety in the game rooms that are being proposed to you. The enemies get harder to beat after a while, but it's not enough to make the game any great. It falls a bit flat when compared to the other great games featured here.

In the end, with South Park Rage, you get three great games, a good enough game and a rather average title. The package is certainly worth having for Cartman & Conquer, Ike's Odyssey and Zombies Ate My Cheesy Poofs. Every of these games have quite a lot to offer and would have easily standed well if they were released individually. The fact you get so many great games in one single place makes South Park Rage a real work of art, especially for the time it has been released. There's many unique ideas presented here and the polish that they've been implemented with just makes things better. The final verdict is that South Park Rage is just damn awesome. An all-time favorite classic, I'd say.