User blog:Cryptar/South Park: Tenorman's Revenge First Impressions

I plan to eventually do a fully-fledged, well thought out review of this game after I have completed it. Neither this blog nor the review will contain any spoilers; I know I would not be happy to discover any.

First impressions are good; the game doesn’t seem to be buggy and seems to run well in that respect. I personally find that playing as Kenny for most of the time is the best choice as he has better jumping abilities than all the others. Considering this is a platformer, one should never underestimate this benefit. Even as the Human Kite, one can only glide and it’s not like this upgrade is common anyway. The main thing I found is that the game is very tricky. Do not go in expecting it to be easy. Not that it makes it unenjoyable; it’s just that it may be the sort of game that is best done in bursts. Deaths don’t seem too unfair and you get a decent amount of lives per level but 1ups are so rare they are almost non-existent and recovering lost health is uncommon. However, most of the health recovery pickups will restore full health as opposed to only one point.

The setting is really good, it establishes a South Park feel very well but it never ventures so far as to result in making you forget that it is a game, which is good considering that it is a game and that’s that. It also doesn’t seem like a cluster of random references, at least not to me. I have never played a South Park game before so any time I read about one I always get concerned that it may be “cheesy”. I can honestly say this is not the case for me and I seriously doubt it would be for anyone else. Though not exactly a dark game, it doesn’t feel like a children’s oriented game either.

Overall, it is really good so far. There are a few collectables and there’s replay value in trying to get a gold medal on each stage, to satisfy those kinds of players. I personally like what I’m getting and look forward to seeing this game through to the end.