South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play! Review

The Xbox 360 adds another 'killer app' to its lineup!

The South Park series has never fared well in the video game arena. While many of the series’ games were capable of achieving short bursts of fun they all lacked substance in the long run. In 2009 South Park tries once again to contend in the gaming arena, this time with amazing results. At first glance the tower defense gameplay might discourage some players but rest assured it works!

The story behind South Park: Lets Go Tower Defense Play! is sure to see a joyful tear fall from the eye of any South Park fan. The plot is simple – the Ginger Kids, Old People, Woodland Critters and Mongolians (to name a few) have attacked the town of South Park and your goal is to build tower defences to thwart their advance.

The gameplay is tower defense in nature and involves the building of towers, walls and other defensive mechanisms to stop your enemies. If too many enemies subvert your defences, your lives begin to decrease – hit zero and you will lose the level.
 
You start off with one tower but unlock many more as you progress and each tower can be upgraded to increase damage, range, speed, etc. Each level has its own subsections and once you clear each section you can move onto the next until the entire level is clear. If you fail a section you also have the choice to replay that section or re-start from the beginning of the level. As you advance the difficulty will increase which ensures that you must re-evaluate your build and placement strategy.

Coins are the currency used to build towers and can be collected in two ways: as pickups dropped by random enemies or as rewards gained through character specials. Coins dropped by enemies are picked up by moving your character near them. Unfortunately you can’t pick up all of the dropped coins, so placing your characters strategically to maximize pickup is critical.

Speaking of characters, you can play with up to four South Park personalities at any one time and all are player or AI controllable. The majority of the South Park characters are present in the game and some of the lesser known identities have also been included. Many characters make their first appearance during a cut scene but after completing a certain level or reaching a milestone they will become playable.

 
All characters build the same towers and have the ability to attack enemies with snowballs – pressing the A button will throw a snowball whilst holding down the A button will charge your strength meter to throw stronger snowballs. The snowball targeting has an assisted aim of sorts where simply looking in the direction of an enemy within range will cause your snowball to hit that enemy. If the AI is controlling a player they will automatically throw snowballs, but it is your job to ensure that you position the AI player in a strategic location so they are not run over by mobs.