South Park: Snow Day! (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £24.99)
Verdict: M’kay
If you know your Stans from your Kyles, your Mr Garrisons from your PC Principals, then you are a fan of TV’s South Park. And you, my discerning friend, have been well served by video games in recent years.
The Stick Of Truth (2014) and The Fractured But Whole (2017) weren’t just really enjoyable RPGs, they were like extended episodes of the show itself. The same lo-fi, 2D animation style. The same politics, puerility and punch. Great fun.
Now there’s a new one. In some ways, it’s like the third part of a trilogy. Once again, you are the fabled New Kid in town, playing make-believe with all your sweary buddies — including the sweariest of them all, Eric Cartman.
Snow Day! — so called because it takes place during snowstorms that prevent the kids from going to school — occupies a separate genre altogether
The game full of references and delights for those who have spent years watching South Park on telly
Once again, you are the fabled New Kid in town, playing make-believe with all your sweary buddies — including the sweariest of them all, Eric Cartman (right)
Once again, it’s full of references and delights for those who have spent years watching South Park on telly.
Except this time it’s also different. Snow Day! — so called because it takes place during snowstorms that prevent the kids from going to school — occupies a separate genre altogether.
Instead of a narrative RPG, this one is a sort of team-based action game in which you and up to three other New Kids roam across icy little landscapes, using your (frequently, er, gastrointestinal) powers to defeat waves of enemies. It’s in suitably rudimentary 3D, too, giving you a new perspective on the fight.
But what works as a South Park fan experience doesn’t always work as a game. The combat often descends into messiness, since it’s hard to distinguish the children on your side from the children on the other. The special powers don’t quite cut through the morass, either.
So, as Cartman would say: screw you guys. Snow day’s over. I’m going home.
Instead of a narrative RPG, this one is a sort of team-based action game in which you and up to three other New Kids roam across icy little landscapes, using your powers to defeat waves of enemies
The combat sequences often descends into messiness, since it’s hard to distinguish the children on your side from the children on the other
Rise Of The Ronin (PlayStation, £69.99)
Verdict: Cutting edge
Lots of games want you to go — ahem — ronin around.
Ghosts Of Tsushima. Trek To Yomi. Sekiro. They all cast you in the role of a masterless samurai, out to defeat the forces of evil with little more than your wits and your blade skill to help you.
Here’s another. It’s called Rise Of The Ronin — and it’s probably somewhere in between Ghosts Of Tsushima and Sekiro.
Like the former, it has your swordsman — or woman — trekking across a huge, beautiful open word of bamboo and cherry blossom, completing numerous quests and side quests along the way.
Like the latter, it really wants every fight — and there are lots of them — to be a challenge.
Rise Of The Ronin sees cast you in the role of a masterless samurai, out to defeat the forces of evil with little more than your wits and your blade skill to help you
The swordsman — or woman — treks across a huge, beautiful open word of bamboo and cherry blossom, completing numerous quests and side quests along the way
It really wants every fight — and there are lots of them — to be a challenge
If that makes Rise Of The Ronin sound samey, well, it is, for the most part. There’s also quite a lot of the Witcher and Assassin’s Creed series in here.
Yet it is still a very elegant example of this kind of action-adventure game — and, in two particular areas, even goes some way to distinguishing itself.
The first is its 19th-century setting; a more advanced, more globalised version of historic Japan than we’re used to seeing on our screens.
The second is the actual fighting. The makers of Rise Of The Ronin — Team Ninja — are dab hands at complicated swordplay, having previously developed the Nioh games.
And this is some of their best work. Your warrior doesn’t just have a range of fighting styles, from dual swords to long spears, but each of those styles has its own intricacies and options.
It is still a very elegant example of this kind of action-adventure game — and, in two particular areas, even goes some way to distinguishing itself.
You can create the best version of yourself for tackling the each of the game’s tricky scraps. And those scraps really are tricky — or at least they were for me and my very un-samurai-like reflexes.
Thankfully, Team Ninja have been semi-forgiving, building three choosable levels of difficulty into Rise Of The Ronin. But even the easiest baddies at the easiest level aren’t exactly pushovers — again, at least not for me.
So there’s only one thing for it: practice, practice, practice. The way of the samurai is arduous, I’ve discovered. But, thanks to video games, I know I’m gonna complete it.
