South Park has gone from an animated television program that served as a parody of human culture into a multimedia juggernaut. The original television show started airing in 1997 and has gained in popularity ever since. With a new South Park game in development, it's easy to think these adaptations are a relatively new trend. However, while those games might have become more popular recently, there's been something based on the franchise since the show first hit the airwaves.
It can be surprising to realize just how long the South Park video game franchise has been around. It appears that once the program became popular, it started its run toward juggernaut status quickly. The series has been around so long that it's managed to appear on a ton of different platforms, from the modern-day PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S all the way back to the Nintendo 64.
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The very first South Park game was simply titled South Park and launched on the Nintendo 64. While it seems as if the more recent games have captured a level of success because they've taken the craziness of the franchise and amped it up, the original just saw players take on the role of the four boys as they adventured around their Colorado city. While this launched on the N64, it eventually made its way to the PC and the original PlayStation console. The game officially launched in December 1998, about a year after the show debuted.
The second South Park game to launch was also on the Nintendo 64, and focused on one of the more popular characters in the series. Chef, long voiced by Isaac Hayes, became a cult favorite among the fans of the show thanks to his deep voice and romantic antics. Chef's Luv Shack was a combination quiz game and minigame title that also landed on the Sega Dreamcast, PC, and PlayStation. It launched in November 1999, less than a year after its predecessor.
It's hard to understate how many games this franchise got when its popularity was first at its height. Chef's Luv Shack wasn't the only South Park game to launch in 1999, there was also the kart racing game South Park Rally. As was the case with most of the games in the franchise at that period of time, it launched on the N64 as well as the Dreamcast, PC, and the original PlayStation. While South Park Rally had a lot of promise when it was first announced, it's one of those games that seemed to miss its mark.
After the spate of South Park games toward the end of the 20th century, the franchise had a long hiatus. It appears that Microsoft wanted to get in on the console games series, and did so about a decade later. South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! launched in 2009, and was a first for more than one reason. It was the first South Park game to be on an Xbox console, and it was the first all-digital South Park game.
As the title indicates, this was a Tower Defense game that featured the four boys fighting off waves of enemies. While this game still didn't approach the newest titles in terms of popularity, it appears it was successful enough to be the first of two Xbox Live Arcade titles in the franchise.
The second XBLA South Park game probably had a hand in the end of South Park games coming to the XBLA based on some of its reviews. To some degree this franchise spent the early part of its life being offered on one platform or another, but things have changed since then. Tenorman's Revenge might not have been universally beloved, but it also might have inadvertently set the stage for the later games with its wild, out-there adventure.
South Park: The Stick of Truth was the unofficial kick-off of the modern versions of the franchise's video games. This title took a different approach than most of the series, as it allowed players to take on the role of "new kid" who then played a massive Dungeons and Dragons-type adventure with several of the characters from the television show. It first launched in 2014 on the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, and then rereleased in 2018 on the PS4 and Xbox One. It's also arguably the most popular title in the franchise.
At the same time that Stick of Truth was reigniting the South Park franchise, a lesser-known title was burning up both the console platform and mobile devices. South Park Pinball was a first in the series, even if it's largely ignored these days, as it was the first to land on mobile devices. Releasing in 2014 as well, the point of the title is relatively self-explanatory, offering a digital version of a pinball game themed after the popular show.
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The last big console game to release for the franchise landed in 2017. South Park: The Fractured But Whole had the same gameplay features of Stick of Truth, only this time the title dealt with superheroes rather than wizards and warriors. There's a healthy debate about which of the two major games is better, but it's clear both have been popular enough that there is a new game on the horizon.
Technically the last South Park game before whatever is coming next, this is a free-to-play mobile title. South Park: Phone Destroyer launched on both Android and iOS right around the same time that The Fractured But Whole arrived, though is obviously smaller in size and scope. This South Park game took advantage of the resurgent popularity of the series and the relatively newfound popularity of card battlers.
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