Review for South Park: Dial-ups. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 17/10/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 24/04/2018
In the last decade or so the gaming industry has evolved more and more: a medium that has expanded like wildfire. The same can be said for the “nerd” culture: in recent times the culture of RPGs, comics and comics has literally exploded, gathering more and more fans from all over the globe.
South Park, in its first incarnation in the form of a video game, produced by Ubisoft, rode the wave of fantasy with The Stick of Truth, enjoying great success: both for the faithful reconstruction of the atmosphere - irreverent and politically incorrect - and for the fantasy and RPG elements embedded in it.
Ubisoft try the company again, this time taking a cue from the superhero culture typical of the West, mimicking the classic Marvel and DC. South Park: Di-Retti Clashes is the result of this latest effort.
Raccoon and his amazing friends
The rookie of the Stick of Truth has now become a king who stands to protect his subjects with his fists and farts, thanks to the powers deriving from the noble art of petomancy. It is during one of the toughest battles that his realm is facing that Cartman & Co. decide to do away with fantasy. The city of South Park is threatened by something else: it is Cartman himself, in the guise of a self-styled Raccoon from the future, to sound the alarm and to start a new trend, a new game that all the children of the city will follow: everything will begin to revolve around a cat who, according to Procyon, will have to be found at any cost to revive the fortunes of the newly created superhero franchise.
Obviously, first of all, our Newbie will have to learn more, as well as promote his league of heroes also on Procinstagram. During our raids in the charming Colorado town there will be no lack of classic irreverent jokes and classic irreverent scenes from the South Park series: the entire plot of the game is in fact structured just as if it were a real feature film of Parker and Stone's creature. Obviously all revised in superhero sauce: there will be no shortage of quotes and numerous references to the Marvel and DC worlds. In fact, the title will wink at the Marvelian saga Civil War and at the not rare DC space-time disasters. We report some moments of decline in the quality of writing, but literally buried by laughter.
The storyline of South Park: Di-Righteous Clashes will keep you glued to the screen for hours and hours without ever getting bored: the imaginative interweaving typical of the stories invented by children and the unique atmosphere of the series, seasoned with criticisms of the politically correct and the most disparate and strange situations possible, will never tire you for the entire duration of the adventure.
Peto-Wars
Before starting, for the second time, the dances, we will have to create our avatar: the Novellino. From the beginning the South Park factor is immediately noticed: according to the color of our skin the reactions of all the characters in the game will vary.
Shortly before knowing the shocking (shocking) story of the origins of our hero, it will be the turn to select his class, initially limited to three types: Blaster, Whomper and Sprinter, that is the reinterpretations of Cyclops / Iron Man, Hulk / The Thing and Flash / Quicksilver. As the plot continues, we will then be able to expand the range of superpowers, drawing on the abilities of new classes (ten in total). Each class will be equipped with four different skills, one of which can be used by filling the appropriate bar, to unleash the true power of our hero or one of his many allies. Furthermore, during the clashes, we will be able to enhance our attacks or defend ourselves more effectively by pressing the button indicated on the screen at the right time and, if we get the timing right, we will also fill the special attack bar.
The actual equipment will consist only of artifacts: objects that if equipped will enhance the three main statistics Muscles, Brain and Cazzimma, on which the damage inflicted in the melee, the damage of the powers at a distance and the support capacity will depend respectively such as shield generation, healing ability and so on. In addition to bonuses, however, they can also provide malus to certain types of attacks or resistance to certain elements. The number of artifacts that can be equipped will depend solely and exclusively on the hero level of the Newbie, which will increase based on the missions we complete or on the mini-objectives completed. All items of clothing - from headgear to masks passing through the chin scrotum - will serve only and exclusively to customize our character, not bringing any advantage from the point of view of gameplay, helping to streamline the role system of the game.
All the clashes will take place on the classic movement grid typical of strategic RPGs: we will have to carefully dose the movements, planning the attacks according to the range and keeping in mind the skills of the opponents. Depending on our allies and the skills of our Newbie we will be able to create unique combos: by moving the enemies on the grid we will cause bonus damage or by approaching friends we can heal them.
There is no shortage of altered statuses: from the Suckage caused by the Petomancy skills to the Shock, everything contributes to giving a surprising depth to the clashes, considering the "lightness" of the parametric system. However, in the long run, there is a lack of an adequate level of challenge, although the difficulty of the clashes is still adjustable.
Super South Dubbed Park
The graphic style does not differ at all from that of the previous chapter: the inimitable style of the animated series, invented by Parker and Stone with the technique of stop motion cutout animation, then replaced by computer graphics. Everything contributes to living the experience as a real episode of interactive South Park: the care transpires both from the settings and from the animations of each individual character.
The localization of the title was covered in full, from the original dubbing in Spanish to the subtitles. The first, at times, seems a bit limp even if the work done is certainly not to be underestimated. However, if you are a fan of the original version of the voices, it is still possible to set the English dubbing.
South Park: Scontri Di-Retti is the blatant demonstration of how the videogame transposition of a cartoon can reflect the quality of the original product. Fun, irreverent, soul of the "politically Scorrect" and surprisingly profound when required: Scontri Di-Retti fully grasps the goal, managing to never bore the player. Laughter is guaranteed, as long as you're not too sensitive about certain issues, and the plot is built on them. Definitely a step forward after the excellent Stick of Truth: whether you are fans of the animated series or not, Scontri Di-Retti is a title not to be missed.
► South Park: Di-Straight Clashes is an RPG-type game developed and published by Ubisoft for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 17/10/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 24/04/2018
