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

Back in 1997 South Park was released upon the world and gathered its own cult following, with it being the highest rated series on Comedy Central it was only a matter of time before game developers latched on to its success and subsequently developed a number of South Park games. Unfortunately, the majority of these games under the South Park name have been far from striking in the genres that they chose to include themselves in. However, South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! isn’t a full blown retail release like those that came before it, Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! is an Xbox Live downloadable game retailing at a mere 800 points and is based as the name suggests on the traditional tower defence gameplay.

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! is fairly simple at its roots and benefits from it. Throughout its eleven mission campaign you’ll find yourself in various locations from the TV Series such as South Park Elementary School as you take control of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as they try to defend the various locations from hippies, cows, ginger kids, gnomes and other characters from the series from getting past your towers. If too many of them get past your defences then you lose. Most tower defence games involve you setting up your towers in a defensive formation and upgrading as you go while taking down the various waves that cross your path, while Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! is pretty much the same, it isn’t the only way you’ll be defending your territory. Since you get to control all four of the lead characters from South Park, you’ll find each can be swapped freely while playing (some levels don’t include all four) of course each has their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses for instance Cartman is slow and a heavy damage dealer where as Stan is fast and light, choosing the right one for the job is equally as important as building a good defence. Towers can be freely built around the area your defending though you aren’t able to obstruct the enemies set path, these towers come in various forms and are upgradeable like the basic cardboard tube snowball throwers or the barbecue laser cannons, each costs a set amount of coins to purchase or upgrade and these coins can be picked up when an enemy is killed and they drop from their corpse. Each tower, much like the four boys, has its own benefits given the relevant situation so again getting the strategy right is important if you don’t want to lose.

The eleven missions start off fairly easy as you go through the tutorial but after a short space of time become very difficult and then near impossible to play alone. This is where one of the games best features comes out, co-op play. Playing alone is fun, but you can only control one character at a time and let’s be honest, playing with a group of friends (up to four in this case) either online or offline is much more rewarding and fun. Thankfully the game supports both forms of the latter mentioned co-op and becomes a lot of fun when played with a group of friends, also essentially making the game much easier to get through. That isn’t to say playing through the game solo is impossible or boring, it isn’t, the game keeps things at a steady pace as you progress through while keeping things fresh and involving, it doesn’t become tedious either. However, trying to get your strategy right is difficult since you need to make sure your characters are positioned correctly and ready at a moment’s notice to start their attack, you’ll find some of the later levels very rewarding once completed when you figure out the best way to defend your location.

Fans of unlockables can rejoice in Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! since not only does the game have achievements, but new characters can be unlocked such as Butters, Jimmy and more, which can be used to play in the one-off challenge levels that you unlock as you progress through the levels. What’s also great is that as your gradually make your way through the game, you’ll also unlock parts of the episodes themselves which you can watch, such as when you defend against the hippies, you’ll see the part of the episode that included them. It all makes for some great replay value.

No South Park game would be complete without the original voice acting cast, and thankfully Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! doesn’t disappoint. While it seems the voices are cut straight from the episodes with the occasional new line added, it doesn’t tarnish the game in any meaningful way, the game includes the same rude, crude and sick jokes as per the series and all the locations are set from places you’ll have seen on the show. The look of the game is also true to the TV series, with sharp high definition graphics and cartoon cut-out style characters, it looks just like what you would see in an episode, except this time you control the action.

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! is great value for money coming in at 800 Xbox Live points. Fans of the tower defence genre will no doubt enjoy the game even if they aren’t huge fans of South Park, however those who don’t like the shows humour or presentation may not be impressed with the overall game. With co-op play for up to four players both online and off and with plenty of unlocks to earn through gameplay, there’s plenty of bang for buck included and is certainly one you shouldn’t miss. If you don’t take our word for it, download the demo and try it out for yourself.