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"Sweetie, we want you to have lots of fun here. Why don't you go out and make some friends?"
The New Kid's Mother

South Park: The Stick of Truth is a 2014 Western RPG based upon the show, developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Much like the show itself, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have oversight over the project, writing the script and providing voiceovers for the characters. It was released on March 4, 2014 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC with a port later released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Another noteworthy point is how both the graphics, gameplay, even the user interface are meant to look as though they came straight out of the show.

The player takes on the role of a New Kid that recently moved into South Park with his parents, before he is immediately drafted into a city-wide live-action roleplay between the kids of South Park Elementary, which escalates into a good vs. evil battle threatening to consume the world. He shall fight alongside Cartman, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Butters, Jimmy, and whoever else is willing to join his fight, to cement his status as either a socially-acceptable savior among peers, or be forevermore known as a loser.

Fighting is Turn-Based Combat with Action Commands, with the New Kid leveling up from experience points and buying new equipment with money collected from defeated opponents. You also get perks from getting enough friends on Facebook, and you get those from talking to people and completing side quests. While there is a main quest, most of the town of South Park is open from the get-go, allowing you to explore and complete the main quest or side quests at your leisure.

Originally intended to be published by THQ, the game was instead published by Ubisoft due to the former's bankruptcy in early 2013. A sequel, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, was released in 2017, but Obsidian did not come back for development. However, The Stick of Truth was packaged with Fractured But Whole for anyone who bought the latter before the end of January 2018, in order to get anyone who hadn't already played The Stick of Truth up to speed. A side game for mobiles called South Park: Phone Destroyer was released in 2017. A third game, South Park: Snow Day!, will be released in 2024.


This game provides examples of:

  • Absurdly Low Level Cap: The level cap is 15. You'll more than likely hit that by the time you reach Canada, and if you don't, then the enemies in Canada will give so much experience that it's impossible not to. Even if you play on hardcore and avoid sidequests, you'll still reach level 15 as you complete the main quest. At least the enemies scale with your level to keep it balanced.
  • Absurdly-Spacious Sewer: For such a small mountain town, South Park has a very large sewer system with a healthy homeless population.
  • Action Commands: Despite being a turn-based combat system, the gameplay is persistently interactive, requiring the player to time attacks in order to deal maximum damage or actively defend in order to reduce damage and open opponents up to counters.
  • Actually Four Mooks:
    • Inverted with the Mongolian Horde boss. What appears to be five Mongolian warriors on horses turns out to be one large single target in battle.
    • Once the player reaches Canada, the game takes on an 8-bit RPG aesthetic. The enemies that show up in the overworld map appear to be a single foe, but are actually packs of ferocious animals.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • Terrance and Phillip are just dim-witted comedians in the show, but the game turns them into masters of combat flatulism on the verge of Person of Mass Destruction territory.
    • Mr. Kim and his war dance. In the episode it's from it was a silly joke and all it did was distract Kim while the Mongolians blew up his wall. Here it will end any non-boss encounter.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: In the show, Craig has black hair. When he appears in night one without his hat, his hair is blond.
  • Adults Are Useless: This was always the norm in the show, but the game takes it to ridiculous heights. Trained soldiers with machine guns are quickly and hilariously slaughtered by the zombie Nazi fetuses, but The New Kid and his buddies managed to beat the monsters with toy weapons.
  • All There in the Manual: The game itself is one such manual for the show. It contains the (at least, as of present) canonical layout of the titular town, as well as some details about some characters that you learn as you explore.
  • Animated Adaptation: Season 17's Multi-Part Episode Black Friday, A Song of Ass and Fire, and Titties And Dragons (aka the Black Friday Trilogy) lampoon the lead up to the game around the subtext of the new console wars (making fun of the fact that the game was delayed for so long that the new consoles are already rolling in) apparently ending where the game begins (as Cartman holds up a stick and says they could play with it).
  • Anal Probing: In his first night at South Park, the New Kid is abducted by aliens alongside Randy, Mr. Mackey, Craig, and Mr. Slave and undergoes this. Thanks to his immense control over his sphincter muscles, he manages to break free and gains an anal probe that allows him to interface with alien technology.
    Randy: ...Yeah, it's a pain, but this is the kind of stuff you put up with living in a remote little mountain town. At least we don't have to deal with traffic.
  • Animesque:
    • Butter's attack as Professor Chaos changes his design to the one seen in Good Times With Weapons, resembling an anime supervillain with white eyes, a stylized mohawk and a muscular body.
    • The short sequence about the "Princess Kenny" show parodizes the overly cute Japanese girl trope, complete with giving Kenny anime style eyes.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: If you take too many wrong turns in the woods and get hopelessly lost, your parents will eventually find you and send you home.
  • Apathetic Citizens: As is par for the course in South Park, everyone just goes about their business as Nazi zombies eat everyone. They seem more interested in their phones.
  • Apocalyptic Log: Parodied in the spaceship level, where you'll find various tape recorders containing the voice of a hobo who wonders why people (including him) are wasting time making these things and how he keeps finding more audio logs, each one more boring and irrelevant than the last.
  • Arc Words:
    • Whenever the New Kid learns a new fart attack, he is told the Gentlemen's Oath: "NEVER fart on anyone's balls". During the final boss fight, he breaks the oath by farting on Kenny, which inexplicably cures everyone in the city from the Nazi Zombie virus.
    • It's explained that the kids fight over possession of the titular object because "He who controls The Stick controls the universe."
  • Artistic License – Geography: Canada is just on the other side of the forest from South Park, Colorado. You even get to travel there and visit various Canadian cities, which are really close to one another.
  • Artistic License – Physics: At the end of the game, the boys throw the Stick of Truth into Stark's Pond, deciding it's caused enough trouble. After a few moments, the plain wooden stick sinks. Makes for a great dramatic cutscene, though.
  • Art Shift: Go far enough north and you'll end up in Canada, which is rendered in 8-bit graphics.
  • Ascended Extra: A few of the minor 4th grade classmates get their own roles to play in the game.
    • One side quest involves having to find Kevin Stoley's iPad.
    • Annie will be grateful to the player for defending her from a group of bullies. This also leads to a mission to recruit the girls to your side.
    • There is a quest from Dogpoo, whose ONLY major appearance in the show featured other characters calling him a background prop.
    • It turns out that The Heavy is a character with little prominence in the show: Clyde.
  • Asshole Victim: The ticket seller outside the cinema who keeps taunting the kids about not being old enough to watch R rated movies gets turned into a Nazi zombie. Subverted that he's turned back to normal, though.
  • Ass Shove: Mr. Slave is all about this:
    • One of your summons, Mr. Slave, has a leather whip as his item. When the New Kid cracks it, he appears and does his attack, "Wrecked 'Em" — he unzips his pants, jumps high into the air, and shoves the unfortunate target straight up his ass (even if the target is something as big as a Dire Bear). It's about as pleasant as it sounds.
    • One level revolves around the many things Mr. Slave has up there. You can get a secret trophy by summoning Mr. Slave to shove an enemy up his ass from within his own ass.
  • "Awkward Silence" Entrance: When the "humans" enter the "elf" bar, the bar goes on normally until they ask for The Bard, and then the place goes silent.
  • Back from the Dead: A nazi-zombified Chef appears in the game.
  • Back Stab: The Thief's "Backstab" ability can attack the last enemy in a row, pierces defense, and can inflict the bleeding status if successful.
  • Bait-and-Switch: For the entire game, it seems as though the government is after the New Kid for his power of Fartillery. Even the characters think this when the government finally manages to catch him. However, Big Bad Government Guy explains that it's actually the New Kid's power to rapidly make friends on social networking sites that they're after.
  • Batter Up!: The Fighter's Assault and Battery ability makes use of a baseball bat.
  • The Battle Didn't Count: Partways into the game, four elves will jump you and ask to take you to the Elf King. They will specifically note that you can fight them instead of co-operating, but it's pointless because there is no way you can beat them at this point in the game. The prompt even asks you twice before letting you fight them. Thing is, if the player's been exploring and doing sidequests, it's very possible to beat them in one turn. But even if you do, immediately after the fight, they're all fine, and will knock you out with a single blow and drag you off to the Elf King anyway.
  • Bears Are Bad News: Dire Bears are a common enemy in Canada. They're described to be like Bears... but DIRE.
  • Beam-O-War: The ending of the Cartman/Kyle battle has you countering a flaming fart/a leaf blower with your fart.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Several characters fulfill the role of Big Bad at one point or another. Elf King Kyle is the leader of all the elves the New Kid fights throughout the first part of the game. This role can be switched to Cartman should the New Kid choose to join the elves at the last minute. Both characters abandon this role once Clyde, wielding the Stick of Truth and a vat of alien chemicals, takes over the role. Meanwhile, the Aliens are responsible for the Nazi Zombies and the intervention of the Underpants Gnomes, albeit indirectly for both. Finally, Big Bad Government Guy is the head of all the government opponents of the game and the biggest threat by the game's end. Even he ends up in a Big Bad Duumvirate with Princess Kenny, with the latter as the Final Boss.
  • Bigger on the Inside: The girls' room at the park, despite being housed inside a very small building, is home to their secret clubhouse, which is more akin to a conference room.
  • Black Comedy: The show indulges in politically incorrect jokes and is the epitome of Vulgar Humor, and the game follows suit. For example, Cartman is the "Grand Wizard" of the Kingdom of Kupa Keep, and one of the four starting classes is "Jew", which, if selected, elicits "Looks like we'll never be friends, then" from Cartman.
  • Black Comedy Rape:
    • In the spaceship level, both Randy and the player character get violated by the alien anal probes.
    • During the battle at Jimmy's house, Princess Kenny is taken hostage in one of the rooms and is apparently being raped by the elves. Once you reach the room, you can even hear Kenny screaming and sounds of the bed squeaking. Upon rescue, it is revealed that Princess Kenny is just tied up and an elf is just jumping on the bed.
  • Black Is Bigger in Bed: During the Anal Probing session, the aliens first bring out a white probe. If you break that one (pretty easy), they replace it with a larger, black one. That one is very difficult to break.
  • Blatant Lies: When the flying saucer crashes into South Park, which shakes up the whole town, the government covers it up with tents and tarps that are too small and tells the public that a giant new Taco Bell restaurant is being built there. Everybody, except maybe the New Kid, believes it.
  • Book Ends: The first combat fart the New Kid uses is on Princess Kenny, so it is rather fitting that the last fart of the main game is also used on her. Bonus points if the fart in question was Dragon Shout.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Courtesy of the Bishop of Banff:
    "Praise Christ. Praise God. Praise God and Christ."
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: During the final boss, every member of the party is eventually incapacitated after scripted events where they counter Nazi Zombie Kenny's most powerful attacks.
  • Brown Note:
    • One of Jimmy the Bard's attacks is to play a deep rumbling "note" on his flute, which will bombard the New Kid with multiple ranged attacks that do heavy damage and can overload the mana meter to the point where he craps his pants.
    • Once Jimmy becomes a selectable buddy, his Brown Note becomes his final ability, where he switches out his flute for an alpine horn the size of a ski slope.
  • Bullet Catch: Sort of, the New Kid does encounter some foes that fight with firearms, and it actually IS possible (if still fairly difficult if you don't have the timing down) for him and his party members block bullets, though they'd still suffer considerable damage from the attack.
  • But Thou Must!: Played for laughs a lot, parodying player 'choices' in other RPGs.
    • No matter what you put down when naming your character, Cartman will say that you put down "Douchebag" as your name, even if you keep telling him that you didn't. Lampshaded with the achievement "Acceptance", which you earn by saying yes both times Cartman asks you to confirm it.
    • When the elves confront you and inform you that the Elf King has requested your presence, you're given the choice to come quietly or fight. If you choose to fight them, you get dragged away to the Elf King after the battle anyway. This is also Lampshaded by one of the elf soldiers saying "There's no point of fighting us at this point in the game".
    • When you're asked by the photographer to take off your clothes, you can refuse twice, but by the third time both your choices are the same.
    • At the end, when the Big Bad Government Guy is giving his Motive Rant, the boys ask if they can skip the rant, wondering out loud if there is a skip button they can press. When you try to press to skip, you get the message 'Can't Skip'.
    • At the very beginning of the game, after you have been named Douchebag, and Cartman tells you to buy a weapon from Clyde, Clyde offers you tips and rumors for two dollars, a feature very common in most RPGs. If you select the option, however, Clyde just tells you not to waste your money on tips and rumors.
  • Call-Back: Pretty much everything from the show's (at the time of the game) 17 seasons is referenced in one way or another, if not as active elements in the game, then in little collectibles, photos, sound bites, bulletin boards, closets... even the loot references items from the series. The alien-originated anal probe satellite dish is probably the most extreme example, as it was featured in the very first episode and made into a gameplay mechanic here.
  • The Cameo:
    • The Woodland Christmas Critters can be found if you walk into the woods, then head right-up-right-down-right out of each screen.
    • Many of the series' sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome make some sort of cameo in the game. A missing person billboard in the police station features Halfy, Nurse Gollum, Chickenlover, and Damien (who makes a physical appearance in the movie theater). Characters who died throughout the series' 17 year run also appear on a memorial in the school (featuring Ms. Choksondick, Ms. Crabtree, Chef, and Pip). Ugly Bob, Scott the Dick, and Dr. Mephesto can be heard on television. In addition, Mr. Hat cameos briefly near the very end of the game up Mr. Slave's ass.
    • Rancher Denkins, who hasn't been used in the show since the first six seasons, plays a role, now named 'Rancher Bill' in Jimmy's flute quest line.
    • Even very minor characters, like the Security Guard by Token's House, and Nurse Fran at Unplanned Parenthood, are largely borrowed from the show's history, rather than new creations.
  • Canon Discontinuity:
    • Darth Chef, as resurrected by the Super Adventure Club, is seemingly stricken from canonicity by Chef being resurrected as a Nazi Zombie by Clyde.
    • The Woodland Christmas Critters are imaginary creatures in the show, but presented as real in the game. This is similar to the show conveniently forgetting that Terrence and Philip were originally cartoon characters within the show and handwaving their crude appearance as their being Canadian.
  • Canon Foreigner:
    • In addition to the New Kid's Family for obvious reasons, Chris Donnely and Monica Ryland were created for the game, along with Jessie Rodriguez. The first two have made brief background appearances in the series since late in the game's development.
    • Dr. Martin Poonlover replaces the usual generic brown-haired Unplanned Parenthood doctor.
  • Caught with Your Pants Down: It's possible to walk in on people in their private time, including a guy wearing a gimp mask fucking a horse.
  • Chekhov's Lecture: Every time you learn a new fart technique, you're told that you should never ever fart on someone's balls. That said, you need to do so to finish off the Final Boss.
  • Chekhov's Skill: You'd think the interactive abortion mini-game stops at the abortion clinic, you'd be wrong. It comes back full-force in Mr. Slave's anus where you use your skills to disarm a thermonuclear device. The robot has comments and reacts to your actions and missteps almost exactly as Randy did.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Par for the course with South Park, everyone in the game swears constantly, but one of Cartman's abilities weaponizes it, as the swear words overload the V-Chip he still has from the movie, enabling him to fire electric blasts at his foe.
  • Commonplace Rare: Knowledge of French. It's such a rare thing that you have to travel to Canada and deal with their nobility to find the one man who can translate these notes you stole from the abortion clinic from French to English.
  • Conflict Killer: The conflict between Cartman's "humans" and Kyle's "elves" over the titular stick makes up the bulk of the first two acts. However, once Clyde steals the stick and creates an army of Nazi Zombies, the two sides must join forces to take him down and get the stick back.
  • Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: If you spend too much time exploring South Park, your current party member will start griping at you to get back to the game.
  • Continuity Nod: Each of the party members have abilities that are directly drawn from the history of the series, with the sole exception of Cartman — his abilities are drawn from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
  • Continuity Porn: From Aliens who can only say 'Moo', to characters that vanished after the early seasons appearing on "Missing Person" advertisements, to the fact that nearly every item is a prop from one episode or another (and the descriptions typically reference or quote the episodes in question), to the fact that all the shops have original music from the show acting as muzak.
  • Contractual Boss Immunity: Every boss has a trait that makes them immune to stun, sleep, and pissed, just because. Additionally, when you unlock a summon, they each explain that they refuse to go near bosses.
  • Counter-Attack: Timing defense correctly will allow The New Kid to block and knock the foe off balance, allowing you to return some damage before their turn ends.
  • Creepy Crossdresser: Princess Kenny, who plays it straight by grossing out enemies with a kiss, then inverts it by charming them with a display of her nipples. Creepily also works on adults and strangely works on animals.
  • Critical Hit: Averted, but can be mentioned by Clyde.
    Clyde: "Critical hit!"
  • Damage Over Time: The Bleeding, Grossed Out, and Burning status deal damage after the character performs an action. These can stack from multiple sources and isn't mitigated by armor, making them a good way to take down enemies and bosses.
  • Decapitation Presentation: Only with castration instead. One quest has the prince of Canada ordering you to go kill the Bishop of Banff, and bring back his balls as proof. Alternatively, you can spare the Bishop, who gives you a pair of Dire Pig testicles to fool the prince.
  • Defeat Means Friendship:
    • Shelley Marsh will befriend the New Kid if you talk to her after completing Stan's side quest to defeat her.
    • Kyle and Cartman will friend the New Kid on Facebook after the boss battle in the school, which will have taken place against one of the two depending on the player's choice.
  • Denser and Wackier: Not to say that the show is tame by any means, but thanks to video games having looser ratings and censorship standards compared to Television, the Stick of Truth manages to be South Park in its absolutely most insane, obscene, and shocking form.
  • Desperation Attack: The more that the Jew class gets damaged, the stronger the abilities, making them most powerful with only one hitpoint left.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Cartman will call your character "Douchebag", no matter what you name him. Should you input "Douchebag" as your character's name, Cartman will get mad at you for ruining the joke.
    • Most major characters have multiple unique quotes when you fart on them, and if you use Fighter's Roshambo on Nazi Zombie Princess Kenny when you're supposed to finish her off by farting on her balls, Cartman complains that he told you to fart on Princess Kenny's balls, not kick them.
  • Devoured by the Horde: Princess Kenny has the ability "Swarm of Rats", in which he summons a huge wave of rats to attack his enemies, but if he fails the prompt then the rats will also devour Kenny.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: The Jew class is intended as "high risk, high reward" class. Ultimately subverted, however. Jews get some bonuses depending on how damaged they are and how many status effects they're suffering, but those pale in comparison to their "Plagues of Egypt" ability. It does pretty close to everything an attack could conceivably do. So a higher level Jew will open every combat with an attack that does enough damage to kill or almost kill every single enemy, inflicts bleeding, inflicts grossed out, inflicts burning, reduces armor, inflicts attack down, boosts the Jew and his allies with Ability Up, and boosts the Jew and his allies with Attack Up. This isn't some roulette that has a chance to inflict some of these things - unless an enemy is completely immune it will inflict ALL of them. No non-boss enemy encounter in the game has a ghost of a chance to turn the fight around after being screwed so hard, and neither do most bosses.
  • Dire Beast: All the creatures in Canada have the "Dire" prefix to them and are all described by the locals as "Like (X), but Dire".
  • Disc-One Final Dungeon: The Battle for South Park Elementary School serves as the climax for Human-Drow Elf War arc that takes up the majority of the game's first half with either Kyle or Cartman serving as the Disk-One Final Boss depending on who you side against.
  • Disc-One Nuke:
    • The Mongorian Bow. Its standard attack does three hits and all of them inflict burning, which takes off a chunk of the enemy's health - this is especially effective as the majority of enemies at that point in the game are weak to burning.
    • The Mage's "Dragon Breath" is powerful for its anti-armor and burning power early in the game.
    • Combining the Holy Defender robe (a pre-order item that gives you 15 armour) with the Warrior's Scimitar (a sword available for purchase immediately after the tutorial, which adds 3X your armour score to your attack damage) allows you to do over 200HP damage in a single turn at a time when most enemies' total health is less than half that much.
  • Disney Villain Death: Clyde is thrown out of the highest room of his massive treehouse by Cartman. Though he survives the fall, the falling sequence certainly mimics most examples of this trope.
  • Dropped-in Speech Clip: The Nazi Zombies all speak with snippets of Adolf Hitler's speeches.
  • Duel Boss: At the end of the second day, you are forced into a one-on-one boss battle against Cartman or Kyle at the school (depending on which one you decide to attack).
  • Dung Fu: Shit Nuggets can be collected and tossed at enemies to inflict the Grossed Out status. Bonus points if it's your own shit from a toilet you took a dump in.
  • Dungeon Shop: Right before the final battle with Princess Kenny, there is a shop in Clyde's Fortress who will sell you any items you need during the final battle, along with some exclusive Weapon Strap-Ons and Equipment Patches found only in that dungeon. The kid who runs the shop lampshades it when you first walk by:
    Shopkeep: Welcome, weary adventurers! You know how before the big final boss fight of any game, there is a conveniently placed shop where you can stock up on health potions and arrows and stuff? Well, this is that shop.
  • Dwindling Party: During the final battle, your buddies succumb to fatigue and injury one by one until the only man left standing between you and certain death... is Cartman.
  • Dying as Yourself: After spending the first half of his boss fight Brainwashed and Crazy, Chef starts to snap out of his Nazi Zombie funk, only to be set on fire by Clyde and ordered to suicide-charge The New Kid and his partner, forcing the former to destroy him with Fartillery. For a few precious seconds, he's finally free.
  • Easily Forgiven: The Final Boss, Princess Kenny, after you finish the story. Talking to Butters lets you know that Princess Kenny Hand Waved her betrayal as a random bout of PMS...and everyone believed her.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • The Drow Elves and the Kingdom of Kupa Keep are forced to team up when they find out Clyde is the one who took the stick.
    • In a villainous example, Clyde has recruited the Vamp-Kids, arch-enemies of the Goth Kids who had previously been recruited by the New Kid. However, the game doesn't call attention to this.
  • Empty Room Psych: Lampshaded by Butters in the school janitor's closet.
    Butters: Why do dungeons even have these kind of stupid rooms where there's nothing to do?
  • Everyone Has Standards: If you have Cartman in your party and crack open the giant Nazi fetus' head after defeating it, he'll tell you that even he knows that's messed up. He's also the first one to tell you to never fart on anyone's balls, but there it's implied that doing so may have dire consequences (You know what "dire consequences" are, right? They're like consequences, but they're dire).
  • Exact Words: Kyle tells that the way to the Kingdom to the North (Canada) is to enter the forest and travel "North, north, north, and north". He means it literally: the forest is a maze a la The Legend of Zelda.
  • Extremely Short Timespan: The game takes place over the course of less than three days.
  • Face–Heel Turn:
    • The kid whose one job was to protect the Stick, Clyde Donovan, is revealed to have taken the Stick.
    Clyde: I shall raise an army of darkness! And kill the Earth!
    • Craig is the only named kid who sides with Clyde.
    • Near the end of the story, Kenny joins forces with the Big Bad Government Guy and serves as the game's Final Boss.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: When you're playing the game of "Simon Says" to free Randy from his probe, if you fail, he gets probed. Well, after you get the first two steps right, the third will take a huge difficulty leap so he'll get hilariously probed anyway - before returning to easy to let you pass.
  • Fan Disservice:
    • The level involving the Underpants Gnomes shows the New Kid's parents having some really aggressive sex in the background. South Park's animation does not lend itself to these scenes and they go out of their way to make his father's genitals extra wrinkly and detailed.
    • Near the end of the game, after Big Bad Government Guy gets the Stick of Truth, he rips off all his clothes during his A God Am I rant. He spends the rest of the game completely naked, even scratching his balls ocassionally during the battle with Princess Kenny.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: So very much. There's elves, aliens, angels, orcs, wizards, dragons, gnomes, and Nazi Zombies throughout the whole game.
  • Fantastic Drug: Gnome Dust is essentially cocaine that lets you shrink and grow.
  • "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: The New Kid shrinks himself to gnome-size and enters Mr. Slave's body through his anus in order to deactivate a nuclear device the government planted inside him.
  • Fartillery:
    • Cartman's Burning Cloud has him light a fart to burn all his enemies.
    • The New Kid's "magic attacks" consist of farting on his opponents. The farts can inflict the Grossed Out status effect or set off explosions when aimed at fires.
      • Cartman teaches Dragon Shout and Cup-a-Spell to the New Kid. The former is a loud fart that hits nearby opponents, while the latter has the New Kid catch a fart with his hand and throw it at far away targets.
      • Randy teaches the Sneaky Squeaker, which produces a temporary gas bubble that can be detonated at will.
      • The final attack, Nagasaki, is taught by Terrance and Phillip and produces an earthquake.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: Three of the four available player classes, with Jew as the fourth choice, which is a combination Monk-Paladin class who hits harder with more damage taken).
  • Fighting Your Friend:
    • Depending on the player's choice of faction, the New Kid will face two of his friends in boss battles on the second day. If you sided with the elves, you fight Butters and Cartman. If you sided with the humans, you fight Stan and Kyle.
    • The kids have to fight Chef after Clyde resurrects him as one of the Nazi Zombies.
    • Princess Kenny's Face–Heel Turn turn at the end of the game puts her against every one of her friends over the course of the following boss battle.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Timmy's only appearances in the game are for the purposes of a fast-travel system where he tows The New Kid around town. An episode in Season 18 of the show (made after the game) has Timmy starting a business doing the exact same thing.
    • During the alien abduction, the New Kid can fight a Zombie Nazi Hobo and can find his audiolog mentioning how he ate some glowing green goo before he turned into one.
    • The very first fart that the protagonist learns is referred to as Dragon Shout. That's not the only Skyrim reference attached to him, there's also his name, Dovahkiin.
  • Forbidden Chekhov's Gun: Early on in the game, The New Kid swears an oath to never fart on somebody's balls. He has to fart on Nazi Zombie Princess Kenny's balls to stop her.
  • Funny Background Event: Sometimes in battle you'll see things like a cat chasing/chased by rats, or an animal eating its own vomit if they were afflicted with Grossed Out.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Cartman's headquarters is called the Kingdom of Kupa Keep, occasionally abbreviated "KKK." And Token was convinced by Cartman to join despite his initial reservations. It's unclear whether Cartman has any idea of the implications, or whether this has anything to do with the fact that his rivals are "Drow Elves," which are black-skinned in Dungeons and Dragons. In addition, Cartman's title is the Grand Wizard.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation:
    • Jimmy's side quest is to retrieve a flute from the farm. If the player doesn't complete the quest until the post-game, he'll still have the flute in the final boss. And if you wait until post-game to do the flute quest, you still have to fight four Nazi Zombie cows, despite the outbreak being completely cured after the final boss.
    • When heading into Mr. Slave's ass to disarm a snuke:
      • The New Kid is joined by the other party members (who complain about it), despite them being seen outside of Mr. Slave's body in cutscenes during the same sequence.
      • The player can still summon Mr. Slave in battle, even though the battle is taking place within Mr. Slave's body. There's actually an achievement for doing this.
    • Though the New Kid is seen giving Timmy a dollar for his services before climbing onto his "carriage," the Fast Travel is free.
    • Even though it involves taking down their faction banners, you can feel free to have members of Kupa Keep as your designated party member during the "Restoring the Balance" quest. They won't interfere or even comment on your betrayal. In fact, if you wait long enough to take down all of them, one can have Cartman be in the party as you destroy every single flag, then rant about what he's going to say to whoever took them down, once he finds them.
    • The videoscreens on the UFO showing Randy being anal-probed will still show it even after he escapes.
  • Geographic Flexibility: Averted; while the size and locations of South Park varied in the show, this game sets these features in stone. Kyle, Stan, and Cartman are neighbors, while Kenny lives across the train tracks next to their houses.
  • Godzilla Threshold: During the final boss battle, nothing the heroes do manages to put Nazi Zombie Princess Kenny down for good. As a last resort, Cartman requests the New Kid to break the Gentlemen's Oath and fart on Kenny's balls, which inexplicably produces an energy wave that cures everyone in South Park from the Nazi Zombie virus.
  • Good Parent:
    • Despite this being South Park, The New Kid's mom is genuinely kind and loving towards her son.
    • The New Kid's dad is considerably more abrasive in comparison, but even then, the only reason he ever gets angry or frustrated with his son is his unwillingness to talk and tendency to stay out late, which are fairly reasonable things for a Real Life parent to get impatient with. This puts him miles ahead of The Stotches in contrast. That said, he does flat-out call his son ugly on numerous occasions.
  • Grim Up North: Canada is depicted and referred to as a mysterious kingdom of the North, home to bears that can summon meteors and shoot eye lasers. Also, some gear you can get from there are barbarian themed. They also have dire wolves, which are supposed to be extinct. They're like wolves, but dire.
  • Global Currency Exception: In Canada, American dollars can't be used to buy items. Fortunately, you can exchange your money (in both directions) in the bank or just sell loot to the Canadian merchants.
  • Gratuitous French: The Minister of Montreal speaks only (very poor) French. And he wears a kilt for no good reason even though the English Canadians don't.
  • Groin Attack:
    • The Roshambo ability, available to the New Kid as a fighter, ends with a kick to the opponent's groin.
    • The Jew gets Circum-Scythe. It's as horribly painful, offensive, and hilarious as you'd imagine.
    • Inverted during the fight against the Underpants Gnome warlock - the New Kid has to dodge his father's swinging sack, you wind up getting crushed by it at the end of the fight regardless.
    • Even if "Never fart on a man's balls" are the Arc Words, you must break that oath in order to defeat Princess Nazi Zombie Kenny.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • The police station only gives you quests during the Nazi Zombie invasion, which ends once the final boss is defeated.
    • Clyde will friend you only if you talk to him BEFORE speaking to Cartman for your training. After that, he unfriends you, but still counts towards your Perk and Achievement totals.
    • There are some Chinpokomon, weapons and costumes that are only found in areas that you cannot return to, like the school during the assault, or the alien space ship.
  • Have a Nice Death:
    • The game over screen is the gates of Heaven.
    • Following the discovery of the snuke in Mr. Slave's ass, every death the player has until the snuke is disarmed is immediately followed by a shot of a nuclear explosion and the credits, before bringing up the standard game over screen. If the player turns around and walks out of the room the snuke immediately goes off.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Parodied when the Elves take you to the Elf King. They warn you ahead of time that fighting will be a complete waste of time as they'll capture you anyway. If you choose to fight and succesfully defeat them, one of them gets back up, and hits you on the head to knock you unconscious, resulting in them taking you to the Elf King just like they said.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: The Big Bad Government Guy wants you for your amazing power to make friends on Facebook. While that sounds stupid at first, think about the power social media presence has in Real Life.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: Nazi Zombie Chef manages to come to his senses, only for Clyde to light him on fire, forcing you to finish him off.
  • He Knows About Timed Hits:
    Kid Playing Craig Clone: I'm immune to splash damage. Clyde said.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Subverted. The game asks you to enter your name, but then proceeds to completely ignore what you entered and insist that you be called "Douchebag." other characters will only refer to you as either "Douchebag" or "New Kid".
  • Heroic Mime: The player character never talks until the very, when he says "Screw you guys, I'm going home".
  • High-Heel–Face Turn: Parodied. All your party members are male, one of them crossdresses (not counting the New Kid), and the crossdresser is the one to betray you in the end.
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: Health and Power Points are restored by consuming junk food and drinks.
  • Hypocrite: Kyle tells the New Kid that if he betrays the Drow Elves, he'll tell everyone that the New Kid's a butthole. Even though Kyle's actively asking the New Kid to betray the first people in South Park to befriend him.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • Mr. Mackey insists that detention isn't a game, then goes on to use video game terminology such as "gold key" and "boss level".
    • The Goths, who insist on the New Kid proving that he can be a non-conformist... by dressing exactly like them.
    • The Girls ask the New Kid to find out which of them is a two-faced bitch, all the while calling other girls whores behind their backs.
    • Lampshaded when one character comments on how Nazi zombies are such a cliche concept, around about the same time you have to fight some.
    • If you fart on Mr. Slave, he will say "Jesus Christ. Have you been sticking stuff up there?" Later in the game,you enter Mr. Slave's butthole and find numerous sex toys, a bat and Mr. Hat inside his lower intestines.
  • I Am Who?: The Player Character left his previous home under mysterious circumstances. Much to his parents' relief, he doesn't remember why.
  • I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Kenny's Buddy Command has him flash his chest to charm his targets and get them to obey him.
  • I Know Madden Kombat: The fighter class's power moves consist of using sports equipment to beat your enemies.
  • I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: When busting Craig out of detention, Mr. Mackey keeps telling the New Kid that he's never going to get him out all the while telling him that he has to get several keys in a specific order.
  • Inevitably Broken Rule: The Gentlemen's Code, which is constantly restated throughout the game, is "never fart on someone's balls." Cartman tells the New Kid to break the rule in order to defeat Nazi Zombie Princess Kenny.
  • Infinity -1 Sword: The Fairy Princess Blade; despite only being the fourth-strongest weapon in terms of pure damage, its default effect ignores enemy armor, and it comes with two Strap-On slots, making it quite versatile.
  • Informed Equipment: If the New Kid got the David Hasselhoff nose job, which replaces his face entirely with the Hoff's as seen in Tom's Rhinoplasty, all headgear, makeup etc. will not be visible on him.
  • Insane Troll Logic:
    • When Al Gore asks the New Kid why he hasn't liked any of his Facebook messages, he has come to the conclusion that the New Kid is ManBearPig and you fight him.
    • Mr. Mackey's dialogue often conflicts with itself. His sidequest is for you to help him with his hoarding problem by taking something to his hoard.
  • Insistent Terminology: Cartman demands that everyone speak in character. So "Twitter" is referred to as "carrier Raven", for instance, and he will flip out if anyone just calls it "Twitter".
  • Interface Spoiler:
    • One of the achievement/trophies spoils that you can friend both the underpants gnomes and the crab people.
    • If you examine the surgical gear as soon as you obtain it, it has bonuses that help against fetus enemies. You might first assume that these are useless joke bonuses, like the ones on the goth clothing, but guess what you'll be fighting in a few minutes.
  • It's Up to You: The New Kid is the only one in the game who ever does anything. From ridding South Park of it's homeless population to heading straight to Canada to translate a french abortion document to beating up half the population of South Park, everybody else mostly just stands around telling the New Kid to do things rather than doing anything themselves.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
    • The New Kid's dad doesn't appear to be very caring towards him, though it might be more due to his frustration with his son's refusal to talk than inherent jackassery; he's also doing whatever he can to make sure his son stays safe, especially since the government is constantly after him.
    • Cartman's not that nice, though it's toned down from the show proper, due to his Adaptational Heroism in play as the Big Good of Kupa Keep.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: The Sweet Katana is the most powerful melee weapon in the game. Justified because most of the weapons you've been using are just toy weapons, improvised weapons, or replicas while the Sweet Katana is actually a combat ready sword bought from a local arms shop.
  • Kick the Dog: During the assault on Clyde's fortress, one of his henchmen hits Ike. Who is a toddler. You kick their asses and Ike hits them while they're on the floor.
  • Kill the Poor: The Mayor's sidequest involves beating up hobos and kicking them out of South Park so that the town can look like a nice and welcoming community.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero Found Underwear: It's possible to search drawers to acquire underwear, sex toys, crack pipes and various pills (and that's just in Cartman's Mom's room)...
  • Kung Fu-Proof Mook:
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    • During the tutorial fight with Clyde, Cartman states that while taking turns while fighting might be lame, it's how they're doing things.
    • People frequently comment on the New Kid never saying a word.
    • During the scene at the abortion clinic, as Randy starts demanding to know why "Taco Bell" are interested in the vaginas of South Park's women, one of the government suits is holding a sensor in his hands and states that the "ESRB/PEGI/OFLC is going crazy!" - ESRB being the American ratings board for video games, with PEGI being the European counterpart and the OFLC the Australian equivalent.
  • LARP: The children's game is taken to the extreme, culminating in a massive battle amidst a zombie outbreak. Then again this is South Park, so that's nothing new.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Big Bad Government Guy arrives and starts giving a Plot Dump, Cartman asks if he can press a button to skip this. The BBGG says no. If you press the button which normally skips cutscenes, you'll be told you can't do that here.
  • Leitmotif: The short banjo sting from the post-ad breaks in the actual show plays whenever a save file is loaded.
  • Literal-Minded: When Father Maxi asks the player to find Jesus, a quest pop-up appears challenging the player to literally "find Jesus" in a game of hide-and-seek.
  • Logical Weakness: The guards defending the snuke inside Mr. Slave's stomach are highly susceptible to gross attacks because it's basically adding insult to injury.
  • Lost Woods: The Lost Forest. In a parody of the typical "take the right path" puzzle, you have to go through it to reach Canada, and the correct path is... simply to keep going north. That said, there is an alternate destination that's reached through a path that plays the puzzle straighternote , which allows the player to meet the Woodland Critters and add them to your friends list.
  • MacGuffin: The titular Stick of Truth that the kids are battling over. Anyone who holds it controls the universe and can make up the rules of the game.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The entire LARP session. It's easy to presume things like stickers adding "fire damage" to your weapons and eating Cheesy Poofs to heal your wounds are part of the game, and the more out-there attacks like Butters summoning lightning to his hammer are their imaginations at work. Then you start fighting enemies that aren't playing the game, but you can still set them on fire and eat snacks to recover the wounds they inflict on you, and it's hard to tell. The absolute exception to this trope is the Stick of Truth itself, which is shown to undeniably be just a normal piece of wood. Big Bad Government Guy finds this out the hard way.
  • Meaningful Name: One of your magic spells is a reference to the actual city of Nagasaki, which was one of the cities in Japan that got hit with the Atomic Bomb.
  • Medium Awareness: Most of the characters know they're in a game, though they rarely address it.
  • Mercy Rewarded: The New Kid is tasked by the Prince of Canada with killing the Bishop of Banff and taking his testicles. After the battle with him, the Bishop offers to just go into hiding and give the New Kid a pair of Dire Pig's testicles instead. If the player accepts the offer, the Bishop friends the New Kid on Facebook and the Prince falls for the trick. If the player kills the Bishop, things go the same way with the Prince, but the New Kid obviously doesn't get the Bishop as a friend on Facebook, denying the player 100% Completion.
  • Meteor-Summoning Attack: If the player character picks the Jew class, they will be able to learn the ability Plagues of Egypt. One of the attacks of this ability is called Fiery Hail, which calls down small flaming meteors on enemies.
  • Metroidvania: Unlike most RPGs, some collectibles require a specific ability from a certain part (like turning tiny, or breaking rocks with the Nagasaki).
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
    • The reason why Clyde stole the Stick of Truth was because Cartman banished him from space and time after failing to protect the Stick from the Drow Elves.
    • Invoked by Big Bad Government Guy when Kenny turns on the rest of the party and joins him, the party is told an elaborate backstory that explains Kenny's betrayal. However, the backstory is entirely made up and completely within the context of the game the kids are playing.
  • Money for Nothing: Not nothing, exactly, but through looting enemy bodies and item caches you can rack up all sorts of resources to keep you plenty stocked at almost all times (as well as finding new equipment, weapons, and enhancement patches in the same fashion). Finding that you can't pick up something just because you've already got the maximum number can be a frequent occurrence. Furthermore, Shop Fodder is virtually everywhere so whenever you go to dump it, you can rack up a ton of cash. The only thing you really need to spend money on is consumables (and that assumes you weren't being prudent with what you're finding in the field) and consumables only typically cost a couple of dollars per item when you could be easily toting around over $500 just by collecting cash and selling junk.
  • Mood Whiplash: During the climax of the raid of Clyde's fortress, the scene starts out funny with Cartman, Stan and Kyle having a Senfieldian Conversation about Taco Bell's green sauce, but suddenly turns serious when Clyde unleashes Nazi Zombie Chef on the party.
  • Mr. Exposition: Morgan Freeman appears out of nowhere at the end to explain Princess Kenny's backstory and why she'd betray the kids. When asked why he's here, he states that every time he shows up to explain something, he gains a freckle.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: When the Underpants Gnomes find out that New Kid is awake and has witnessed their attempt to steal his underpants.
    Gnome #1: This kid is AWAKE! What the fuck do we do?!
    Gnome #2: I guess we gotta kill him!
    Gnome #3: All right, fuck it, let's kill him.
  • Mutagenic Goo: The green goo from outer space turns the whole town into Nazi zombies.
  • Named by the Adaptation: The Woodland Critters make a cameo in the game. On the show, the raccoon's named isn't mentioned. His friend request confirms it as "Raccoony". Of course, most fans had already guessed that.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • A trailer showed Randy teaching the Nagasaki. In the actual game, you learn this fart from Terrence and Philip once you've shown them that you can do the three other ones. Randy only teaches the Sneaky Squeaker.
    • Pretty much nothing from the E3 2012 Trailer (which was before the collapse of THQ) appears in the final game. So no dying Mr. Garrison, vampire kids and crab people are not enemy creatures (only one crab person shows up and vampire kids show up in a couple of cutscenes), and no giant Clyde.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Clyde wouldn't have stolen the Stick of Truth and raised an army of Nazi Zombies if Cartman hadn't banished him from the Kingdom of Kupa Keep at the start of the game.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
    • Not only does the game have Nazi zombies, but Nazi zombie gingers, rats, fetuses, bacteria, cats, dogs, hobos and cows.
    • The final boss, as Cartman labels her, "Nazi, Zombie, Magical, Princess Kenny". In other words, a Nazi zombie magical kiddie transvestite princess.
  • No Fair Cheating:
    • During the siege of the Giggling Donkey Inn, Jimmy holds a door shut to stop Cartman and the others getting to him. When Cartman calls him on it and says it's against the rules, Jimmy points out that since he has the Stick of Truth and controls the universe, he's decided that he can do that.
    • When the kids find out Clyde had stolen the Stick of Truth the prior night, Cartman points out that what he'd done was against the rules of the game and Cartman had banished him from the game before that. Like Jimmy before him, Clyde points out that he has the Stick, so he's decided that he's allowed to unbanish himself and break the game's rules.
  • No Swastikas: The game's release was delayed in Germany because the Nazi zombies were all voiced by actual Hitler speeches, and the zombies all wore swastika armbands.
  • Nobody's That Dumb: After you complete the side quest for Mr. Hankey, he will help the New Kid where you can summon him, but not for boss fights.
    Mr. Hankey: Anytime you need my help, you just call on me and I'll be there sure as a shit on a Sunday! Howwwwdy Ho! Except against bosses of course. I might have shit for brains, but I'm not stupid.
  • Non-Standard Game Over:
    • Prior to the final bosses, it's discovered that a snuke has been planted in Mr. Slave's ass. Whilst everyone else is racking their brains for someone able to shrink small enough to head into Mr. Slave's ass and able to abort the snuke, if the player turns around and leaves the room, the snuke promptly explodes.
    • You can fail some of the minigames for some funny deaths/fail-states. If you fail the snuke game, you get footage of a nuclear explosion, followed by credits in the style of the show for over a minute. The same minigame is in the abortion clinic, and the guards will shoot you dead if you fail it or if you try to initiate the minigame without disguising yourself.
    • The "Call your Dad" attack that the Hallway Monitor Boss uses has him channel for two turns. Failing to end the battle before then results in you getting grounded and the battle being lost.
    • During the final boss fight Cartman holds Princess Kenny for the player to fart on her balls. However, if enough time passes without the player doing this, Princess Kenny will kill Cartman, leading to the game over screen.
  • Noodle Incident: The Battle of Wormsly Woods, mentioned by Butters. Whatever happened, the Humans have never forgiven the Elves, even though Jimmy apologized.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Big Bag Government Guy tells the New Kid they aren't so different, both following orders from higher powers to do their bidding.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: The Thief's backstab ability produces a puff of smoke as he appears on the other side of the screen.
  • Oh, Crap!: When a Wizard Douchebag casts Pyre Ball (read: A foam football stuffed with dynamite), the enemies on screen start freaking out just before it hits.
  • Oh, No... Not Again!: The government agents react with annoyance when they discover that they are dealing with yet another Nazi Zombie virus.
  • One-Hit Kill: The Hallway Monitor Boss has a Desperation Attack where he uses his handphone to ring Douchebag's dad. Don't stop the attack, and you get a Game Over no matter how much health you or your partner have.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted with your friends list, which can include Jessie, Jessie Rodriguez, Kelly Gardner, Kelly Rutherford, Pete, and Pete (2)
  • Orifice Evacuation: After aborting the snuke in Mr. Slave's ass, you pop out of his mouth.
  • Orifice Invasion: You will eventually have to shrink and go up Mr. Slave's ass to disarm the nuke put in there.
  • Overly Long Gag: Some cutscenes have Jimmy repeatedly trying to complete his sentences, but failing due to his stuttering. The game even gives you a popup to skip it during the main story quests involving him, which you might want to as he can take up to a minute to finish talking.
  • Permanently Missable Content: Anything available in the UFO and the school siege, which, frustratingly, includes several weapons, armors, and Chinpokomon. The Tower of Peace, however, remains intact after seemingly blowing up, allowing you to clean it out afterwards.
  • Phlebotinum Overload: If the Mana meter is held at an over-full danger level for too long, the New Kid will crap his pants and lose all the mana.
  • Player and Protagonist Integration: You are "the new kid", whose family just moved to South Park. You customize yourself as a South Park character. You're able to set your own name but the game gets around Hello, [Insert Name Here] (because everything is voiced so it's unable to just ad-lib in custom text during dialogue) by having Cartman simply call your character "Douchebag" all the time, which makes whatever name you picked irrelevant.
  • Playlist Soundtrack: The music in certain public locations, like the post office and photo shop, cycles randomly between a collection of songs from the show, with the implication being that those songs are played on the store radio.
  • The Power of Friendship:
    • The New Kid can gain combat-related perks the more friends he makes on Facebook, either by simply encountering new characters or doing quests.
    • There is a Power of Friendship speech delivered near the end of the game. It is done by Cartman of all people. It is immediately subverted when Kenny decides to betray the rest of the group.
  • Powers via Weapon: Played With. The game's title alludes to a weapon that supposedly grants its wielder powers to control the entire universe, serving as the catalyst for a power struggle between multiple factions, including the US Government itself. However, the Stick of Truth is really just an ordinary tree branch that is being used as a prop in a group of children's role-playing game.
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: When Butters decides he's had enough playing around, and shows his full power.
    Professor Chaos: Let's see how you like dealing with me!
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • Well, not quite. This is, after all, a South Park game, and Cluster F-Bombs get tossed around like rice at a wedding. However, towards the end of the game, a character drops a line that's so harsh, even by the game's standards, that it's only rendered in the subtitles as '—— ——!'
      Nazi Zombie Chef: Sieg heil!
    • Done by Butters, who normally falls into Gosh Dang It to Heck! territory, when the player uses a certain ability:
      Butters: Fuck 'em up!
  • Primal Scene:
    • During the second night, the player character is shrunk to the size of an Underpants Gnome and chases them through his house's walls. He ends up seeing his parents having sex through an air vent, then exaggerated when he chases the gnomes into his parents' room to fight a boss battle that takes place on the bed where the act is taking place.
    • In one of the houses of Ottawa, Canada; walking upstairs will have you bust a couple doing it. The guy yells: "Who the fuck just walks into someone's house?!" Promptly kicking you out and locking the door.
    • Opening a door to house which isn't owned by a named character can result in the following: A naked woman standing there, a man masturbating on the couch and a man having sex with a horse, all of which scream and close the door. The doors can't be opened again.
  • Product Placement:
    • Getting people to friend you on Facebook is an important game mechanic.
    • The government is able to hide the downed alien spacecraft by saying it's the construction site of a new Taco Bell. And most of the townsfolk say nice things about the new Taco Bell. Though oddly they do not use the real Taco Bell logo.
    • UPS and Pabst Blue Ribbon logos appear, though they have no bearing on the game's plot.
    • Two separate quests involve recovering an iPad and an iPhone.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Cartman confronting Clyde after defeating Zombie Chef. The way the scene plays out even resembles the former Trope Namer.
    Cartman: You have broken the rules of the Stick, and for that I banish thee. I banish thee FROM SPACE! AND! TIME! (Kicks Clyde off his fortress)
  • The Quiet One: The New Kid turns out to be one when he finally says something at the end of the game: "Screw you guys, I'm going home."
  • Rat Stomp: One of the side quests involves killing the rats in the basement of Skeeter's Bar. Skeeter goads you into doing this, saying that if you're a hero then naturally you would want to clean the rats out of someplace.
  • Record Needle Scratch: At the Giggling Donkey Inn, the stock sound effect can be heard when Cartman asks if anyone's seen The Bard, as the action shifts the entire bar's attention to him.
  • Red Herring:
    • The game invokes this in a meta-sense - at the start of the second day, Cartman rushes into the New Kid's house and claims that the Drow Elves had stolen the Stick of Truth over the course of the night. Later, when the New Kid is brought before Elf King Kyle, he accuses Cartman of hiding it himself and claiming the Drow Elves had stolen it, which fans of the show would notice as being something Cartman would probably do. Turns out that Clyde was the one who did it.
    • At the end of the second day, the New Kid overhears his parents talking why they had to move to South Park in the first place. The player is led to believe that they moved there to protect their son from people looking to weaponize his Fartillery skills. Nope, it's because of his ability to befriend people incredibly quickly.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Chef, having previously died after being corrupted into a child molester by the Super Adventure Club, is resurrected by Clyde as a Nazi Zombie and returns to his senses near the end of the battle, only to be set on fire by Clyde and force the New Kid into killing Chef again.
  • Refuge in Audacity:
    • Much like the show itself, the game runs with it. For instance, there are five brief scenes of Anal Probing and two interactive abortion mini-games. However, the Europeannote  and Australian versions had those scenes censored and replaced with images of Michelangelo's David doing a Face Palm and a crying koala respectively, as well as a paragraph describing what's happening.
    • Out of the battle bosses, Shelley Marsh particularly runs on this in her battle as the "She-Ogre"- all of her boss attacks are based off of her menstruation and her PMS-enhanced rage.
    • Nazi Zombies, with their vocal audio taken from Hitler's speeches.
    • The latter part of the Underpants Gnomes sequence is set to the scenery of the New Kid's parents having rough, graphic sex. One of the environmental hazards is both you and the boss having to dodge getting teabagged by the New Kid's Dad. Also, the New Kid uses gnome dust by snorting it like coke.
    • A late-game dungeon is set inside Mr. Slave's ass.
    • The game claims you've gone too far if you fart on the corpse of an aborted nazi zombie fetus... by giving you an achievment named "Too Far".
  • Retraux: Canada is rendered to look like an 8-bit RPG.
  • Revolting Rescue: At one point, the New Kid has to use their shrinking power so they can be inserted into Mister Slave's rectum, and travel through his intestines to his stomach, to disarm a snuke that the mysterious government organisation has planted inside his body to destroy the town.
  • Rewarding Vandalism: Breaking things will often give you some items. Because everything gets repaired once you return to an area, breaking things is an endless source of cash, though money is already very easy to come by. You can also cut out the middle man and break parking meters and newspaper stands to immediately get a small amount of cash.
  • Running Gag:
    • Fartillery plays a large part in the game. But you are told by everyone, regardless of age or creed, to never, EVER, fart on anyone's balls.
    • Jimmy's stuttering, particularly when it comes to the words "Magical songs of enchantment".
    • Everything in Canada is described with the word Dire, ranging from Dire Wolves to Dire Snakes and up to Dire AIDS.
    • Someone will inevitably make a comment about how awful your hair is. Or your nose.
  • Savage Wolves: There are dire wolves roaming around the map in Canada. They're like wolves... but they're DIRE.
  • School Setting Simulation: You visit South Park Elementary twice, once to break Craig out of detention, and once to fight through the school for the Stick of Truth.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: The real power of the Stick of Truth is to let anyone who holds it to either ignore the rules of the game or to make up new ones. Near the end, it even allows Craig to completely ignore AoE damage just because Clyde said so.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!:
    • Even though some of the summons don't do enough damage to actually kill off the entire enemy party or just target a single enemy, all the enemies still go running off after one is used, meaning you win the battle instantly, thus giving the implication that it's not worth the trouble fighting against someone who can call upon the aid of gay men with bottomless asses, schizophrenic sword-wielding restaurant owners or Jesus Christ wielding a machine gun.
    • "Screw you guys, I'm going home." Said by the new kid at the end of the game.
  • Secret A.I. Moves:
    • Butters can heal himself with his “Healing Touch” during the potential fight in the school. When you have him as a buddy, he can only heal you. He also has a move called “Shield of Chaos” that gives him armor, and he lacks this move when he’s a buddy.
    • Cartman, when you potentially fight him in the school, has a move called “Shower of Ice” where he pours a tub of ice on you. This move is nowhere to be seen when he’s a buddy.
    • Kyle’s potential fight in the school has him use a hidden move called “Entangling Vines” that features him throwing a ball of vines at you. The player cannot access this move as a playable buddy.
  • Semantic Superpower: The New Kid's ability to perform abortions allows him to abort the detonation sequence of a snuke.
  • Sequel Hook: After the New Kid goes home after disposing of the Stick of Truth, Al Gore peeks out from behind a tree in the background, dressed in his ManBearPig costume.
  • Serious Business: It may essentially be capture-the-flag using a LARPing motif, but whoever controls the Stick controls the universe. And quite naturally, this gets escalated.
  • Shared Life-Meter: The Mongolian Horde boss at the top of the Tower of Peace consists of five men, but has a single life bar.
  • Share the Male Pain:
    • The final upgrade to the Fighter's Groin Attack power causes a debuff to every enemy that sees it.
    • The final upgrade to the Jew's Circum-Scythe makes the other enemies Grossed Out.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Plenty between The New Kid and Bebe. A good majority of her dialogue towards the New Kid is something along the lines of how attractive she finds him, she decides to use him as her "fake" boyfriend to trap whichever girl was spreading lies, and after New Kid befriends the girls Wendy sends him a Facebook message saying Bebe invited him to a private slumber party (where he is likely to be the only boy present).
    • The New Kid gets some with Annie, having saved her from a group of bullies, helping him out, and being the first girl he recruits.
    • During the final boss battle with Princess Kenny, Butters admits that he had a secret crush on her.
  • Shmuck Bait: There's a lot of things you can do that cause you to lose money.
    • You can pay Clyde $2.00 for a tip/rumor, only for him to give you the tip of "Never spend money on tips and rumors."
    • You can invest twenty dollars in the bank. "Aaaaaaand it's gone" follows (unless you fight him when gnome size first). However, if you fight him AFTER investing, you receive double whatever you invested.
  • Shop Fodder: Broken light bulbs. Cobwebs. Crack pipes. Used syringes. Pubes. It's fun filling your inventory with this garbage, just to pawn it off all the merchants of South Park.
  • Shout-Out:
    • In the introductory cinematic, Grand Wizard Cartman resembled Gandalf. In addition, the cinematic is animated like Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings.
    • References to The Legend of Zelda:
      • Princess Kenny's costume resembles Princess Zelda. She even uses a bow as a weapon, which Zelda herself uses in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
      • If you fart in the overworld, sometimes an NPC will comment, "Haha, Wind Waker".
      • At one point, you can find a full costume that looks a lot like [[ Link's]]. The cap even has blonde hair. You can even buy a sword that resembles the Master Sword.
    • Princess Kenny's theme resembles Princess Lover!'s opening theme.
    • The Kingdom of Kupa Keep. Which is pronounced Koopa Keep". Cartman even calls it the KKK if you select the "Jew" class.
      Cartman: We welcome to the KKK Douchebag the Jew, who probably could handle our finances!
    • There are several references to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
      • Multiple characters throughout the game call the new kid some kind of Dragonborn, and one of the first farting techniques he learns is the Dragon Shout.
      • The "true" name of the new kid is Dovahkiin.
      • The default battle music was obviously inspired by Skyrim's main theme.
      • The main menu has the game logo on a black background with some light fog effect, with the menu options stacked up on the lower-right of the screen - almost exactly like Skyrim's.
    • The music playing in the Inn of the Giggling Donkey has a lot in common with the music played in a cantina in a galaxy far far away. The name of the inn is a reference to The Lord of the Rings' Prancing Pony.
    • Mr. Hanky's "Shitstorm" summon basically turns him into Mickey in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. But with shit much like he did in "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls".
    • Stan's victory pose at the end of battle is reminiscent of Cloud Strife's. On top of that, Stan's 'Way of the Sword' skill is similar to Cloud's Omnislash.
    • The Mission "O Canada", which players will have a hard time to get this reference until facing the Dire Bear.
    • The lilting female announcer voice on the snuke is obviously patterned after GlaDOS.
    • The government complains about Nazi Zombies being an overused game trope.
    • Chinpokomon return from their self-titled episode as collectible figures. A few of the new designs are visual parodies of Pokémon up to Gen V, such as Stegmata (Wartortle), Accountafish (Magikarp with a hat, cigar and briefcase), Beetlebot (Ledyba), Biebersaurus (Deino), Brocorri (Pansage), and the scrapped Pharaocious (Lucario).
    • In this image of the game you can spot the head of Mazinger Z and the Getter Dragon in the background.
    • A few to Conan the Barbarian:
      • Tweak's body paint is the exact same pattern that Conan and his allies donned while assaulting Thulsa Doom's fortress.
      • Stan's sword bears a likeness to Conan's father's sword.
      • The Barbarian set, found in Canada, is modeled after Conan's cloths. You can even find a "mullet" which resembles a trimmed version of Conan's hair.
    • When the New Kid is shrunken down and fighting rats in the walls of his home, one of their attacks is called "Buffs of Unusual Size."
    • New Kid's stance using the Sweet Katana looks like the Sha no Kamae stance. Kind of like another Heroic Mime RPG protagonist.
    • The "Heisenberg" achievement is a direct reference to Breaking Bad.
    • The Fractured Slingshot's description.
  • Sleazy Photoshoot: In order to get a passport to Canada you need to take a picture. Unfortunately, the "photographer" at the store where you take them at turns out to be a pedophile who beat up the actual photographer and is using the place to trick kids into doing naked photoshoots.
  • Smoking Is Edgy: Cartman orders the New Kid to recruit the school's Goth Kids to their faction, but they refuse to hang out with anyone who isn't as cynical or brooding as them. To prove he is worth their time, they demand, among other things, that the New Kid starts smoking.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Parodied. None of the females actually ever join your party. In their place, you have... Kenny in a dress.
  • Special Effect Failure: Invoked. Craig's shadow clone attack is very clearly just a smoke bomb distraction followed by 4 kids showing up wearing the same clothing. If the game were in any other art style, this would be seen through immediately, but even as it is, one of the decoys is black and the other is Chinese.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: As the show's Breakout Character, Cartman gets the most focus out of any character besides Douchebag (and maybe even along with Douchebag); he acts as the Big Good, is the only South Park character to appear in the game's intro (which he narrates), is front and center on the game's boxart, and is the figurine included with the "Grand Wizard Edition" of the game. But he's the last buddy to join your party.
  • Stalked by the Bell: Dicking around for too long in your new home at the very beginning of the game will have your dad kick you out so you can make some friends. Later when it's nighttime and everybody's gone to bed, trying to wander around the town instead of going straight home will result in your parents going out to look for you and subsequently give chase. If they get too close, which they likely will, they'll drag you to your bedroom and force you to go to bed.
    Dad: There you are, we've been looking all over for you! DO YOU KNOW HOW LATE IT IS? You are grounded!
  • Status Effects:
    • Burning, which reduces a character's health at the end of their turn and also makes them more vulnerable to magic attacks.
    • Bleeding, which reduces a character's health at the end of their turn and can stack up to 5 times, dealing more damage per stack.
    • Grossed Out, which reduces a character's health at the end of their turn. It also prevents them from eating food and reduces healing capabilities.
    • Pissed Off, which makes the afflicted attack the character who pissed them off, and also prevents usage of special moves.
    • Slowed, which makes a character take fewer actions.
    • Stunned, which prevents a character from attacking until their next turn.
    • Sleeping, which makes a character unable to take actions until woken up.
    • Screwed, which acts as a delayed death effect like Doom from the Final Fantasy series.
    • There's also Dire AIDS, which doesn't really do anything other than getting you a few achievements if you have it when completing certain storyline tasks. Getting it cured once will leave you with regular AIDS which needs to be cured a second time.
  • Starter Villain Stays: At the start of the game, Clyde is a low level warrior in the forces of the Kingdom Of Kupa Keep, who serves as the first enemy the new kid defeats in the tutorial fight, and is banished from the kingdom when he fails to protect the Stick of Truth during an attack by the elves. At the end of the second act, he acquires the Stick along with a drum of green goop that he uses to raise an army of Nazi zombies, becoming a major antagonist who forces the elves and humans into an Enemy Mine alliance to bring him down.
  • Status Quo Is God: In the post-game, South Park Mall is immediately rebuilt after the UFO is removed, the boys are back in their individual factions and Kenny's back at Kupa Keep, writing his Face–Heel Turn off as PMSing.
  • Stealth Pun: When you see Kevin's house, note his house number- 1701, the Enterprise registry number.
  • Stopped Reading Too Soon: The game inverts this. The PTA starts a tape too late, so they know that there is a plan to blow up part of the town, but they think it's Taco Bell instead of the government.
  • Stylistic Suck: Done intentionally with the style of the game as Matt and Trey wanted to capture the feel of the TV show as close as possible.
  • Storming the Castle: Twice. The first time you help either the Humans or Elves (with the Goth kids siding with your chosen faction) attack the school where the other team is holed up. The second time is the final level where a combined army of Humans, Elves, the Goth kids, the Girls, Pirates and The Federation defeat Clyde by helping you fight your way through his evil fortress.
  • Such a Phony: One of the subplots depicts all of the girls as this, with them constantly getting together into committees, and accusing a girl not in the committee of being "a bitch". Several of these committees exist simultaneously and have girls accused by other committees in them. On the off-chance that one of the (elementary-school-aged) girls actually is guilty of whatever feat of promiscuity or substance use they learned about on television, she is usually Easily Forgiven. It's implied that this is just a game they play as practice for when they grow up.
  • Suddenly Voiced: After you end the game, the guys ask your character what you/he wants to play next. The game tells you to press a button to speak. You promptly then say "Screw you guys, I'm going home." End of game.
  • Summon Magic: You can gain the ability to summon allies by doing side quests and befriending them. You can only use them once a day and they can't be used for boss fights.
  • Take That!:
    • Censored versions of the game have certain scenes replaced with a text screen describing what is happening as well as mocking the respective continent's squeamishness.
    • The Big Bad Government guy complains about Nazi Zombies being way too overused.
    • On the alien ship, you can find several audio logs. Detailing a man's search for audio logs. And how they're all pointless filler.
    • When using the Sneaky Squeaker fart power to distract a guard at the "Taco Bell", the guard will sometimes note that he heard that Nicki Minaj has released a new single.
    • The big Nazi Zombie Fetus boss was aborted by Khloe Kardashian.
  • Take Your Time: You get called out for this if you stop to loot the guards before going into the next room to save the princess from a Fate Worse than Death.
  • The Reveal: The New Kid's actual name is Dovahkiin and the Government is after him because of his ability to make friends instantly on Facebook. The Government Agency person takes the stick, strips naked and converts Princess Kenny to his side. You really can't expect anything else from South Park, really.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: It happens during the first phase of the final battle, only, it's not your theme, but Princess Kenny's anime style song.
  • They Killed Kenny Again:
    • It's in full force, and incorporated into the game mechanics. Kenny can't be rezzed using revive items, he auto-revives after a battle is won, and auto-revives in combat after 2 turns. Comes into play at the end, fighting Nazi Zombie Princess Kenny who just keeps getting up when you deplete her health to zero.
    • The New Kid is involved in a violent spaceship crash on night one, and gets crushed by his dad's balls on night two, but always awakes safely in his bed the next morning.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Cartman's mom and Mr. Slave, as in the series proper. While everyone else will react with pain when you hit them, these two have...unique reactions. There's also the cutscene where you get abducted by aliens and your character sees glimpses of the other victims, one of them being Mr. Slave getting anal probed. Compared to every other victim who yells in pain, he loudly moans and asks the aliens to use the big silver one.
  • Trailers Always Spoil:
    • The cover shows the crashed alien flying saucer, so you know you will have to deal with that at some point.
    • Some of the early trailers spoiled Chef returning as a Nazi Zombie.
  • Tranquil Fury: The Sparrow Prince. More like dull fury, as he doesn't change from his normal tone, and has to tell you that he is a vengeful spirit full of rage.
    Sparrow Prince: Now you must defeat my angry spirit to move forward. I know, I don't really sound that angry, but trust me, I am.
  • Turn-Based Combat: Enforced by Cartman. As far as he's concerned, this is how they fought in "the olden days".
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: Recovering the Stick of Truth is the main story, but it keeps getting impeded by the mysterious green goo story.
  • Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay:
    • When entering the Kingdom of Canada, the player can no longer buy anything in shops, because they only take Canadian dollars. You must grind some Canadian enemies or change out your money.
    • The method of entry in Canada isn't determined by how powerful you are or how many friends you have... You simply need a passport, just as you would in real life to travel between the two countries.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: Of a sort. When you reach Canada, the game map and movement system resembles that of NES-era Dragon Quest games.
  • Unexplained Recovery: The night of Day 1 and Day 2 have The New Kid get abducted by aliens and crash their ship and get shrunk and crushed by his father's balls and The New Kid simply wakes up in his bed the next morning as though nothing had happened somehow though the effects of the events clearly still did.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
    • Nobody cares that the kids have turned the town into their own personal LARP playground, except when the player character strikes them (accidentally or on purpose) or walks in on naked shenanigans.
    • When a man presses for more details regarding the new Taco Bell being built, he's shot by a sniper, and no one reacts. Even his wife just asks "Mark?" in mild surprise.
    • Except for the government agents, Nazi Zombies aren't a concern either.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Your main character can go around beating up NPC kids and adults, and even fart on them as part of his bullying. Of course, they'll protest a lot about how you treat them (although some of the adults pretend to not notice the farting).
  • Visual Pun:
    • When the goth kids finally agree to LARP with the New Kid, they choose to role play as... goths (as in the ancient marauders)
    • When you get promoted to the rank of King while playing as the Jew class, your appearance chances to look like Jesus, the "King of the Jews".
  • The Voiceless: The main character doesn't talk, since it's just an avatar of the player. This is often Played for Laughs, as the elves believe he chooses not to talk because he "thinks he's hot shit or something", while the girls find him attractive for it. Until the end when the boys are trying decide what to play next. Your character utters the classic line "Screw you guys, I'm going home".
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Grossed Out often has the afflicted character woof their cookies.
  • We Can Rule Together:
    • Big Bad Government Guy tries to do this to the player character in the ending. He succeeds in turning Kenny over to his side.
    • Cartman also tries to pull this should you side with Kyle and the Elves on Day 2, claiming that he is willing to forgive you for being tricked, and that the two of you can rule together, "...as master and slave."
  • Welcome to Corneria: Justified example early on by Clyde and Scott, who both tell The New Kid that these are the lines given to them and Cartman doesn't allow them to talk out of script. Played straight in Canada, which is a parody of old school JRPGs.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Big Bad Government Guy just kind of disappears after The New Kid farts on Princess Kenny's balls. In the Prima Official Guide to the game, there is an image of Big Bad Government Guy lying dead in the section after the final battle with Princess Kenny suggesting that he died shortly after The New Kid farts on Kenny's balls.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: While the town remains in Colorado, one of the details Matt and Trey cite as being a great challenge is coherently mapping out South Park.
    Trey: After fifteen years of doing the show, this was the first time Matt and I were like "Where is Kyle's house?"
  • Womb Level: Late in the game, you are forced to miniaturize to explore Mr. Slave's ass.
  • Wondrous Ladies Room: The girl's room at the park is home to the girl's secret clubhouse.
  • World-Healing Wave: At the height of the Zombie Apocalypse, the New Kid farts on Princess Kenny's balls, which inexplicably generates an energy wave that magically cures everyone in South Park.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Your characters are all kids and there are lots of adult enemies ready to hurt them. On the other hand, you can hurt any child character you find, even if he/she does not attack you, and you can even beat up pre-school kids (however, they are far from defenseless, as they will attack you with cannonballs if you strike them first)
  • You Are in Command Now: If the Visitor Pilot on the spaceship is damaged enough (without being defeated), he will throw down his captain's hat and runs off, leaving the Copilot (if he's still alive) alone. This ability is actually called "You Have The Bridge." The co-pilot then uses an ability in response called "Make It So", which has him wearing the hat and gaining buffs in the process.
  • Your Size May Vary: Played with when your character shrinks to gnome size and enters Mr. Slave's ass. Normally one would think he must have shrunk more than normal, but then again, it's Mr. Slave's ass.

 
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Brown Note

Jimmy's Brown Note ability has him blow into a large alpine horn that makes all the enemies crap themselves

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5 (6 votes)

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Main / BrownNote

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