All spoilers for the previous two South Park games, The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, will be left unmarked. Spoilers for the show itself may be left unmarked as well, mmkay?
"It's a snow day - the most magical of days in a young child's life!"
— Eric Cartman
South Park: Snow Day! is a 2024 action adventure video game based off the iconic animated series, South Park, developed by Question Games (The Magic Circle) and published by THQ Nordic; with the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone once again assisting in development. In contrast to the 2D RPGs, The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, this installment is a 3D action adventure with Co-Op supporting up to four players.
A snowstorm has hit the quiet little mountain town of South Park, and Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, and the New Kid are determined to enjoy the day off from school. Of course, this being South Park, it isn't long before fun and games gives way to all out chaos. When a frustrated Stan decides to make the winter permanent (or so it seems), the remaining kids must rally to save the world. Again. The game was released on March 26, 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
Previews: Announcement Trailer
, Gameplay trailer, Release Date trailer
South Park: Snow Day! contains examples of:
- Apocalypse How: Class 0. A massive blizzard engulfs all of South Park, dubbed "the storm of the century" by the News Anchor during the intro. It seems that the storm is only limited to South Park and isn't spreading to the areas outside of it, sparing the rest of Colorado from its wrath. The snowfall continues day and night, burying buildings and homes under layers of snow several feet deep. Some people die in the extreme cold, freezing to death in the streets or leaving residents like Randy and Mr. Mackey trapped behind enormous ice walls (surprisingly, still alive). The situation worsens as the snow blocks access to the shops in town, preventing people from getting supplies with Jimbo's Guns as the only active store, but even he is running out of stuff to give out. More and more of South Park's people die from the storm, causing the Boys and the New Kid to find the source and stop it before the whole town is buried.
- Apologetic Attacker: Downplayed. When Cartman reveals that he pulled a Face–Heel Turn in order to have no school forever, he apologizes to the New Kid, but admits that they probably should have seen this betrayal coming.
- Art Shift: Compared to the previous South Park Digital Studios games, Snow Day! goes from show-accurate 2D to 3D models with 2D faces in 3D environments, as the trailer shows.
- Bag of Spilling: It's stated that the reason for the shift in mechanics is due to the New Kid constantly becoming OP by the end of the previous games so they switched to Rougelite mechanics to ensure that no one can stay OP for long.
- Big Bad: Everyone thinks that Stan is responsible for causing the blizzard engulfing South Park after getting sick of the game's rules and going mad with Dark Matter. In truth, the true culprit is Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo.
- Checkpoint Starvation: Possibly as a result of the game's multiplayer focus, you can only do each chapter in one go. If either you leave the game or you and your teammates die during a chapter, you will have to start said chapter over from the beginning.
- Cold Snap: While South Park is naturally a snowy location in the series, the trailer shows that the town is now completely buried in snow.
- Defector from Decadence: Inverted. Realizing that stopping Mr. Hankey and his blizzard means returning to school once the snow melts, Cartman defects to Mr. Hankey's side so he can keep the snowstorm going forever and never has to go to school again.
- Demoted to Dragon: Eric Cartman went from being the Big Bad of The Fractured But Whole to being Mr. Hankey’s right-hand man once the latter claims the role of main villain.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Cartman is only helping Mr. Hankey’s plans to keep the blizzard preventing him (and the other kids) from going to school to last forever.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- In the release date trailer, Kyle suggests that Stan went rogue and cast a spell to create eternal winter after a disagreement with his friends over the rules.
- Cartman, who could've guessed? Realizing that stopping Mr. Hankey and the perpetual blizzard would mean a return to school for himself and the others (mainly himself), Cartman decides to switch sides with Mr. Hankey. Preferring the freedom of endless snow days over the confines of the classroom, Cartman throws his support behind the Christmas Poo's cause to maintain the blizzard's grip on South Park. Cartman tells the New Kid that they should have anticipated his inevitable betrayal.
- Fireballs: Cartman, dressed in full wizard regalia once more, summons fireballs from the sky in the trailer to celebrate the snow day.
- Genre Shift: After switching to superheroes in The Fractured But Whole, the game returns to the swords and sorcery facade of The Stick of Truth, and instead of a turn-based RPG like those two games, the game is instead an action adventure game with roguelike mechanics. Lampshaded by Cartman near the start:Cartman: So, as you can see, we've had to make some changes to the game because some asshole who we won't name decided to become all powerful and ruin the Stick of Truth, because then everyone wanted to be all-powerful and nobody could die anymore. So then we played superheroes, and guess what happened? That same someone got all OP again and fuckin' ruined that game too. And now because of that someone, we've had to add a bunch of fucking rules, and then once there were rules, everyone started arguing over the rules and then we all went to war again. Remember: with this new card-based system, you're only as powerful as the cards in your hand. And you only get two to start with. So now you can't be all OP. Good luck trying to ruin this game. I'm sure you'll manage.
- Here We Go Again!: At the end of the game Mr. Hankey is revealed to still be alive after the new kids seemingly killed him with toilet paper and The Boys wish for another Snow Day, a wish the rest of the town isn't happy with as the sound of their screams are the last thing we hear before the credits roll on this short tale from a small town in Colorado.
- It's All About Me:
- Randy in typical fashion only gives a shit about himself, going around stealing toilet paper so he can hoard it and be rich. He even joins in the game just so he doesn't have to give up his toilet paper, willing to sacrifice Stan in the process.
- Cartman sides with Mr. Hankey so he can have a permanent Snow Day and never have to go back to school.
- Jerkass: Cartman, Stan and Kyle are dicks to the New Kid, blaming them for everything going wrong and for having to change the rules they play because the New Kid becomes OP while using their rule systems. When things continue to get worse, they continue blaming the New Kid for stuff going wrong.
- Mood Whiplash: In the announcement trailer, Cartman calmly says that a snow day is the most magical time in a kid's life… before he lets out a Big "YES!" and starts raining down fireballs from the sky while screaming about how awesome snow days are.
- Practical Currency: Toilet Paper functions as the currency of the game due to the blizzard causing a scarcity of the stuff.
- The Reveal: The culprit behind the blizzard threatening to engulf the town in snow and the Dark Matter corruption is none other than Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, driven by a desire for revenge against the residents of South Park, who kicked him out of town due to his offensive Ambien-fueled rants on Twitter.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: In the teaser, Cartman once again dons true robe and wizard hat he wore during Stick of Truth.
- Sentry Gun: The Snow Turret power summons turrets consisting of a blower strapped to a crate on a sled with a supply of snowballs that automatically pelts enemies.
- Shout-Out
- One of the emotes has arms out straight forward and kicking legs up like kid at the back of the dance from A Charlie Brown Christmas.
- After Stan takes out the New Kid(s) in a cutscene, Cartman declares that they are only "mostly dead" so he can resurrect them.
- Mr. Hankey goes One-Winged Angel in the form similar to a sandworm called Scheisse-Hulud in reference to Shai-Hulud from Dune.
- Skewed Priorities: While Liane is horrified by the blizzard's casualties and destruction, Cartman is more concerned with whether or not there will be a day off from school.
- Spin Attack: The two-handed axe has a special attack that spins around, slashing through enemies all around them and can augmented into a whirlwind that pulls in foes while also damaging them.
- Stealth Sequel: The plot turns out to be a sequel to "The Problem With a Poo".
- Take That!: Toilet Paper is used as the in-game currency, referencing the real-life toilet paper shortages during the early stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Toilet Humor: Dark Matter is confirmed by Stan and Cartman to be human feces. Cartman figured it out first but tried to ignore it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Butters not said that everyone would go to school once the blizzard disappears, Cartman might not pulled his Face–Heel Turn and become an enemy to the New Kid.
- What the Hell, Hero?: At the end of the game, Jesus Christ appears to the Boys and expresses his disappointment to them. The Son of God chastises Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny for their failure to stand by Mr. Hankey and for letting him get kicked out of town due to his drug-induced Twitter rants. Jesus emphasizes the importance of forgiveness, reminding the Boys that everyone, including Mr. Hankey, is prone to making mistakes and says they must make amends. Moved by Jesus' words, the Boys apologize to Mr. Hankey for abandoning and exiling him and claim they still love him. He, in turn, forgives the Boys and is glad he's finally accepted again.
