The next South Park video game is rumored to be 3D, but it should emulate South Park: The Stick of Truth and not be a sequel to South Park Rally. The Stick of Truth turned out to be a surprise success, due in no small part to Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s involvement elevating the genre and franchise. The sequel, Fractured But Whole, had a new combat system and larger story, and now Question Games, founded by some ex-developers on Bioshock, have landed the contract to create a new untitled South Park game rumored to be 3D. The RPG South Park games were great, but the supposed switch back to 3D raises some concerning comparisons to past N64 and PlayStation games that weren’t as good as their modern counterparts, such as South Park Rally.
South Park Rally was a racing game that received mixed reviews back in 2000. Even with a large roster and a sizeable amount of tracks, the game was seen as a middling kart racer. The controls were finicky and the graphics weren’t the best when compared to the sprite work of Mario Kart. It’s still been 22 years since its release, and the gaming landscape has changed significantly to be much less focused on licensed properties. South Park experimented with multiple game genres over the last two decades, but as Rally demonstrates, not every title worked.
If, theoretically, a sequel to South Park Rally could fix all of these issues, it still wouldn’t be worth pursuing in 2022. There’d be a lot of new material in terms of characters, locales, and vehicles, but gameplay-wise, a kart racer still doesn’t have the same pull as a full-blown adventure game along the lines of The Fractured But Whole. Making a sequel to South Park Rally would be a mistake due to the marketplace being oversaturated with similar titles and due to fans expecting more from licensed video games.
A New South Park Game Without A Story Would Disappoint
Currently, Mario Kart leads the pack in terms of arcade racing games and there’s a number of titles behind it, like Chocobo GP and Garfield Kart. There isn’t much need for another mascot-based kart game, especially since many don’t have as much content as a full-fledged adventure game. Given that The Fractured But Whole ranks highly compared to other South Park games, South Park Rally would be a huge step-down and wouldn’t take advantage of the reputation the series has built up.
After two solid RPGs with surprisingly good humor for a video game adaptation, it would be disappointing to return to the era of video game development that simply used IPs rather than telling unique stories with them. Even besides RPGs, the franchise has better prospects like action-adventure games or even a return to shooters. Any game that can tell a story is better for South Park as a brand than a basic racing game.
Fortunately, there’s not much reason to believe that Question Games is working on a game like South Park Rally. The studio's portfolio includes The Magic Circle and The Blackout Club, two games that are much more explorative and narrative-focused than Rally. There’s also reason to believe that with the games parodying so many parts of gaming culture, a reference or a joke from the in-house South Park development team to either the early games or Rally could show up in the new version. There's little information surrounding the new South Park title, but hopefully, it will focus on storytelling and utilize the license fully.