South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge Review (XBLA) & Season 15 Blu-Ray Giveaway

The idea behind South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge is sound; taking the main cast of the popular social commentary/vulgar humor cartoon and using them to make a puzzle platformer makes some sense. The developers made the right call in giving each of the four boys a unique skill (plus a second one in their ’superhero’ personas) and turning them loose on several stages where they have to work together to succeed. And strictly speaking, this is an okay game; it’s simply not a great one. Players take control of Cartman, Kyle, Stan, or Kenny in their fight against Scott Tenorman; a relative of Cartman’s who is out to take over the world and... steal the hard drive from Cartman’s Xbox 360? Yes indeed. Apparently that’s the final straw, and off the kids go to chase down the repository of their saved game files, DLC, and so on. Their pursuit leads them through a series of 2D side-scrolling platform stages, with all the usual tasks that implies as you fight enemies, jump past obstacles, and solve puzzles to proceed. Along with boss fights, your primary objective is to gather ’cores’ that unlock extra stages at various points in time.

The stages are designed with areas that only one of the four kids can reach, ensuring they have to work together in order to get everything. This works fine in multiplayer sessions, as it gives each player their moment to shine and makes the whole idea of a co-op platformer come together.

Unfortunately, this same strength is a near-crippling problem with solo play. You can go alone, but you’ll have to do multiple runs through each stage to pick up all the items you need and it is simply not fun. Tenorman’s Revenge is strictly a game to be enjoyed with others.

If you’re a fan of the show, you probably will find plenty to enjoy in how this is presented. The art mostly resembles its source, and much of the plot is voice acted. Most of the music and sound effects likewise seem as though they would fit into a South Park episode, and it’s fair to say the series’ feel is intact. A lot of the finer points go right over my head due to only occasionally watching the show, but even I saw several segments that drew a “hey, I remember that!” and a quick laugh. This part of the license was definitely put to good use.