E3 2013 Preview: South Park: The Stick of Truth

One thing I love is South Park, so when news of a new RPG-based South Park game was coming out I did the 'what what in my butt' dance for a good 30 minutes. Ok, maybe five. So how is the game? I had a chance to sit through Ubisoft's presentation and walked away pretty impressed.

If you love the cartoon, you'll love the fact that you're pretty much in the cartoon. You play as The New Kid, trying to help Cartman get the Stick of Truth back from Kyle who has barricaded the elementary school. You and Butters have to go in and try to stop him.

The look, sounds and tone of the game are all South Park. It's filled with swearing, fart jokes, obnoxiously offensive humor and Cartman's constant arrogance. Granted, it's all make believe for the kids, but their adventure in the school is actually just the start of a bigger adventure.

When you encounter obstacles in a room, you can fart to break objects apart. Or use a spell to shrink yourself and use vents to go around. Pretty clever stuff. And Butters was just hilarious with his little quips the entire time.

Because it's an RPG type game you're tasked with item and spell management. This is all done in your "Facebook" page, where you can add friends you encounter in the school, and also dress up and equip your character.

When you encounter a foe, you enter the turn-based fight mode. It's here where you pick your weapons, spells and items to take down the enemy, whether it's a random kid dressed as an Elf, or Stan and his dog. If a kid is getting pummeled too quickly, he may yell, "F*** this s***!" and run away.

Some of the weapons we saw were hammers and swords. You have to wait until the weapons lights up before hitting A. If you time it right, you can do the most damage. Other weapons included lighting your farts on fire, or using a fire extinguisher to freeze an opponent. There are a lot of spells, but they only touched on a couple. One of the best fight moments was when you got into a "fart-off" against Cartman. This happened after you threw your poo at him. A poo you took earlier in the bathroom then saved for such a moment. Yep, it's South Park.

Once you do a swerve and take down Cartman, you all discover that Craig has taken the Stick of Truth and is planning on taking over the world with his evil minions, opening up a larger adventure for the kids.

I'm really looking forward to picking up South Park when it comes out this holiday season. It just seems like it's a lot of fun to play. If you're as into South Park as I am, you won't be disappointed.