This is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who worked at Official Xbox Magazine from 2002-2012 during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 era before joining IGN, where he remains “the Xbox guy.” In the run-up to Xbox’s 25th anniversary, he’ll be sharing his memories from the platform’s first quarter-century.
I pushed my way to the front of the line of IGN editors to review South Park: The Stick of Truth in 2014. I’ve seen every episode of South Park before and since. I am of the opinion that show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the two premier satirists of our generation. In my view, the puppet-led Team America: World Police is a comedic masterpiece. Heck, I even love the box-office bust the guys starred in back in 1998, BaseKetball. So yeah, I’m a massive fan of these guys, and when I learned they were making a role-playing game with Obsidian Entertainment, of all developers (at Parker and Stone’s request!), I couldn’t wait to see the results of this match made in heaven. At least on paper. Because unlike previous infamous South Park video games like South Park Rally, Parker and Stone would be directly involved this time.
But then the business side of the games industry got in the way. At least for a while. You may or may not remember that THQ – the original incarnation of it – was funding and publishing The Stick of Truth. But a funny thing (sadly, not the good kind of funny) happened during the course of development: THQ filed for bankruptcy. Uh-oh. While the project thankfully wasn’t canceled, the publishing rights to it were put up for auction as part of the bankruptcy, and the South Park folks weren’t exactly happy about it.
Mercifully, gamers were not robbed of the chance to play The Stick of Truth, as Ubisoft bought the rights, enabling Parker, Stone, and the Obsidian team to finish the RPG. Despite its mammoth 850-page first script draft, the final game didn’t end up being a particularly long RPG at around 12 hours long. But boy oh boy did it make every minute count. I frequently laughed in a truly doubled-over way I’d never laughed at a video game before, and coupled with its classic (if simple) turn-based RPG gameplay, I happily gave The Stick of Truth a 9 out of 10, and to this day, if someone asks me what the funniest game I’ve ever played is, this is my clear-cut answer.
If you haven’t played The Stick of Truth, it is absolutely not too late. The graphics look exactly like the show, so they haven’t really aged at all. In fact, as a 12-hour RPG, The Stick of Truth is like playing a long season of the show. Parker and Stone’s fingerprints are all over this thing, with Obsidian’s game-building and genre expertise underpinning the whole thing. I dare you not to laugh hysterically at the Underpants Gnome boss fight, the scene with Mr. Slave, the Canada section, and so many more.
I’ve played plenty of genuinely funny games over the years. The classic LucasArts point-and-click adventure games of the ‘90s were formative for me (the Monkey Island games, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, etc.). Saints Row: The Third was full of funny stuff. Portal 2 is classic. High on Life is a great recent example. But for me, none of them come even close to the masterclass that Parker and Stone taught the gaming world with The Stick of Truth. Heck, even its sequel, South Park: The Fractured But Whole – which Park and Stone were also involved in – didn’t quite land the same way. So I’m incredibly thankfully that The Stick of Truth survived THQ’s bankruptcy and became a classic. It is one of my favorite Xbox memories from the first 25 years of this brand (though, by all means play it on any platform you can!).
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.