BEEFCAKE!!!
I have to admit, this one just completely floored me. It’s been sitting on my Playstation game shelf for nearly half a year, and I’ve never even popped it into the machine. (Tough year, eh?) But when I did check it out, I was stunned. This thing is like Arcade’s Greatest Hits, only with more fart jokes!
Don’t Blame Canada
You have nobody to blame but Acclaim for making you miss this batch of retro makeovers. South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack is marketed as a game show rip-off, but after every three questions, you enter a bonus round. And more often than not, those bonus rounds take the form of games which are recognizable to nearly any classic gamer. The “Bad Kitty” game pits you in the unfortunate role of the Cartman family’s cat, climbing up ladders and avoiding the red bouncy balls that Eric Cartman rolls at you from the top floor. You’ve got to get to the top and eat Eric’s pot pies. Sound familiar, Donkey Kong devotees?
It gets ever weirder. The “Snow Forts” game is a very thinly-disguised parody of Atari’s classic Warlords game, only you’re defending your snowman instead of your castle. Other than that, the game is identical to its inspiration. A pizza delivery game is basically a two-dimensional rip of Paperboy, and the Scuzzlebutt game lifts elements of Kickman and Kaboom! Another round, ripping off Galaga, sees your South Park character of choice fending off bees at a picnic, while the Asteroids rip-off, Asses In Space, involves you blowing up as many spaceborne butts as you can. And the Go-Kart game is so much like the old Odyssey 2 pack-in Spin-Out! that it isn’t even funny.
This Game Has Warped My Fragile Little Mind!
I’m not sure if this game is an exercise in brilliance, or a display of how low some software manufacturers will go to cash in as cheaply as possible on a license that cost them so much, they can’t afford real game development. The South Park name alone may have kept Atari, Nintendo and Namco from paying any attention to this title, which may be all that stands between Acclaim and a Cartman-sized lawsuit. (And we’re talking post-Weight-Gain-4000 Cartman here, folks - the similarities are so close, I’m not sure Acclaim could even begin to make any excuses.)
Why would I even raise the issue of brilliance? Because South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack is a party game, nothing more, nothing less. The developers likely intended this game to be played during social gatherings with an abundance of alcohol, thus preventing any players from thinking clearly enough to recognize the games. I seem to remember one Nolan Bushnell thinking more or less the same thing when he chased Computer Space down with the much simpler Pong.
Is Chef’s Luv Shack for everyone? God, no! If you’re not a fan of South Park, steer clear of this one. It’s easily the raunchiest of the three South Park video games to date, and it’s not for the faint of heart. (There’s a whack-a-mole rip-off in which you must blast a character called Chicken Lover before he can reach a helpless chicken. If you don’t know who Chicken Lover is within the context of the South Park cartoon…trust me, you don’t wanna know.) But if you’re a South Park fan and a classic game afficionado, this game should jump to the top of your list - quick, before Acclaim gets sued by about half a dozen companies!
