South Park Rally

Gameplay in South Park Rally is divided into three game modes: championship, arcade, and multiplayer. Up to 27 playable characters are available depending on which console version is played. • Championship: The main focus of the game, which has 14 different races (additional races in the Dreamcast version), all of which have to be done in order. This is the only mode where characters and tracks can be unlocked. • Arcade: A practice mode allowing the player to choose any unlocked character on any unlocked track to race. • Multiplayer: A race allowing two to four players to choose any unlocked characters on any unlocked track and race. The game features a diverse set of objectives in races that encourage player interaction. According to Acclaim Entertainment manager Thomas Bass, "Unlike other racing games where players avoid the other players in order to win, South Park Rally encourages interaction between players, which makes for some insane and wildly fun gameplay." Original voice actors Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Mary Kay Bergman, and Isaac Hayes provided dialog for the game. == Plot ==

The Mayor of South Park has decided to stage a rally series that will take place through the heart and outskirts of the town. Favorite characters from the popular television series are included and are able to make use of destructive automobiles, including police cars, mini Porsches, Big Gay Al buggies, wheat bags, jeeps and dozens of other vehicles. Characters who appear in power-up form include Mr. Hankey, Saddam Hussein, the Underpants Gnomes, Frida, Sparky and Kitty. == Development ==

Development on the title – based on Tantalus' own concept – was done on three platforms simultaneously, and took seven months. The game was developed by 20 people. although they did contribute a number of original lines of voice acting for it, as they do most of the voices on the show. Marketing South Park Rally's release was accompanied by television commercials, billboards, and print advertisements targeted at older audiences that carried sponsorships of both South Park and Comedy Central's The Man Show from December 1999 through January 2000. == Reception ==

South Park Rally received negative reviews on all platforms according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Kevin "BIFF" Giacobbi of GameZone gave the PC version eight out of ten, saying that it was, "For those South Park fans... definitely a title worth adding to your collection." Cam Shea of Hyper gave the PlayStation version 49%, saying, "As wacky as throwing Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls at someone may sound, it really isn't very exciting watching a blob of brown fired at a mess of pixels." Lou Gubrious of GamePro said of the same PlayStation version, "Playing South Park Rally will probably cause pain in most gamers. The worst pain comes from knowing that this game wastes a potentially great concept because of flawed execution." The Freshman stated similarly that the Nintendo 64 version "just seems like a shameless attempt to tack South Parks name on a bad racing game to make it sell. With bland graphics, random and repetitive sound samples, and frustrating control, this game gets stomped easily by the much better kart-racers on N64. Unless you love everything with the South Park name, you'd be best advised to take the bypass and skip the town of South Park entirely." AllGame gave the Nintendo 64 and PC versions each a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five, with Joe Ottoson saying of the former, "If you're a fan of the Mario Kart brand of racing games out there, South Park Rally puts up an entertaining race. South Park fans probably won't be disappointed either as the powerups and sound effects are all nicely twisted so that they mock all that is pure and good in a small town's holiday celebrations"; and Cal Nguyen saying of the latter, "While South Park Rally has its moments, most racing fans will probably be reluctant to get downright serious with this game, provided they can even muster passing the first race! However, South Park, go-kart and comedy fans will no doubt enjoy the humor and simple gameplay for what it is, 'mmm'kay?'" However, Steve Bauman of Computer Games Strategy Plus gave the latter two stars out of five, calling it "a charmless little mess, a superficially fun-looking game with fun-killing gameplay." Over time, Parker and Stone have publicly criticized Acclaim and the quality of the games as well. ==Sales==

The game sold more than 1 million copies on the Nintendo 64 alone. == Notes ==