Throughout video game history, many titles have tried to cash in on South Park's success. Except for the recent ones, Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, they have all been terrible. Really bad! But now a new contender has entered the arena: a lost game, canceled like many of its kind, that has been brought back to life thanks to DaKoolDood, who shared it on the LostMediaWiki Discord server for everyone to enjoy. The question you might ask is: is it worth it? Keep reading if you want the answer!
Back in 1998, South Park was taking TV screens by storm, and no one was indifferent to the scatological, foul-mouthed adventures of those kids. Acclaim was the first company to get the license, knowing it would be a good investment. They were preparing two games to make some quick money off Trey Parker and Matt Stone's creation: an FPS for PC, N64, and PlayStation, and a platformer for Game Boy Color. The FPS, unfortunately, saw the light of day—a horrible game no matter how you look at it. The GBC platformer, unexpectedly, was canceled.
And what was the reason for the cancellation? Well, Trey and Matt didn't think the Game Boy Color, Nintendo's small console, was the ideal platform for a game based on their license. It was a system for little kids, and they made humor for older kids, so they decided to withdraw permission for its development, and the game was canceled. In any case, the game had already been completed by Acclaim, who decided to recycle everything and release it under a different name with different characters: that's how "New Adventures of Mary Kate & Ashley" was born, which did get released and received a lukewarm reception among users at the time.
But you know how it goes. The original game, based on South Park characters (a series that has given us wonderful things like The Axiom of Trevor), must have been left in a closed box, hidden in someone's basement (it wouldn't be the first game to suffer that fate). And it was user DaKoolDood who finally found it and dumped it to a ROM, on the LostMediaWiki Discord, so we could all enjoy it. Because yes, it's a game that's enjoyable despite its age.
South Park, The Lost Vikings Style
The goal in each level is to rescue Kenny from his prison. But it won't be easy, of course. The cages that hold Kenny are closed and quite inaccessible. So you'll not only need to reach them with one of the characters (you can switch between them on the fly with the SELECT button), but also open them. The only character who can manipulate objects, like the levers to open the cages, is Stan.
Kyle, on the other hand, is the one who jumps highest and, thanks to his afro hairdo, allows other characters to bounce off his head to reach otherwise unreachable places. Kyle is also the one who can stop certain objects with his head, because—again—his hairdo acts as a cushion. Cartman, for his part, is fat, moody, and serves as a step for the other kids to use. Respect My Authoritah!
Furthermore, for each level you have three dolls to collect to achieve the maximum score. And every four levels, you'll face a boss, played by one of South Park's bad guys. Not bad for a little lost game! And really, I enjoyed the two hours of gameplay the title provided. At first it's hard to figure out how to use each character, but over time you get the hang of it. The levels have a time limit and lives run out quickly, but don't worry: by entering the pause and pressing the button assigned to SELECT on the GBC, you can advance through as many levels as you want (probably because it's a prototype).
Want to play it? Of course you do! The original ROM was hosted on MEGA, but I uploaded a copy to Mediafire, just in case. Download it from wherever you prefer. You'll need a Game Boy Color emulator; choose the one that best suits you from this site, and that's it. The truth is that the ROM works very well and the game is complete. You won't have any trouble running it.
Want to know more about lost and canceled games? You can download the ROM of Resident Evil for Game Boy Color, also canceled but reappeared on the web a few years ago. You can also explore our list of horror movie–based games you'll never get to play, but they'll help you learn more about canceled games. More? Of course! Games based on cult movies you almost certainly don't know, and more ROMs to download and play from unknown NES games and the best pirate fighting games for Famicom. I hope you enjoy them and thank you very much for reading!
