“South Park”

Acclaim

The version of “South Park” for the PC is almost a direct port from the N64 game … and that’s part of the problem.

The designers decided to make the game look just like the TV show, and so the entire game has a cheap and flat appearance that’s actually pretty cool, when it’s done on purpose.

Since the game was made from a child’s point of view, that’s exactly how you end up looking at everything.

You can choose to be Stan, Kyle, Cartman or Kenny as your starting character, but you end up picking up the rest of the gang along the levels.

“South Park” uses the same graphics engine as Turok2 with no changes, and that’s a bad thing. A standard PC has a LOT more power than an N64, and so the graphics in “South Park” suffer from being below par. The game was also put together in just under nine months, and at times you can tell it was rushed.

The levels in single play are bad too, and this is probably due to the fact that it’s an N64 port.

The levels are basically on a rail — you can move 20 feet on either side, but basically you’re locked on the path like a bobsledder on a run.

The weapons are one of the few good things about the game. Living up to the quirkiness of the series, weapons include snowballs, Cow-launchers, and Terrance and Phillip dolls that explode with fart gas when thrown.

Another saving grace of this game is its multiplayer ability. You can play almost any character in the entire “South Park” world, and there are differences between the characters.

For example, Ike only has a few hit points, but he’s fast, tiny and very hard to hit. The multiplayer levels are also well done.

These few good points can’t keep the game from being bad though. Last week, Acclaim announced a sequel to “South Park” — hopefully it will be better than the original.

2 1/2 stars out of five

— Craig A. Bonnes

“Worms Armageddon”

Team 17

There have been several impressive turn-based games out lately, and “Worms Armageddon” falls into this category.

This third installment of the “Worms” series is loosely based on the game of Barrage. Each person has a cannon and gives an angle and amount of charge to the cannon in order to hit the opposing player.

“WA” takes this scenario even farther, with each team having a number of worms (one to 10 depending on the level), which act as the cannons.

The levels are both novel and complex, along with many well-done theme levels such as the voodoo and junkyard levels.

There are dozens of weapons in the game, including air strikes, cluster bombs, sheep launchers, fire bombs and the “skunk,” all of which use different strategies.

One of the best options in “WA” is the multi-player mode, where the player has the choice of either hooking up to the Internet or getting a bunch of people together in the same place to play on one computer.

On the surface, this product seems like a cute game designed for small children. While it is simple to learn and play, it is actually a very rewarding game and a lot of fun.

“Worms Armageddon” is available in the UK and should be available in the United States by April 15 for the PC, and sometime in the fall for Playstation and Nintendo 64.

4 stars out of five

– Craig A. Bonnes