South Park: The Fractured But Whole Nintendo Switch Review

Back in October the sequel to South Park: The Stick of Truth finally released, South Park: The Fractured But Whole. It was an incredible sequel that delivered an improved tactical gameplay system and remained loyal to the series source material. Now Nintendo fans can finally play the adventure but at a cost of performance issues. 

South Park: The Fractured But Whole takes place after the events of the first game. The kids of South Park have abandoned playing their original fantasy game for hopes of launching a superhero franchise based on their own original heroes. However, the original team has fractured into 2 groups; Coon and Friends led by Eric Cartman and Freedom Pals led by Timmy. Both are after a lost cat in hopes of obtaining the $100 reward to fund their franchise and obtain followers to develop a large fanbase. As the New Kid, you'll play a paramount role in their activities gathering followers.

The story is absolutely amazing and feels like an interactive South Park episode. It automatically assumes you know all the characters in this world and doesn't waste time trying to establish them. Instead, it captures the shows comedic style with outrageous setpieces that fans will appreciate such as drunk Randy and Cartman's use of stereotypes. 

Unlike The Stick of Truth which featured a basic turn-based combat system with South Park-themed attacks The Fractured But Whole uses a tactical system. Players move their characters own a grid and perform offensive and defensive attacks based on where the moves land on the grid. It does become boring to perform the same QTE button prompt when attacking for extra damage or defending for health recovery but the added challenge is a welcome change from the original turn-based system.

Players are given ample customization options in how their hero looks and what attacks they have access to. You'll gain access to 3 from the beginning and 10 by the end of the game. Each one has their own distinct attacks and ultimate abilities that players can mix and match. Costumes options are also extensive, allowing you to change your characters into whatever you want even your gender. You can further boost your abilities with artifacts and while certain artifacts offer different benefits simply equipping the most powerful will work.

The New Kid isn't alone and has 12 buddies over the course of the adventure, with temporary allies being available for certain fights. Ranging from the notorious Stan, Cartman, Kenny, and Kyle to other other minor characters such as Craig, Tweek, and more. Each one dawns their own superhero persona each with unique benefits and weaknesses in battle. For example, Token is called Tupperware and serves as a powerful tank but a poor offensive character. Choosing who works best will ensure success as opposed to the original game where you could keep who you enjoyed playing with.

Unique to the New Kid is his, or her, farting powers. Here that player can use their character's ability to fart to bend time and offering advantages in battle. This includes skipping turns, additional attacks, and more. While this makes the game easier on normal difficult harder modes will require proper use of this unique talent. These farting abilities are also used in solving simple puzzles within the game that take advantage of the New Kid's abilities and the aid of your friends. This includes leaping to high areas with Human Kite, throwing heavy obstacles with Captain Diabetes, or clearing lava with Toolshed.

When you're not fighting in the tactical system you'll be solving puzzles and taking selfies with the residents of South Park. Similar to the social media aspect of The Stick of Truth The New Kid must amass followers in a version of Instagram called Coonsagram. Gaining followers by walking up to people and taking selfies or by completing favors for them for the selfie. Some will even offer help in the way of unique summons that is hilarious to use.

This may be an exact port of the October 2017 release but it does suffer from performance issues. The frame rate drops during intense gameplay scenes where the environment is flooded with characters. In addition, the game requires extra time to load when transitioning to battles and different areas. There not long but compared to the Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4 versions it's noticeable. The performance drops occurred regardless if you play the game docked or in handheld mode but it never crashed and gameplay remained consistent regardless of which mode I played in.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole for the Nintendo Switch is the same phenomenal game released back in 2017. It captures the essence of what made The Stick of Truth amazing and built on it to create an outstanding adventure themed after superheroes. This version does suffer from frame rate issues and longer load times but if you're a fan of the show, own a Nintendo Switch, and never played The Fractured But Whole you owe it to yourself to pick this up. If you love South Park you'll relish South Park: The Fractured But Whole.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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