Acclaim announced last week that the popular Comedy
Central cartoon gang is coming to PC
and next generation video game systems. Although Acclaim
remains non-commital about exactly
which game systems will get a South Park game, Nintendo
confirmed on its site that the N64 is
one of them. The puzzling part of the whole story is that South Park's
humor is refreshingly blunt and
adult-oriented -- not at all a good starting point for a
Nintendo game. In the past, Nintendo has
shunned all sexual or religious content in its games and
traditionally opposed strong language in
video games. In the past, South Park has featured a boxing
match of Satan vs. Jesus,
anal-probing aliens, singing excrements, and lots of
swearing. It remains to be seen how the
foul-mouthed gang of Kenny, Kyle, Stan, and Cartman will
translate to N64, but hopefully
Nintendo will let the expected "M" rating speak for itself
and not defuse the humor and turn "They
Killed Kenny" into "They Hugged Kenny." South Park, created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, airs on
Comedy Central and is currently the
highest rated TV show on cable. The last four episodes
have had an average three to five million
viewers each week, and the South Park Christmas episode
drew a 50% share of 18-24 year
olds.South Park is scheduled for a 1999 videogame debut. Stay tuned for more.