Tag Archives: 2009

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!

Leave a reply

A tower defense game with a South park flavor, released in 2009 exclusively on the Xbox 360.

With these sort of games you would expect them to be a simple cash grab by reskinning an existing tower survival engine and apply the South Park theme over it. Trey Parker and Matt Stone were hands-on, making sure this thing feels like you’re playing an episode straight out of Comedy Central. The story’s a glorious middle finger to Japanese game tropes—South Park’s glitched into a video game world, and the boys are stuck fighting waves of enemies to save the town. The big bad? A Japanese announcer dude who’s like the lovechild of a Street Fighter narrator and Mr. Garrison on a bender. It’s absurd, it’s meta, and it’s peak South Park roasting gaming clichés.

There are a lot of reference to event sand charicters from ther TV show. You’re fighting classic enemies pulled straight from the series: hippies from “Die Hippie, Die,” crab people from that one episode where they’re plotting under the town, Jakovasaurs from those annoying dino-things nobody liked, and even the Christmas Critters from the “Woodland Critter Christmas” blood orgy episode. Every level’s a love letter to fans—locations like the school or downtown South Park are ripped from the show’s paper-cutout aesthetic, complete with that janky, sloppy charm Trey and Matt insisted on. You’ll hear iconic lines, like Cartman screaming “Respect my authoritah!” when you trigger his slam move, or Kenny’s muffled grunts when he bites it (spoiler: he dies a lot). There’s even unlockable show clips as rewards, which is like finding Randy’s secret stash of Tegridy Weed—pure fan service.

You build towers like snow forts, fiery Christmas trees (called Fiery-Works, because of course), or fridges to slow enemies down. Each has upgrades, but you gotta hustle to collect coins from dead enemies to afford ‘em. The twist is the action element: you’re not a passive god; you’re in the trenches, switching between kids to sling snowballs or use special moves. Cartman’s Fatass slam is like dropping a nuke, Kyle’s got a Jew-jitsu kick, and Timmy’s wheelchair charge is comedy gold. It’s tower defence with ADHD, and I’m here for it.

Levels get nuts fast. Early stages ease you in, but by the end, you’re fending off waves of enemies coming from multiple paths, with bosses like the Japanese announcer who shrug off your towers like Randy ignoring Sharon’s complaints. Single-player’s a grind—you’re constantly swapping characters, building, and throwing snowballs. But co-op? Up to four players can each control a kid, and it’s a blast coordinating who’s building and who’s sniping enemies. It’s the kind of chaos where you’re yelling at your buddy to “stop sucking, Kyle!” while laughing your ass off. If you have four controller’s to hand, it’s pure splitscreen fun.

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play was only ever released for the Xbox 360, no PS3 or Wii ports were ever developed. It wasn’t even released or made compatible with the Xbox One, and since was only ever released digitally on Xbox Live it could now be considered abandoned media.

Halo 3 ODST

Leave a reply

A first-person shooter developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios, released on September 22, 2009, for the Xbox 360. Unlike the main Halo series, which focuses on the super-soldier Master Chief, ODST puts you in the boots of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs), elite but human soldiers in the Halo universe.

For the campaign you play as The Rookie, a faceless ODST grunt dropped into New Mombasa, which looks like a city planner had a stroke and then got glassed by aliens. There are a lot of closed off area’s, and parts of the city are blocked off with huge doors. It’s likely the city was designed around the Xbox 360’s memory limitations, as the city is divided into sections that can fit into the console’s limited memory. The vibe is dark, rainy, and lonely and could also pass for a horror game with its atmosphere. You wander around this semi-open-world hub, picking up clues to trigger flashback missions where you play as other squad members.

The game makes a departure from previous Halo games where you typically play as the MasterChief. With Halo 3 OST, you play as the ODSTs, or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, are an elite special forces unit of the United Nations SpaceCommand (UNSC) military. They play vital role in the war against the constant and whilst not as powerful as the Spartans (MaterChief), they are still pretty capable compared to the Marines.

There are also collectibles in the form of audio logs about a woman named Sadie, who was present at the time of the attack. You can hear the screams and the panic of the public as the convenient attack whilst Sadie is screaming to get to safety. It’s kind of like listening to a podcast whilst you are wondering around the streets of Mombasa.

A few of the main characters are:

  • The Rookie: The main person you play as, pretty much silent protagonist since its intended to be a stand-in your the player.
  • Gunnery Sergeant Edward “Buck” – Voiced by Nathan Fillion, this guy’s got the charm of Mal from Firefly but with a better haircut. Buck’s the guy you want runnin’ your team: tough, loyal, and droppin’ one-liners that make you wanna high-five your TV.
  • Corporal Taylor “Dutch” Miles – Dutch, voiced by Adam Baldwin—yep, another Firefly alum—is the squad’s heavy weapons guy, like if you gave a tank a personality and a Bible. He’s all about blowing stuff up with rockets or drivin’ Warthogs.
  • Lance Corporal Kojo “Romeo” Agu – Romeo, voiced by Nolan North—aka every video game character ever—is the squad’s sniper.
  • Private First Class Michael “Mickey” Crespo – Mickey’s the explosives nerd, voiced by Alan Tudyk, who’s basically Wash from Firefly.
  • Captain Veronica Dare – voiced by Tricia Helfer, She’s not an ODST but tags along for some secret spy project involving an alien Engineer and the city’s AI. She’s got history with Buck, which is like watching a soap opera with more explosions.

You will play as these characters at various points during the campaign, each will have their own weapon set.

Firefight is a cooperative survival mode introduced in Halo 3: ODST (2009) for the Xbox 360, designed for up to four players (local or online via Xbox Live). In Firefight, you and your teammates play as ODSTs defending against endless waves of Covenant enemies (Grunts, Jackals, Brutes, etc.) on specific maps based on the campaign’s environments. Enemies come in waves (five waves per round, three rounds per set), with difficulty escalating as you progress. Each wave introduces tougher enemies or new enemy types (e.g., Brute Chieftains or Hunters in later rounds). After each set, “Skulls” (game modifiers) activate, increasing difficulty by adding challenges like tougher enemies (Tough Luck Skull), reduced player health (Iron Skull), or faster enemy movement (Catch Skull).

2009 saw many multiplayer game incorporate this co-op PvE mechanic, like Horde mode in Gears Of War 2, and the Zombie Mode in Call Of Duty World At War.

ODST started as a “mini-campaign” idea, like a quick DLC to keep fans busy after Halo 3 dropped in 2007. Bungie had a small team—about 70 folks, with a core design crew of five—working with the Halo 3 engine, so they didn’t have to build from scratch. They reused assets, tweaked the gameplay for squishy ODSTs instead of tanky Spartans, and added cool stuff like VISR mode and silenced weapons. The big hook was the noir vibe, with New Mombasa as a semi-open hub. Bungie had a ready-made engine from Halo 3, so they didn’t need to redesign a new physics engine for the gameplay, and may assets from Halo 3 could be reused. They had a small, experienced team, not the 500+ you see on modern blockbusters. The scope was tight: a short campaign, a new co-op mode (Firefight), and recycled Halo 3 multiplayer maps. They also leaned hard on existing lore, so no need to dream up a whole new universe. Compared to today, where it can take up to 5 years for a new mainline Halo title.

360 dashboard
Main menu