South Park has a less than stellar video game history, though that recently changed with the release of South Park: The Stick of Truth. Before that, however, another South Park game might have been the one to redeem the Comedy Central series in the eyes of gamers everywhere, had it not been cancelled.
We don't know what it would have been called, what consoles it would have released for or even what the game would have been about, but we do have footage of a prototype version of the game running on an original Xbox development kit.
The game was discovered by the folks over at HappyConsoleGamer, who obtained an Xbox development kit containing the game from a gaming expo. So, of course they made a video about it! It shows footage of the game in action, as players take control of Cartman and run around a virtual, open-world South Park in what the two men in the video describe as something close to the Simpsons: Hit & Run game.
It's clear this was a very early build of the unreleased title. Many of the environments are still filled with placeholders, and doing various actions will crash the game and the title doesn't feature any mechanics outside of running around and driving. A simple combat system is in the game as well, but it can only be tested out in a specific "combat test" portion of the prototype. There are a number of cutscenes as well, one of which that involves Cartman being strapped down and experimented on.
HappyConsoleGamer managed to uncover the game's menu screen, which features a list of multiplayer minigames, but none of them actually work when clicked. The title was in development by Buzz Monkey Software, whose game credits include porting games in the Tomb Raider series as well as Army of Two: The 40th Day.
It's hard to say why this game never saw the light of day. Plenty of games never make it beyond the prototype stage, but for such a big name property like South Park, it's a little surprising that this is the first time anybody has heard of the never-before-seen project.
Curious about other unreleased video games? Check out this Mario Kart title for the Game Boy Advance that also never saw release.
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