If Mario Party is the House, then this is DEFINITELY the Shack!

Chef's Luv Shack is a cross of Mario Party and You Don't know Jack, with none of the quality of either intact. It adds some South Park flare, and does deliver for about three hours, but afterwards becomes a total waste of time, money, and concept afterwards. While it still may qualify as a *passable* party game for older kids and teens even later on, single-player gameplay fizzles out without a single reddeming quality.

I'll start out by briefly describing the technicalities-- the graphics, sound, and control. The graphics are exactly what you'd expect from a South Park game-- bright and vibrant graphics that get the job done but sorely lack detail. They often can be very funny (as mature as I think I am, I still sometimes get a kick out of seeing Cartman blast a nanoprobe from his... er,... rectum.) Puerile? Yes. Funny? Yes. However, the character models are oversimplified, and are in need of more angles and more animations. As for the sound, the voices come across a bit muffled (Chef and Big Gay Al are exceptions, and have pretty clear voices), but are, again, funny in a strange kind of way. The cussing isn't there for no reason, like it is in so many games. Instead, hearing the 8-year old kids mumble foul words under their breaths (bleeps replace the REALLY bad ones) is somewhat hilarious. It almost makes you feel better when you get hit by an egg or screw up on a trivia question. The controls are usually pretty good, but unresponsive sometimes. I don't think that it's analog compatable, but it's been a while since I've played Luv Shack, so I could be wrong. Please leave a comment and tell me if I am. Anyhoo, the controls will frustrate you a bit sometimes, but don't hurt overall gameplay all that much.

The biggest flop of Luv Shack, however, is the gameplay. After game set-up, the game plays like this:
~~A player picks a catergory from a list of three hilarious catergories.
~~Usually, a question will be asked (sometimes, the questions are about the South Park show!). Get it right and you earn some points. Get it worng and you drop some points.
~~Uncommonly, a special round, like "Wheel of Fortortiousness" or whatever it's called, or a Cartman round reminiscent to You Don't Know Jack's Dis or Dat, will ensue.
~~This will repeat twice, and then a somewhat entertaining mini-game will commence.
~~This process repeats until the set number of turns (2,4,6, or 8) have been completed. A winner is declared based on total points from questions, bonus special rounds, and mini-games.

While this is repetitive, that's acceptable. After all, PaRappa the Rappa, a highly repetitive game, is fun, charming, and received a perfect 5-star rating from me. What is not acceptable is the question, which repeat like crazy. You though Jeopardy! was bad in this area? I would say that there are about 250-300 questions in this game, TOPS. I often rang in before the question was finished, and creamed my poor newbie sucker friends!!! You do what you've gotta' do, but it would've been far more fun to beat them fair and square, or even to lose to them fair and square. Anyway, the questions are all good and some are pretty humorous. However, many center around pop culture, which ticked me off a little (Although I did know some of these questions, I am still somewhat of a pop culture REJECT!, especially when this pop culture is from the 1960's or '70's.). But some rely on schoolbook knowledge of rather academic topic. My forte.

The mini-games, on the other hand, are nice. Many of them, like "Skuzzlebutt" and "Beefcake," revolve around South Park themes, but thankfully, you don't need S.-Park knowledge here. They are amusing, but lack the balance, originality, and, sometimes, the overall satisfaction that one could find in a Mario party game. Many are based on precise control, and many on button mashing. At least they're balanced. However, there are many that are cheap take-offs of games that we all know, such as "Asses in Space" (Asteroids), and "Spank the Monkey" (Simon).

The pace is slow, but quick enough that you normally won't get too bored from the pacing.

However, the single-player mode is unexcusable. You don't play against anybody! Not only do you win every time ("A winner every time!"), but no one tries to answer questions against you. Sorta' sucks when you already know all the questions-- it's far too easy, and very boring!!! Also, you'll play many of the mini-games going it alone, which is really tough when you are playing gmaes like "Bees in the Park," a take-off on Galaga where one hit and you're eliminated from the game.

The presentation, however, is absolutely sweet. You feel like you're really on some kind of pseudo-game-show, and Chef is repetitive, but has some pretty funny lines. South Park touches, like those weird dancers, are included, and the pick-up-and-play effect helps create a simple, party-esque atmosphere.

Yet, in spite of the presentation, Chef's Luv Shack falls flat on its face after a while. It has the potential to be the life of the party, but only when everyone is a newcomer. SP fans will appreciate some of the touches and the humor, and playful (I don't mean immature or childish, only PLAYFUL) people will have fun with the mini-games and voice quips. Luv Shack deserves your rental, but probably not your purchase. Have fun with it for two days or so, and then move on.