South Park

Sega Pinball, 1999 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open South Park in the Pinball Genie app →

South Park is a late Sega machine built on a very simple idea and a very generous ruleset. Five characters, five shots, five modes — and three separate multiballs sitting on top of them, any one of which can swing a game by hundreds of millions. It is not a subtle machine: knowing the shots and playing for multiball beats careful flipper work, and a good night can reach a billion.

The five shots

Every mode runs through one character shot, and starting it means hitting that shot four times:

• Stan is the left lane, fired straight through the pop bumpers. It is the hardest shot on the playfield and the most valuable.
• Chef is the centre lane, which ends in a kicker that throws the ball out above the bumpers. Anything you put up the left lane gets routed through here too.
• Kenny is the rubber figure on the right. Hit the figure or the hole behind it — both count, which makes this the most forgiving character on the machine.
• Kyle is the ramp, which runs over the toilet and has three different exits.
• Cartman is the deep sinkhole. A metal backboard sits behind it, so it is far more shootable than a hole that size normally is.

A character's face on the playfield flashes once you have started their mode and glows solid once you have finished it. That distinction matters more than it looks, because the two wizard modes are gated on it. Modes can be replayed whether you won them or not, but each completion raises the number of shots the next attempt costs.

The modes themselves

Stan is a four-ball multiball built around the bumper nest. You need three kisses, spotted either by a run of bumper hits or by another left lane shot, and each lane shot starts at 5M and grows 100K for every bumper hit you have banked. Finishing the objective does not end the scoring — keep shooting the lane until you are down to one ball.

Chef gives you thirty seconds to sweep all five character shots. Each pays 5M plus a million per shot already made, the last is worth 10M, and every shot buys five more seconds. Take the easy ones first and the timer will still be healthy when you get to Stan's lane. Kyle wants four more ramps in roughly twenty seconds for 5M, 10M, 15M and 20M — pure repeat-shot pressure. Cartman gives twenty seconds for three more sinkhole shots, each worth 5M plus a million for every hit you have put on the three targets above the hole, so beat those targets up first. Kenny is a hurry-up: four hits arm it at 10M, one more collects it.

Multiball, and why it decides the game

Five hits to the Mr. Hankey targets lights multiball at the ramp — and every further hit before you start adds 100K to the base jackpot, so there is no rush. Start it at the ramp, the toilet opens and feeds a ball to the right inlane, and you are into a five-ball affair. Hankey targets pay a 1M base jackpot and each one lights a character shot for a double. Five Hankey jackpots lights a super at the ramp worth 5M, then 10M, then another 5M on top each time after.

There is a useful quirk to remember here. While multiball is running the machine will credit you a left lane shot for shooting the Chef lane — which is the easiest Stan progress you will ever collect, given how awkward that lane is under normal conditions.

Mystery, bonus and the outlanes

The three targets above the Cartman hole light the Chef lane for a mystery award. Bonus multipliers are by far the most common result, but 7M turns up, and so does a thirty-second frenzy in which every switch on the machine pays 500K. Limp into ball three still short of 10M and the mystery can hand you a charity extra ball as well. Your end-of-ball bonus pays 100K for each hit you landed on the townsfolk targets, on the ramp or on any character shot, then multiplies the whole total — so those mystery multipliers are quietly doing real work. Both outlanes can light for special. Lighting both inlanes arms Super Fart Bumpers, which is worth doing before you start Stan's mode since that mode already pays you for bumper hits.

Two endings

Start all five modes but fail to finish at least one, and the Chef lane lights for Spooky Vision — a five-ball multiball where you raise each character's jackpot by hitting their own shot repeatedly. It does not appear at all if you completed all five on the first attempt.

Complete all five and the red arrow in the Chef lane and the volcano insert between the flippers both light. Shooting the Chef lane starts Volcano, the real wizard mode: five balls, fifteen lit character shots at 10M each. Make them all and the flippers go dead, you are handed an extra ball, and the whole thing begins again — a completed run is worth roughly 210 million. Miss the count and it simply ends when you are down to one ball.

One last thing worth knowing for the wait between games: with the machine in attract mode, pressing the flipper buttons left, left, right, right, left, left, right, right brings up the design team credits.

How South Park plays

This South Park machine is built on five character shots -- Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and Chef. Start and finish a mode for each to light the Volcano between the flippers, and treat the three big multiballs as where the real points hide.

The loop

1. Get the five character shots grooved first: the left lane for Stan, the ramp for Kyle, the deep sinkhole for Cartman, the rubber Kenny, and the centre lane for Chef.
2. Four hits to any character's shot starts that character's mode, and every mode you actually finish raises the number of hits the next start costs.
3. Batter the Mr. Hankey targets to light multiball at the ramp, and keep battering them even after it lights, since each extra knock pads the base jackpot before the balls launch.
4. Piece together all five completed modes and the Chef lane plus the Volcano insert light up for the true wizard mode.
5. Stack a character mode on top of Mr. Hankey Multiball -- a Chef lane shot pays as a Stan lane shot while the multiball runs -- to steal the hardest progress cheap.

Reading the lights

• Character Faces (status) — lit: A character's portrait glows solid once you have finished that kid's mode; you crack a mode open with four hits to their own shot. · flashing: A portrait that is only flashing marks a mode you have started but not yet completed, and you can replay any of them, finished or not. · then: Complete the whole five and the Chef lane lights for Volcano, the real ending. Open all five but leave at least one unfinished and you get Spooky Vision, the consolation multiball, instead.
• Mr. Hankey Targets (status) — lit: Five knocks on the Mr. Hankey targets light multiball at the ramp; once it is lit, each further knock quietly stacks another hundred thousand onto the base jackpot before you have even begun. · then: Start it at the ramp, where the toilet flushes a ball out to the right inlane. From there every Hankey jackpot turns one character shot into a double, and five of them lights a super worth five million, then ten, climbing another five every time after.
• Stan / Bumpers (mode) — lit: Four shots up the left lane, straight through the pop bumpers, kick off Stan -- a four-ball multiball whose goal is three kisses, each one spotted by a burst of bumper action or another lane shot. · then: Let the nest do the work -- each bumper hit spots a kiss and bumps up what every later lane shot pays -- and light both inlanes beforehand to switch on Super Fart Bumpers for even richer bumper scoring. Those lane shots keep paying long after the third kiss, all the way down to a single ball, so never stop feeding it.
• Cartman Sinkhole (mode) — lit: Four balls into the metal-backed sinkhole start Cartman's twenty-second scramble for three more; the three standups stacked above the hole permanently jack up what every mode shot is worth. · then: Soften those standups up first, because their value carries into the mode as real money, then take the four hits to start and three more inside the clock. The same trio lights the Chef lane for a Mystery award.
• Mystery / Chef Lane (mode) — lit: Clearing the three standups over the Cartman hole lights the centre Chef lane for a Mystery, one of the cheapest awards on the table to arm. · then: Cash it in the Chef lane for whatever it rolls -- usually a bonus multiplier, sometimes seven million, and once in a while the Mr. Mackey frenzy, thirty seconds in which every last switch on the table is worth five hundred thousand. Those bonus multipliers ride on your end-of-ball count, which is what makes the standups quietly valuable.
• Kyle / Kenny / Chef (mode) — lit: Kyle, Kenny and Chef are the timed side of the character roster, each opened with four hits to its shot -- the ramp, the Kenny figure, or the Chef centre lane. · then: Kyle then asks for four more ramps against a short clock for five, ten, fifteen and twenty million. Kenny arms a ten-million hurry-up that only falls while you wait, so fire it straight back -- the figure or the hole behind it both count. Chef turns into a thirty-second dash across all five character shots, with each make handing you another five seconds on the clock, so a strong opening leaves the tough shots easy.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

• Ball one — Glance at which townsfolk target is lit and plunge into it for the skill shot, then start putting the five character shots into muscle memory -- four hits to any one of them opens that kid's mode, and Kenny's is the gentlest to close. — Townsfolk Skill Shot, Getting The Character Shots Down, Kenny
• Building — Light Mr. Hankey Multiball at the targets, padding its base jackpot before you pull the trigger, and stack it with a mode. Then go hunting Stan's four-ball, where climbing lane values make it the single richest thing on the machine. — Mr. Hankey Multiball, Stan, Play For Multiballs, Super Fart Bumpers
• The big one — Finish all five character modes and the Volcano wizard lights: five balls, fifteen lit shots at ten million each, around two hundred and ten million for a clean run, and an extra ball to send you back through it. Come up short of finishing every mode and Spooky Vision is the softer landing. — Volcano, Spooky Vision

Does South Park have an action button?

Nothing beyond the basics on this cabinet — manual plunge, flippers, start button. Every choice you make on South Park happens on the playfield, and the plunge itself matters, since one townsfolk target is lit for the skill shot at the start of each ball.

Goals in South Park

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

• Townsfolk Skill Shot skillshot · Easy

  One of the townsfolk targets under Mr. Hankey is lit at the start of each ball. Plunge into it for 5M, and the award grows by another 5M for every skill shot you have already made this game.

  Reward: 5M + 5M per skill shot

• Getting The Character Shots Down progression · Easy

  Everything in this game runs through five shots, one per character. Starting a mode means hitting that character's shot four times, and the requirement climbs every time you finish that character's mode. Learn the shots before you worry about anything else.

  Reward: Access to all five modes

• Stan multiball · Hard

  Four left lane shots start a four-ball multiball built around the bumpers. You need three kisses, and a kiss comes from either a run of bumper hits or another left lane shot. Lane shots start at 5M and climb 100K for every bumper hit you have banked.

  Reward: 5M+ per lane shot, growing with bumper hits

• Chef mode · Medium

  Four Chef lane shots start a 30-second sweep of all five character shots. Each one pays 5M plus a million for every shot already made, the last is worth 10M, and every shot buys five more seconds — so the mode gets easier as it goes if you start well.

  Reward: 5M+1M per shot, 10M for the last

• Kenny mode · Easy

  Four hits to Kenny start a hurry-up beginning at 10M. One more hit collects it — and kills him. The most forgiving mode on the machine because the figure and the hole behind it both register.

  Reward: 10M hurry-up, falling while you wait

• Kyle mode · Medium

  Four ramp shots start a short countdown to bring Mr. Hankey back. You need four more ramps in roughly twenty seconds, paying 5M, 10M, 15M and 20M. Pure repeat-shot pressure, which makes it the best mode to practise cradle-and-shoot on.

  Reward: 5M, 10M, 15M, 20M

• Cartman mode · Medium

  Four hits to the sinkhole start a 20-second window in which you need three more. Each pays 5M plus a million for every hit you have put on the three targets above the hole, so beating on those targets first is real money.

  Reward: 5M+1M per Cartman target hit, plus a completion bonus

• Mr. Hankey Multiball multiball · Medium

  Five hits to the Hankey targets light multiball at the ramp — and every extra hit before you start adds 100K to the base jackpot, so do not start it the second it lights. Five balls, 1M jackpots at the Hankey targets, and each jackpot lights a character shot for double.

  Reward: 1M jackpots, doubles at character shots, 5M+ supers

• Mystery strategy · Easy

  The three targets above the Cartman hole light the Chef lane for mystery. It is a cheap award to arm and it can hand you a bonus multiplier, 7M, or a thirty-second frenzy in which every switch on the machine is worth 500K.

  Reward: Bonus multiplier, 7M, or a 500K-per-switch frenzy

• Super Fart Bumpers multiplier · Easy

  Light both inlanes and the bumpers go into a high-scoring state. Worth arming before you start Stan's mode, because that mode already pays you for every bumper hit you take.

  Reward: Boosted bumper scoring

• The Monkey Target strategy · Easy

  The right-hand target beside the left lane entrance pays 100K plus another 100K for every hit it has already taken this game. On its own that is small, but it is free money on every Stan attempt you brick slightly right.

  Reward: 100K, climbing 100K per hit

• Play For Multiballs strategy · Medium

  Three separate multiballs sit on this playfield and all three are wildly generous compared with normal play. A game with several of them in it can reach a billion; a game without them will not get close, however cleanly you shoot.

  Reward: The difference between a good game and a great one

• Spooky Vision wizard · Hard

  The consolation wizard mode. Start all five character modes but fail to complete at least one, and the Chef lane lights for a five-ball multiball where you raise each character's jackpot by hitting their shot a set number of times.

  Reward: Five-ball multiball with escalating character jackpots

• Volcano wizard · Hard

  The real ending. Complete all five character modes and both the Chef lane arrow and the Volcano between the flippers light up. Five balls, fifteen lit character shots at 10M each — finish it and the flippers die, you are handed an extra ball, and the whole thing starts over.

  Reward: 10M per shot, roughly 210M for a completion, plus an extra ball

• End-Of-Ball Bonus strategy · Easy

  Count up every hit you landed on the townsfolk targets, on the ramp and on the five character shots: each one pays 100K when the ball ends, and your multiplier is applied on top of that total. Mystery hands out multipliers freely, so a long ball with a few mystery awards in it ends better than the score during play suggests.

  Reward: 100K per counted shot, times the multiplier

• The Attract Mode Code secret · Easy

  A hidden button code in attract mode. It scores nothing, but it is the sort of thing worth knowing when you are stood in front of a machine waiting for a friend to finish their game.

  Reward: The design team credits