"South Park: The Game" will be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Story highlights

"South Park: The Game" is set to hit stores in the second half of 2012

The game will be available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PCs

It is a role-playing game, not a first-person shooter like the 1998 dud

CNN  — 

Gamers who want to kill Kenny may soon have their chance.

The creators of the “South Park” TV show are working on a new video game that is planned to hit stores in the latter half of next year, game publisher THQ announced on Thursday. It will be available for Sony’s PlayStation 3 and for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Windows computers.

“South Park: The Game” is a role-playing adventure in which players explore the fictional Colorado town and befriend the show’s protagonists, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman. The game is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, which has designed critically-acclaimed role-playing games in the “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and “Neverwinter Nights” franchises.

With the new game, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the power duo behind “South Park” and the Broadway hit “The Book of Mormon,” should want to erase their last foray into console gaming from people’s memories. Acclaim Entertainment’s “South Park,” a first-person-shooter game released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, computer and original PlayStation, was panned by critics.

Stone and Parker, along with their regular voice actors, provided the 13-year-old game’s soundtrack, but it was criticized for being repetitive. With today’s more advanced hardware and direct guidance from the creators, they have a shot at producing a better product. A spokeswoman for Comedy Central and South Park Digital Studios didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

“Matt and Trey are arguably two of the most important comedic talents of their generation,” THQ executive Danny Bilson said in a statement. “Bringing their vision of South Park to the interactive space is a dream-come-true.”

Game Informer magazine, which is published by GameStop, will have more details about “South Park: The Game,” including an interview with Stone and Parker, in the issue that hits newsstands this month. The “South Park” characters, dressed in garb from the show’s “Lord of the Rings” parody along with villains from other episodes including Satan, Manbearpig and Crab People, grace the magazine’s cover.