It might be obscure on why you would want to play a game that stars a cheerleader, hell even the name might startle a few. Now what if you give that cheerleader a chainsaw, throw her in a pit of zombies, add the creative mind of Suda51, and a story written by James Gunn? You get Lollipop Chainsaw.
A humorous, energetic, hack and slash game, that provides non-stop fun from start to finish. You play as cheerleader Juliet Starling a sweet innocent girl, who is secretly a zombie hunter. On her way to school she realizes something is wrong, the whole school has been turned into zombies. You fight through hordes of zombies as you try to figure out what was the cause behind the outbreak. Juliet later encounters her boyfriend, Nick, who unfortunately gets bitten as he tries to save the love of his life. As an attempt to save him from becoming a zombie, Juliet cuts Nick’s head off from his body. Not only does he play as the protagonist adherent sidekick but he is also used as a weapon. Juliet and Nick later find out their former classmate Swan, an evil stereotypical goth, is trying to break the barrier between the human world and, what they call hell, the Rotten World. Sawn summons five stereotyped demonic forces and it is up to you to restore order and stop Swan from ruling the world.
The plot it self is silly and foolish but Lollipop Chainsaw doesn’t take itself serious. James Gunn wrote the dialog to be humorous and fun, which he succeeds to an extent. Meaning everybody is funny but the protagonist, Juliet Starling. It almost felt like she was trying too hard, the whole innocent act was portrayed too dimwitted. Humor towards Juliet can be shallow as well, after you save some of your fellow classmate you receive comments like “I never thought I’d be save by someone with such great tits” are jokes trying to be funny. Also, the word bitch is thrown around like a volleyball at the beach, you get tired of it. With that being said most of the humor transpires from her boyfriend Nick and the games enemies and level design. Nick acts like the players mind, questioning and commenting on games story and level design. Nick was meant to show that Suda51 isn’t afraid to poke fun at his own ideas. Now the enemies and bosses are where you’ll get the laughs. The game has 7 levels, each of those levels has a theme, and each theme has stereotyped zombies. One level you’ll be shredding jocks the next level you’ll be mowing down hillbillies. The game changes themes so well I never got tired of the environment. Of course, you have your game bosses, which are stereotyped like a high school clique, you have your punk, hippy, metal-head, etc. You’ll have a good laugh as you cut through each boss level, remembering your high school years.
Not only is Lollipop Chainsaw a good game to laugh through it is also a great game too look at. The art direction is cartoony and it’s exactly what you expect from a Suda51 game. Every level had its own color pallet to help design the theme of the level. The farm level will have orange, yellow, and brown coloring, while the arcade level will contain neon colors. It helps distinguish each level and keep the game fresh throughout.
What really had me going was the boss battle soundtrack, which Little Jimmy Urine composed himself. Every song was unique and fit the style for each boss. I found myself replaying the boss battles just to listen to the song. I wish I could say the same for the game’s level soundtrack. Every once and awhile I would pause the game to create a playlist from some of the trademarked songs, as I play. It wasn’t that the songs were bad; they didn’t fit the mood or pace of the game.
Lollipop Chainsaw offers crazy hack and slash gameplay. Though you can button mash your way through levels, Lollipop Chainsaw rewards its players for pulling off combos. By doing combos the attack will add up to your score, your score is then reviewed at the end of each level. You have to purchase combos from Chop2Shop.zom, whish is an in-game online store. From there you can buy costumes, upgrades for your stats, in-game music, and med kits (lollipops). You purchase items using zombie medals; you get zombie medals by killing zombies and saving your classmates. Pulling off combos is easy and fun, you’ll want to purchase every combo to experiment with each move and see how many heads can you simultaneously cut off. The game also offers unique minigames that you have to pass to progress. Minigames involve you cutting zombie heads into a basketball hoop and mowing down zombies in a tracker.
Juliet’s chainsaw upgrades as the story progresses. Juliet will receive birthday presents from her family that will add features to her chainsaw, allowing her to turn it into a gun or using it as speed boost dash. I was afraid the gun feature would ruin the flow of the game but since the zombies are fast and attack in packs the player will rarely use it as a weapon but instead as a way to progress destroying obstacles. Don’t forget you could use your boyfriend as a weapon. Collecting Nick Tickets allows you to use him with a set of skills you earn or buy. The problem I found with the feature was I rarely used him. There wasn’t a moment where I needed to use him.
Although hacking away at zombies is fun, the whole clear this room before you progress gets a little tiring. You’ll need to max out your power and set the game on easy if you want to do a speed run. Also the game features quick time events, a lot of quick time events. That is not necessarily a bad thing, the game will warn you before you enter a QTE, but messing up will cost you.
Replay value on the game is high, if you love ranking up high scores to show off. There is story mode and ranking mode, ranking mode consist of score attack, time attack and medal attack. Everything you bought in story mode will carry over to ranking mode. There wasn’t a big difference between story and ranking mode, but I did find myself fighting the Chop2Shop chicken in ranking mode. Although the game doesn’t feature multiplayer you can compare scores, with your friends or strangers from around the world, on the leaderboards. The game will keep you busy if you’re competitive or love unlocking extra items.
Lollipop Chainsaw is a game that doesn’t take itself too serious, which is a good thing. Don’t let the name scare you away. Although Juliet isn’t the character that steals the show, that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the game. The humor might be a little juvenile, but with memorable boss battles, and ranking mode you’ll be shredding through this game. If you love crazy fun combos, slashing zombies, or looking for sheer fun, Lollipop Chainsaw is the game to play.
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