Is this lollipop sweet or sour?
Suda51’s games have divided gamers and critics opinions for quite a while now, from Killer 7 to No More Heroes, there has been mixed feelings about what he creates. I personally am quite the fan, but what of Grasshopper’s latest entry, Lollipop Chainsaw?
To call it a sexist game is an understatement, you play as Juliet Starling…a ditzy, blonde 18 year old cheerleader with the assets you would expect, short skirts and cleavage are on full display, you even get a Trophy for attempting to look up the skirt! Juliet is a zombie hunter and her boyfriend is bitten so she saves him by…chopping his head off and attaching it to her skirt, yes you read that right. The plot is ridiculous as you go through locations like the high school killing zombies and saving students, but it’s typical of Suda51’s style, having said that I wish Juliet showed some form of intelligence besides knowing how to kill zombies and look hot doing it…
Gameplay consists of you guessed it, using a chainsaw and pom-poms against zombies, while you can get bonuses and pull off special moves. This would be fine, but the game introduces mini-games that are painfully annoying and repetitive. One is called Zombie Basketball and you essentially cut the head off a zombie and it automatically heads for the basket, but a zombie can knock it away with his hand and you only have 3 minutes to get 100 points, believe me…it’s a real pain.
Combat starts out being enjoyable, but it quickly becomes repetitive and it’s just not fluid. It doesn’t help that the enemies change into tougher opponents that can do things like be kamikaze zombies or shoot a rocket at you, however when it works its good fun and there’s a number of collectables hidden around the levels. The game will only take a few hours to complete, but you can go back for high scores, which are hard to earn as everything is taken into account for your score, like how many continues you used and so on.
In terms of presentation, Lollipop Chainsaw is a nice looking game that has that typical Suda51 look to it, but the character models look a bit dated at times. Voice-acting is cheesy as hell, but the music is classic.
The Verdict
So, Lollipop Chainsaw may leave a sour taste on your mouth with its stereotype of blonde cheerleaders and the combat may be repetitive, and yet it’s oddly compelling…there’s something about the game other than just being a bit pervy that makes me want to play it more and I’m sure you’ll feel similar.
