11/16/2023 0 Comments Hey mickey lollipop chainsaw![]() ![]() Unlockable combo attacks are numerous, but they are mercifully short and easy to remember. It’s fun, and because nobody stretched it out arbitrarily to meet some sort of Skyrim-mandated market demand, it never stops being fun. I played Lollipop Chainsaw TWICE, in its entirety, in the first two days that I owned it. For many reasons, I rarely get around to that second playthrough. Either there’s one terrible level, or a lengthy boss fight, or a game which should be 10 hours turns into 20 because of market demand for super-long, bloated games. I will often find myself enjoying a game thoroughly, looking forward to the replay before I even finish it, when I hit “the wall”. The plus side of a short but incredibly well-made game is that it never wears out its welcome. The emphasis here IS on replaying levels, and getting better at them, and enjoying yourself while doing so. ![]() Just go ahead and add it to the tremendous list of fantastic games you will never play because they’re “too short”. If the only way you can justify game purchases is by a mathematical equation comparing the price to the time between opening cutscene and end credits, you’re probably going to be unhappy with Lollipop Chainsaw. “Wait just a minute!”, you say, “Replay levels? I play games once and then trade them in! And each new game I buy must be at least 50 hours long, so who has time to replay levels?”. The better you do, the more money you’ll earn for upgrades, which allow you to go back again and do even better, all in the hopes of beating Juliet’s dad’s high score for the level, which again unlocks even more things. There’s no time limit, but the levels compel you to complete them as quickly as possible, killing zombies quickly, efficiently, and simultaneously where applicable. This game raises the dead not only in terms of zombies but also in its gameplay, with fast paced arcade-style combat. Like they say: it’s not the destination, but how you get there, that counts. Where Lollipop Chainsaw excels is not with story but with style. Juliet, with occasional help from her two sisters and master zombie hunter father, has to stop him. ![]() Aided by a handful of musically-themed “boss” zombies, he’s taken over sections of the town ranging from the high school, to a farm, to a video arcade. The story is thin, but what zombie outbreak story isn’t? Resident goth kid Swan, tired of being rejected by his classmates, has performed a ritual to raise the dead and bring about the end of the world. The conversation where Juliet cops to killing “a whole tribe of Frankenberries” is hands-down the funniest thing I’ve heard in a game in quite some time. Both are extremely talented with a respectable body of voiceover work, and both definitely bring their “A” game here. Credit for this dynamic also has to be given to voice actors Tara Strong and Michael Rosenbaum. It’d be easy to take the role of decapitated head-on-a-belt and just play it for pure comic relief, but Nick’s situation actually raises some interesting and thoughtful points throughout the story, and he goes way beyond the role of quippy sidekick. The boyfriend in question, Nick, makes for an excellent straight man against Juliet’s unending enthusiasm. Boyfriend bitten? No problem! Just perform a magic ritual to keep his head alive, chop that sucker off, and hook it onto your belt. Luckily Juliet hails from a family of dedicated zombie slayers, so an outbreak of this sort ranges somewhere between “minor inconvenience” and “incredibly entertaining”. The main protagonist of Lollipop Chainsaw is Juliet Starling, a cheerleader who bikes to school on her 18th birthday only to find her town suddenly overrun with zombies. For the longer answer, you’ll just have to keep reading. So how’s the game? Can it survive beyond the hype? Does it stand out in a market in which zombie games are nearly as numerous as the zombies themselves would be in a worldwide pandemic? The short answer is “absolutely”. Whatever the reason, this game was making the news well before it hit shelves, a rarity these days for anything not safely nestled within a Triple-A franchise. ![]() Unlike most of those games, which languished in relative obscurity only to be enjoyed by a niche audience, Lollipop Chainsaw rode an incredible wave of Internet hype prior to its release, due in no small part to the not-really-a-scandal involving cosplayer Jessica Nigri at this year’s PAX East. Lollipop Chainsaw is the newest title from Suda51’s Grasshopper Manufacture, following up such offbeat titles as Shadows of the Damned, No More Heroes, and Killer 7. ![]()
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