It’s that time again. Time for me to talk about a Suda game. Suda games are usually a hit или a miss between audiences. They can become cult classics like No еще Герои and Killer7, или they can be completely forgotten like Diabolical Pitch. His games are only really considered by people who enjoy his style of storytelling and over-the-top gameplay. So it’s no surprise that I enjoy a good portion of his games. And one that I will be talking about today is the overly colorful and bubbly zombie hack n’ Слэш game, Lollipop Chainsaw



~Story~

Lollipop Chainsaw is a game that follows the young, attractive, and thankfully eighteen-years-old Juliet Starling, captain of the cheerleading squad and also from a family of zombie killers. Equipped with her chainsaw and the living decapitated-head of her boyfriend Nick, Juliet is on a mission to stop the schools outcast, Swan, from destroying the world with the help of the five Dark Purveyors, punk rock, loudmouth Zed, death metal viking Vikke, the hyperdelic hippie Mariska, the funk rock, auto-tuned Josey, and the classic rock-and-roll zombie with an слон motorcycle, Lewis Legend, all representing a sort of genre of rock music. Along the way, Juliet gets help from her two sister, Cordelia, a take-no-shit sniper, and Rosalind, a hyper teenager, and even gets help from her father, Gideon, who is just every action movie hero Ты can think of. With the help of her family, her cynical boyfriend, and perverted sensei Morikawa, she has to stop Swan’s plan for destruction. And let me just throw this out there, this game is dumb. This game is really, really, REALLY dumb. And I Любовь it!



~Gameplay~

Lollipop Chainsaw is a game that is filled with really dumb moments. After all, this is a game that has a cheerleader cutting apart zombies with a chainsaw while sucking on lollipops as she cuts their heads off with rainbows and sparkles shooting out while Эй, Mickey plays. And yet I Любовь that. Granted, the tutorial level isn’t too great with it’s combat. Ты have a stun attack and a kill attack. And that’s it. But let me tell you, once Ты buy the first set of upgrades in the first level, that is when the game starts to pick up, and get real good, in that classic Suda51 fashion. New combos, styles of attacking zombies, and methods of dodging out of an attack and delivering a follow up attack just feel so satisfying once Ты start to get the hang of it. Having to clear hordes and hordes of zombies with these moves can prove to be real satisfying, as Ты manage to stun a whole army of them and then cut their heads off, granting Ты a ton of points and medals. Oh, also, this game is just as much a highscore racking game as it is a normal hack n’ Слэш game. Sure, points may seem like a whole nothing thing for this game, but when Ты see that there are points, and Ты take yourself out of the hack n’ Слэш mindset and put yourself in an arcade kind of mindset, you’ll see just how much fun it is. Not to mention, Beating Dad’s Score (That’s what it’s called in the game) will grant Ты a ton of Медали that Ты can use to buy new upgrades, trait boosts, uniforms, and Музыка that Ты can listen to when playing through the game.



Other things Ты can do in the combat is enter a sparkle mode where Ты just start cutting apart zombies like crazy, one hit killing them, and getting еще points for it. It’s fun, but only for a limited time. Another thing is the Nick Roulette, where Ты use a ticket to use any ability of Nick, from Nick Toss, where Ты свинг, качели his head around to kill zombies, Nick Shake where Ты shake his head to get еще money, Nick Popper, where Ты shoot Nicks head to stun the enemies for multi-kills, and Nick Throw, where Ты roll his head to kill groups of zombies. While the combat is certainly good, there are some sequences that mix up the combat, with some mini-games. Some of them are okay, like driving around in a трактор while slicing apart zombies while listening to Ты Spin Me Around by Dead или Alive. Other ones, like Zombie баскетбол или the Chainsaw Dash sequences are okay, nothing spectacular. Zombie баскетбол leaves as soon as it came, and Chainsaw Dash has a very odd, almost stiff feel to it that keeps it from being perfect. And that scaffolding mini-game and Zombie Baseball can go rot in hell. The scaffolding mini-game throws constant, almost hard to spot crap at you, and if Ты get hit by one thing, it’s an instant kill and Ты have to restart the whole thing. Zombie Baseball has a terrible auto-lock with the Chainsaw Blaster, a gun for the Chainsaw, that only sticks on the zombie to aim at, but never stays on them when they move, so it starts to make Ты feel like everything’s out of control. It doesn’t help that Nick has to cheer every time he passes a base, making еще zombies rush at him. Thankfully, most of these are one and done, unlike most games that would have these awful sequences and make Ты do them several times.



Other things that this game does well is the style of humor. Let me tell you, this game had no right to be super serious and dramatic like No еще Герои 2 или Killer 7, so naturally, it took all serious situations and threw them out the window. This game is full blown insanity and it just goes along with it. This game gives me a similar feeling that Saints Row IV did. Constant banters between Juliet and Nick about fetishes and Музыка references. And the hilarious descriptions of the zombies Ты find. This is not a game Ты should play if Ты are not used to vulgar slang. The characters swear every minute, and zombies will say vulgar trash just for fun. This game feels like a huge parody filled with sex jokes and references. Shit, this game gives me some Panty and чулок feeling. Shame they didn’t have a PSG costume in the game. The costumes in this game are pretty good. Sure, Ты have the typical sexy uniforms, but then Ты get ones like a full bunny costume, a Japanese maid, and some based on anime. There is one from Deadman Wonderland, the edgiest Аниме of the 2000s. Not one, but two Highschool of the Dead uniforms, proof that it truly is the best anime. And a uniform from this shit Аниме called Is This a Zombie, a series that people want me to review when they realize that I will never review that trash. The different things Ты can buy really give this game еще replay value, just so Ты can see what else Ты can buy if Ты put the time into it.



A lot of people say that this game is far too short for the price it has on it, and while I would agree, especially at full retail price, I don’t see the short gameplay being a factor. Hell, I see it as being a benefit to this game. The short campaign that is about five to six hours works in the favor of replay. Ты wanna get to a section because Ты screwed up on saving one survivor, just skip to that section and save him. Wanna beat Dad’s Score in one area, done. This works in the favor of frequent playthroughs and I don’t have a problem with it. I do have a problem with this game being charged with еще than what it’s really worth. Seriously, thirty bucks, at the least! But one thing that is always a staple in Suda games is the boss fights. The boss fights with the Dark Purveyors is some of the best I’ve seen in video games, as is common for Suda games. Having to deal with Zed throwing slang at Ты that can actually physically harm Ты to having to fight off Lewis as his motorcycle always changes no matter how much damage is done to it. These bosses add so much creativity to them and just make them stand out еще than most hack and Слэш bosses. No one will remember shit boss #5 from Devil May Cry 2, but I think everyone will remember the first boss of Lollipop Chainsaw… assuming people bought the game in the first place.



~Ending~

~SPOILERS AHEAD~

After Juliet manages to kill off the last of the Dark Purveyors, it’s found out that this was all part of Swan’s plan, as the Dark Purveyors were actually a sacrifice to a much еще evil creature. лебедь then blows his head off and thus, transforms into the Zombie of All Zombies, Killabilly, a fat, bloated Elvis-looking giant that can shoot lasers, attack Ты with his long tongue, create a whirlwind to send zombies at you, control cars to run Ты over, and just in general, make Ты feel sick just by looking at him. I mean, this is one of the most disgusting bosses I’ve seen, but not too bad. I heard a lot of people say that Lewis was a much еще fun boss fight than Killabilly, and I do agree, but I thought that this boss was fine. There’s probably some symbolic bullshit in here somewhere. Suda’s good at doing that. After Gideon sacrifices himself in an explosion from a motorcycle covered in dynamite and grenades to open a hole in Killabilly, Juliet makes her way to the сердце of Killabilly to destroy him, but the only way to destroy the сердце is for Nick to sacrifice himself and destroy the heart. With a tearful goodbye, Juliet escapes the body of Killabilly, and Nick sacrifices himself to destroy him. But because of his nobel sacrifice, Nick is дана a chance to return to earth, but with a new body. I could spoil this, but it’s too funny for me to do that, so you’ll just have to play the game for yourself to find the joke. After that, Nick and Juliet are reunited, and Gideon is also still alive, and the family go home. Now, depending on if Ты saved all the classmates, you’ll either get the good ending или the bad ending. Knowing me… I got the bad ending. But details.



~Legacy~

Despite the fact that Lollipop Chainsaw was a game that had mixed reception, it still, somehow, became кузнечик Manufacturer’s highest selling game of all time. Yes, еще than No еще Heroes, which everyone claims is Suda’s винная бутыль, magnum, магнум opus (Well, that или Killer 7, but nobody bought Killer 7). Despite falling into obscurity, Lollipop Chainsaw still lives on, with the cosplay community dressing as Juliet in conventions worldwide. Truly a great way to remember a franchise.

~Ranking~

I don’t care what anyone says, I Любовь this game so much. It’s dumb, it’s stupid, it’s borderline retarded, but it’s great. It has fun combat, funny writing, and just an enjoyable game all around. It’s a quick game that Ты can pick up and play, really giving it that arcade feel, and it’s just a game that I can’t help but come back to time and time again. It may not be Suda’s best game, but it sure as hell is a good game. The minigames may be bad, and it may be short, but it’s still good to me. With that, I give this game the rank of Excavation Worthy.