PlayStation 3
XBox 360
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Product Features

Genre
Action and Shooter
Publisher
Warner Bros. Interactive
Release Date
June 15, 2012
Available Platforms
PlayStation 3, XBox 360

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Lollypop Chainsaw

Lollypop Chainsaw (PS3 and XBox 360) centres on protagonist Juliet Starling, 18 year old cheerleader turned zombie hunter, who has undertaken a self-appointed mission to decimate an army of un-dead which have resulted from a massive zombie outbreak. She intends to persist until she has got to the very heart of the deathly problem. Assisted by sisters Cordelia and Rosalind, Juliet jumps headlong into the fray, varying her sophisticated combative strategy from light gymnastic martial-arts type fighting to all out chainsaw wielding slaughter in order to save her classmates (of San Romero High School) from certain death.

There is original music from Akira Yamaoka (well-known Japanese video game music composer) and also some familiar popular tracks taken from a wide range of musical genres. The storyline and script contains humorous narrative and has benefitted from the expert input of distinguished Hollywood writer and director James Gunn (of Dawn of the Dead fame).

The game has been described as "sickly sweet", "grotesquely comical", "hack and slash", full of "blood and gore", "hilariously awesome" and more. Make up your own mind though - it really is uniquely different and is considered to fill a significant void in the video games market.

  • Dave Wallace June 21, 2012 PS3
    ****

    Imagine a cross between TV's 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and Sega's 'House of the Dead' videogame franchise. Mix that with the inventive weapon combinations of Capcom's 'Dead Rising 2' and sprinkle it with a touch of the kookiness of Harley Quinn from 'Batman: Arkham City', and this weird concoction might come close to conveying the craziness, goriness and downright fun that is "Lollipop Chainsaw".

    Pitting an innocent-looking, lollipop-licking cheerleader named Juliet Starling against hordes of zombies as they overrun an American high school, Lollipop Chainsaw is a ridiculous, over-the-top, psychedelic romp of a game that owes as much of a debt to old-school scrolling beat-em-ups like Sega's 'Streets of Rage' as it does to more recent cutting-edge games.

    An undeniably straightforward action-based affair, the game is livened up a little by the usual add-ons and extra content, whether it's upgrades (to your combat abilities, accessories or weapons) or unlockable content (such as alternate costumes and music tracks). However, despite these trappings, it remains at heart a simple hack-n-slash arcade-style action game.

    However, that's not to say it isn't enjoyable, and to be perfectly honest, it's been a long time since I've seen a game that sets out to have as much sheer unabashed fun as this one does.

    Don't think for a minute that the game treats its plot as anything more than a silly excuse to support the crazy, zombie-filled action scenes. What little story that does exist is treated in a completely tongue-in-cheek manner: for example, Juliet's love interest for the story consists of her boyfriend's decapitated (but still-living) head, which she carries around in a holdall - and which she can occasionally use as a weapon to pull off one of the game's many special moves.

    It's not just the characters that are treated with such an absurdly light touch, either: would any other zombie franchise really use the phrase "sparkle hunting" to describe the method of measuring just how bloodthirsty and kill-heavy your crazy combat combos are?

    In amongst all these silly details, however, there's a pretty solid skeleton of a game. It might be conventional (stages filled with hordes of moaning, brain-eating zombie villains give way to end-of-level boss battles, in the traditional manner), but it works - and there's enough in the way of imaginative detail, gross-out violence and wry humour to keep things interesting. The graphics might not be the finest you've ever seen in terms of polish and finesse, but the strong sense of design (eyeball-melting day-glo rainbow colours and all) more than makes up for it.

    The only words of warning that I'd provide are that the game is definitely not for younger players - it's rated '18' for a reason, including some explicit sexual references and high levels of gore and violence. There are also moments which feel borderline exploitative of the main character: even though she's just a collection of pixels, I'm not sure that some of those voyeuristic camera angles are truly necessary. Finally, it's also a pretty short game that probably won't put up more than a few hours' challenge for seasoned gamers. But if you can overlook these slight weaknesses, I'm sure you'll find Lollipop Chainsaw to be an invigorating slice of ridiculous, glorious, gory fun.