Worst 18th birthday ever.
Star cheerleader Juliet Starling just wanted to go to school and see her boyfriend on her special day. Instead, she finds her school overrun with zombies. Luckily for everyone involved, she just so happens to be a certified zombie hunter, who regularly travels with her trusty chainsaw everywhere she goes. Wait, what?
Lollipop Chainsaw starts out ludicrous and only gets more insane from there. It’s Tarantino-esq presentation, storytelling and humour will definitely hit the spot for some. But does it make for an engaging gameplay experience?
You assume the role of Juliet in this character action game, and plow through hordes of zombies God of War style. It’s basic combat involves you mixing things up between light non-chainsaw attacks and heavy chainsaw maneuvers. At first, I thought the moment-to-moment combat was awful. As I played the game, I learned that my issues were two-fold: the basic move-set is a bit too limited, and I was playing the game wrong. The first issue can be quickly addressed by buying more moves at the stores spread throughout each level. As for the latter, I came into it with presumption that attacking with the chainsaw would be your primary attack. Trying to go chainsaw-only will get you killed quick, as those attacks are way too slow. As with all beat-em-ups of this variety, it’s usually best to lead with a light attack and then hit them with the heavy attacks later in your combo.
Once I got into its rhythm, the moment-to-moment combat was ok, if not a bit repetitive. Particularly at the beginning of the game, it doesn’t really have much to stand on. But as the game progresses, it throws in a number of different gameplay twists to keep things interesting. In one moment, you may need to jump on a bunch of zombies heads Super Mario style. The next, you’re chopping off zombie heads while aiming to score them into a basketball hoop. These twists happen often, which helps break up the monotony, though they’re not spectacular in their own right.
Mechanically, it’s middling, if unremarkable. What will ultimately make or break the experience for you is how much you enjoy its B-movie presentation. There’s no shortage of crude humour, fowl language and panty shots; much of which goes for the lowest common denominator. I can see aspects of this game really rubbing certain people the wrong way, but its ridiculousness ultimately helped me enjoy the game a bit more.
As striking as Lollipop Chainsaw appears on the surface, the end result is rather mediocre. The moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t anything to write home about, and stylistically its divisive at best. If you’re still really interested in giving this one a shot, it’s probably worth a rental or a bargain bin purchase. Otherwise, you probably won’t find this lollipop to be tasty at all.
In Third Person 