Lollipop Chainsaw: An Underrated Gem

Like most people I have a love for the underdog. The gems that maybe weren’t the best out there but darnit, they gave it their all and deserve some sort of recognition for it. Today’s gem, in my opinion, that I’m going to recognize is Lollipop Chainsaw on the Playstation 3. The game actually sold over a million copies worldwide despite being released in June 2012, which looking back was a pretty quiet month for releases as the biggest titles it was up against were Lego Batman 2, Pikmin 2, some titles for the recently released Playstation Vita, and a few movie-to-game releases like Madagascar and Amazing Spider Man.

Now before we go further, I do want to point out that this game’s got some graphic violence and adult language in it and and if you’ve got a little one watching, maybe watch the video yourself first before deciding if it’s okay for them to see it as well.

The game’s themes and sense of humor takes me back to classic shows I watched in the early 90’s like Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs and USA Up All Night with Gilbert Gottfried and Rhonda Shear. These were shows that featured B and C tier movie schlock that didn’t really take itself very seriously and was a lot better for it…mainly because if it *did* take itself seriously it would’ve been pretty terrible (show picture of batman v superman, then clear throat).

So a quick synopsis of Lollipop Chainsaw. You play as Juliet, a cheerleader for San Remo high whose family is trained in “zombie hunting”. All hell breaks loose and zombies called the “dark purveyors” are running rampant in our world, and as you can guess, Juliet, her siblings, and her dad are the only ones who can stop it. Her mom is somehow not part of this and is oblivious to the whole thing.

Her boyfriend Nick tags along on the adventure as a sidekick, gets bitten by a zombie very early on and spends the rest of the game as a severed head. Nick’s voiced by Michael Rosenbaum, who you probably know as Lex Luthor from Smallville, and probably from a ton of other roles on tv and in movies. If you have any appreciation for this actor, then I can promise you that his voice acting alone makes this game worth a purchase as many of the lines he delivers are laugh-out-loud hilarious.

The whole story reminds me of a more raunchy Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You have the unsuspecting cheerleader and rag-tag team who fights the undead, makes sassy one-liners and saves the world. She even has a sensei who taught her everything he knows. It’s definitely an adult game between the graphic violence, vulgar language and content as well, and it’s worn as a badge of honor.

The whole story reminds me of a more raunchy Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In story mode, you basically just go level by level, murder zombies by the truckload, and advance the story. There’s a few power ups you get throughout the game that break up what would otherwise be a little boring after awhile in the way of a dash attack, and a gun attachment that lets you shoot zombies at range. These are used mostly during some racing sections and a zombie baseball section, respectively. The boss fights are unique enough in theme, and while they do have some surprises to try and be a little more interesting, they are mostly just your usual cycle of finding their opening to exploit their weakness until they’re dead.

The art style is your typical 3D graphics but with all the characters having dark outlines around them to give it almost a comic book feel to it. The action and humor is both irreverent and vulgar as I mentioned. The game was developed by Grasshopper and Suda51 who always develop games in this signature style. As a side note, it was also written by James Gunn, who you might’ve heard of from a couple of low budget no name movies that have released in the last few years (pics of guardians of the galaxy and whatever else he’s made). 

So while the game is fun and there’s a lot of content to unlock in the way of upgrades and costumes, it’s got enough to play through in a weekend to see most of what there is.  To me, that’s the fun of it. As I get older and take on more responsibilities, having something like this to tear into -pardon the pun – that doesn’t take itself seriously and give me some laughs along the way is a perfect way to game and reminds me that I don’t need a 100 hour long world to explore to enjoy myself.  There’s no DLC or some ad placement to upgrade to the super-ultimate-elite edition because they only shipped the game half done and wanted you to pay another $40 for the rest of it. 

So that’s the long and short of it. This wasn’t so much a review as just a video of a game you might’ve overlooked while buying something else, and a suggestion to buy it if you’ve still got a ps3 or xbox 360 still sitting around and want to build up your library.