Lollipop Chainsaw Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

System: PS3*, Xbox 360
Dev: Grasshopper Manufacture
Pub: Warner Bros.
Release: June 12, 2012
Players: 1
Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p	Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language

And the voice acting isn't too shabby either, thanks to Tara Strong (who you might remember as the voice of Harley Quinn in Arkham City) and Michael Rosenbaum. Of course, the acting is campy, but it's intentionally campy, giving a great overall B-movie vibe to the whole thing. Let's just say it's more Rocky Horror Picture Show than Shawshank Redemption. And I'm perfectly okay with that.

Lollipop Chainsaw Screenshot

If the M rating wasn't already an indication, this is not a game you should play with your kids. Or your grandparents. The violence is extreme, everything is over-sexualized, and there's no shortage of F-bombs. In fact, this last feature is to the game's detriment. A few bad words here and there are fine, but Lollipop Chainsaw uses them so excessively that they lose their impact before the end of the first chapter. There are even a couple places where I heard an expletive and was confused as to why the writers even put it there.

And as long as I've wandered into the complaint section of this review, let's talk about the downside of the controls: the wonky camera. You will be wrestling with it quite frequently, which is something I'm pretty sure game developers should have down pat by now. Sure, you have control over it, but getting into corners or against walls will often send the camera way off in a direction you didn't intend. Of course, there isn't really any super precise platforming or anything in the game, so the bad cameras won't affect you as much as they would in some other games. Still, there are times where it's just plain annoying.

At the end of the day, though, Lollipop Chainsaw is a game about mindlessly hacking things to bits with a chainsaw while staring at Juliet's cute fanny (hey, she just turned eighteen; she's legal). It's not perfect, but it's insane amounts of incredibly stylized, so-moronic-it's-almost-genius fun. And really, we'd expect no less from the man who brought us No More Heroes.

By
Josh Wirtanen
Editor / News Director

@joshuajwirtanen
Date: June 13, 2012

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

4.0

Graphics
Cel-shaded visuals with highly stylized, comic book-style menus.

3.8

Control
Simple yet precise, though the camera can be pretty wonky.

4.8

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Amazing soundtrack, with great B-movie vocal performances from Tara Strong and Michael Rosenbaum.

4.0

Play Value
The campaign will last about eight hours, but the levels can be replayed to unlock tons of extra goodies.

4.2

Overall Rating - Great
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 - 1.9 = Avoid	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	3.5 - 3.9 = Good	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair	4.0 - 4.4 = Great	5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

Juliet Starling is an 18-year-old student with a dark secret: zombie-hunting with a killer chainsaw in hand. Juliet must balance the drama of high school while carrying out her zombie-hunting lineage.

Celebrated game developer Suda51 brings his unique creative style and vision to the gameplay design, taking players through a wild ride of zombies, chainsaws, and rainbows.

Through an adapted script by James Gunn, Juliet must uncover the root of a colossal zombie outbreak at her school, San Romero High, but soon realizes the horde is only the opening act to a festival of zombie rock lords determined to take her down.

Players will hone their cheerleading acrobatics and chainsaw skills to string together devastating combo moves, taking out hordes of the undead.

San Romero High's zombie jocks and undead faculty are the least of Juliet's concerns when she soon realizes that she faces a bigger challenge, zombie rock lords that add a new 'beat' to Suda51's over-the-top boss battles.