Been a few years since I wrote a review, this was going to be a messageboard post but it got a bit long... far from my best work but thought I'd share anyway...
I fired up this game with identical hopes and trepidations to those I had with Grasshopper manufactures previous effort Shadows of the Damned.
Without Suda51 at the helm SotD was a meandering mess of bad jokes and boring gameplay. That is to say: the first half of it was, I wouldn?t know about the second half as the game lies unfinished in the box under my coffee table.
Like that game, Suda51, Grasshoppers talismanic CEO appears in the credits as ?creative director? ? a kind of supervisory role, the directorship of the game is handled by a guy called Tomo Ikeda who’s highest profile game before this was the Wiiware title ?My Life as a King? ? a game that, albeit well received, doesn?t really sit well alongside the likes of Killer7 or No More Heroes.
So, right off the bat, no one should be expecting a multi-layered game with the depth and creativity that Goichi Suda brings to his more personal projects. For my money he?s the best auteur in this business and what Mr Ikeda does achieve with Lollipop Chainsaw is a rather brilliant impersonation of his bosses style (if not his substance).
At its heart LC is a brawler. It?s inherent to the genre that you could, if you so desired, mash the same combo?s ad infinitum until the credits roll, put the game in the box, ship it back to Gamefly, change your signature to ?Lollipop Chainsaw meh/10? and never think of it again.
In this age of games that require minimum input lest you interrupt the story for too long I rather expect that many consumers will do just that ? which will be a shame as getting to end is not really what Lollipop Chainsaw, or any brawler worth it?s salt, is really about.
However, in this case, the story is worthy of mention ? well ? maybe not the story, but the characterisation if fantastic. Juliet emerges as one of the most likeable protagonists in videogame history, her endless propensity for looking on the bright side of everything is genuinely infectious and her relationship with her boyfriend ends up being more believable than it has any right to be ? especially considering his ?handicap.
The story and dialogue in the cut-scenes is embellished by in game throw-away lines that range from the chuckle worthy and mildly cheesy to sarcastic and hilarious. It?s a small shame that a few of the supporting cast of Juliet?s family weren?t a little more embellished but that?s a somewhat contradictory complaint ? it?s not about the story remember ? But it?s credit to how well this element is realised that I wanted more.
The meat of the game, the zombie brawling, is built around 4 button combat High attack, Low attack, Strong attack, Jump/Dodge.
There?s no block and no counter buttons which automatically put this an extra step into old-school territory, it?s a system that puts you very much in mind of NMH, especially when it comes to button hammering finishing moves.
Later in the game you get a ?Chainsaw Blaster? which adds a little ranged combat to mix and there are also two varieties of special attacks, one which give you invulnerability and one-hit kills for a few seconds and the other makes use of Nick, the still living decapitated head of Juliet?s boyfriend, in a varity of entertaining (If not always useful) ways.
Add to all this upgradable combos and various other unlockables and it all combines to give you a mass of different ways to despatch the undead.
Some may argue that the variety here is merely cosmetic, and that you can complete the game by hammering ?Y?/?Triangle ? and, as with most brawlers, you probably could ? but you?re not going to get many zombie medals that way. Zombie medals are the game?s currency, they come in two varieties: Gold and Platinum and they are used to purchase all of the aforementioned upgrades as well as a plethora of audio visual enhancements including music (another highlight of the game), artwork and a bewildering range of costumes. To amass a healthy amount of these things the game employs a bonus mechanic called ?Sparkle Hunting? in which extra medals are awarded for decapitating 3 or more zombies in the same instant.
So? coins. Coins mean upgrades, upgrades mean better combo?s better combo?s mean a higher score. And so we get to heart of the matter.
Lollipop Chainsaw is, beyond the great characters, artistic creativity and OTT marketing, a high-score chasing game ? complete with a worldwide online leaderboard so you can compare skillz with the kind of Japanese gamer who could tell you the pixel count for the hit box in Super R-Type. It can?t bump fists with the likes of DMC3 or Bayonetta, it just isn?t that technical, but it offers far more reason to get involved ? more reason to mix up your moves, more rewards for posting a score and better incentive for replaying the story than the majority of its peers, God of War and Ninja Gaiden 3, I?m looking at you.
Of course there are weaknesses. Lollipop Chainsaw is a fair distance from perfect.
The level design becomes somewhat uninspired towards the end of the game and when there are a lot of enemies on screen those at the periphery tend to freeze suspiciously.
There are also brief interludes in gameplay where Nick is fixed to a zombie body and a button matching minigame takes place. I could live without these ? LC mixes up the gameplay so regularly with running and shooting sections, as well as set of levels designed around classic arcade games, that the Nick minigames wear thin quickly. Thankfully they are few and far between.
It?s necessary to note that success is measured against intent. LC never tries to out-story Uncharted, beat Crysis for visuals or offer Virtua Fighter fans an alternative fight engine. It?s a game that tries to bring elements of all these together to make a game that?s fun to play and even more fun to play again.
Lollipop Chainsaw sets its sights on being an accessible brawler with a story that embellishes the gameplay rather than smothers it and mechanics that are easy to pick up and harder to master.
To this end, it can only be considered a massive success.
I fired up this game with identical hopes and trepidations to those I had with Grasshopper manufactures previous effort Shadows of the Damned.
Without Suda51 at the helm SotD was a meandering mess of bad jokes and boring gameplay. That is to say: the first half of it was, I wouldn?t know about the second half as the game lies unfinished in the box under my coffee table.
Like that game, Suda51, Grasshoppers talismanic CEO appears in the credits as ?creative director? ? a kind of supervisory role, the directorship of the game is handled by a guy called Tomo Ikeda who’s highest profile game before this was the Wiiware title ?My Life as a King? ? a game that, albeit well received, doesn?t really sit well alongside the likes of Killer7 or No More Heroes.
So, right off the bat, no one should be expecting a multi-layered game with the depth and creativity that Goichi Suda brings to his more personal projects. For my money he?s the best auteur in this business and what Mr Ikeda does achieve with Lollipop Chainsaw is a rather brilliant impersonation of his bosses style (if not his substance).
At its heart LC is a brawler. It?s inherent to the genre that you could, if you so desired, mash the same combo?s ad infinitum until the credits roll, put the game in the box, ship it back to Gamefly, change your signature to ?Lollipop Chainsaw meh/10? and never think of it again.
In this age of games that require minimum input lest you interrupt the story for too long I rather expect that many consumers will do just that ? which will be a shame as getting to end is not really what Lollipop Chainsaw, or any brawler worth it?s salt, is really about.
However, in this case, the story is worthy of mention ? well ? maybe not the story, but the characterisation if fantastic. Juliet emerges as one of the most likeable protagonists in videogame history, her endless propensity for looking on the bright side of everything is genuinely infectious and her relationship with her boyfriend ends up being more believable than it has any right to be ? especially considering his ?handicap.
The story and dialogue in the cut-scenes is embellished by in game throw-away lines that range from the chuckle worthy and mildly cheesy to sarcastic and hilarious. It?s a small shame that a few of the supporting cast of Juliet?s family weren?t a little more embellished but that?s a somewhat contradictory complaint ? it?s not about the story remember ? But it?s credit to how well this element is realised that I wanted more.
The meat of the game, the zombie brawling, is built around 4 button combat High attack, Low attack, Strong attack, Jump/Dodge.
There?s no block and no counter buttons which automatically put this an extra step into old-school territory, it?s a system that puts you very much in mind of NMH, especially when it comes to button hammering finishing moves.
Later in the game you get a ?Chainsaw Blaster? which adds a little ranged combat to mix and there are also two varieties of special attacks, one which give you invulnerability and one-hit kills for a few seconds and the other makes use of Nick, the still living decapitated head of Juliet?s boyfriend, in a varity of entertaining (If not always useful) ways.
Add to all this upgradable combos and various other unlockables and it all combines to give you a mass of different ways to despatch the undead.
Some may argue that the variety here is merely cosmetic, and that you can complete the game by hammering ?Y?/?Triangle ? and, as with most brawlers, you probably could ? but you?re not going to get many zombie medals that way. Zombie medals are the game?s currency, they come in two varieties: Gold and Platinum and they are used to purchase all of the aforementioned upgrades as well as a plethora of audio visual enhancements including music (another highlight of the game), artwork and a bewildering range of costumes. To amass a healthy amount of these things the game employs a bonus mechanic called ?Sparkle Hunting? in which extra medals are awarded for decapitating 3 or more zombies in the same instant.
So? coins. Coins mean upgrades, upgrades mean better combo?s better combo?s mean a higher score. And so we get to heart of the matter.
Lollipop Chainsaw is, beyond the great characters, artistic creativity and OTT marketing, a high-score chasing game ? complete with a worldwide online leaderboard so you can compare skillz with the kind of Japanese gamer who could tell you the pixel count for the hit box in Super R-Type. It can?t bump fists with the likes of DMC3 or Bayonetta, it just isn?t that technical, but it offers far more reason to get involved ? more reason to mix up your moves, more rewards for posting a score and better incentive for replaying the story than the majority of its peers, God of War and Ninja Gaiden 3, I?m looking at you.
Of course there are weaknesses. Lollipop Chainsaw is a fair distance from perfect.
The level design becomes somewhat uninspired towards the end of the game and when there are a lot of enemies on screen those at the periphery tend to freeze suspiciously.
There are also brief interludes in gameplay where Nick is fixed to a zombie body and a button matching minigame takes place. I could live without these ? LC mixes up the gameplay so regularly with running and shooting sections, as well as set of levels designed around classic arcade games, that the Nick minigames wear thin quickly. Thankfully they are few and far between.
It?s necessary to note that success is measured against intent. LC never tries to out-story Uncharted, beat Crysis for visuals or offer Virtua Fighter fans an alternative fight engine. It?s a game that tries to bring elements of all these together to make a game that?s fun to play and even more fun to play again.
Lollipop Chainsaw sets its sights on being an accessible brawler with a story that embellishes the gameplay rather than smothers it and mechanics that are easy to pick up and harder to master.
To this end, it can only be considered a massive success.