There are also several sections that require you to complete mini-games that are suggestive of many popular 80’s videogames. A later level at an arcade features dancing zombies that dodge attacks until you kill their boom box-wielding leader. For example, the farm level contains sequences that see you atop a combine harvester and being drugged by hallucinogenic mushrooms. Each takes place in a separate location, has their own enemy types, and some other gameplay twists and turns as well.
The levels themselves are actually pretty varied. There are a few twists here and there, but a time-sink Lollipop Chainsaw isn’t. Do the math and you’ll discover than you can finish Lollipop Chainsaw over the course of an afternoon. There are only 6 stages and each can easily be beaten is less than an hour. Beyond that, Juliet must travel to each of 5 remaining stages and fight to the end, and then kill the boss. We find out who is behind the zombies at the end of the very first proper level. Don’t expect a mystery for Juliet to solve. Story-wise, it’s all very straight forward. Obviously that can only be to Lollipop Chainsaw’s benefit. This strong cast means that the voice acting is universally Hollywood quality. Also making appearances are Juliet’s sisters Cordelia (Linda Cardellini of Freaks and Geeks and ER fame) Rosalind (Kimberly Brooks - Ashley, Mass Effect series), and Juliet’s father (Gregg Henry - Hung, The Riches). The strength of these two as voice actors goes a long way toward making their banter one of the game’s high points. Juliet is voiced by VO legend Tara Strong (she has too many credits to list - most recently she played Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City), while Nick is voiced by Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville’s Lex Luthor). She cut it off to save him from a zombie bite, and then hung it on her ass. Along for the ride is her boyfriend Nick - or at least his head is along for the ride. Juliet is 100% street-legal.Īnyway, Lollipop Chainsaw follows the tale of nubile zombie hunter Juliet Starling who, on the day she turns 18, is faced with a full-scale zombie invasion. It won’t matter that the phrase “What the dick?” has been repeated a million times, it just sounds hilarious coming from the mouth of an animated and very scantily-clad teenager (it’s made very clear right from the start that the game begins on our protagonist Juliet’s 18th birthday - just in case your were worried about the game’s “creepy factor.”) It’s short, so it doesn’t wear out its welcome, the simplistic gameplay keeps the frustration-level low, the cartoony graphics mean the player need not concern themselves with less-than-stellar looks, the B-movie story means you don’t have to think too hard, and the R-rated dialog is mostly hilarious. Furthermore, all those pieces that should work against it actually do the opposite. Ultimately, Lollipop Chainsaw is an intentional exercise in style over substance and to that end, it totally works. However, taken as a whole, all that stuff doesn’t seem to matter as much as you think it should. The game is very short, the gameplay is fairly simplistic, the graphics are very cartoony, the story is B-movie fare, and the dialog crams in more R-rated content than it needs. What I mean is that taken piecemeal, Lollipop Chainsaw’s parts equal far less individually than as a whole.
That’s not to say Lollipop Chainsaw isn’t a solid game - it is - it’s just that it seems solid in spite of itself. It’s more concerned with flash and titillation than building a solid gameplay foundation to hold the player’s interest. Lollipop Chainsaw is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it experience straight from the twisted minds of Suda 51 (Killer7, No More Heroes) and filmmaker James Gunn (Slither, Super).
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