A perfect example of a great concept with poor execution
There is not a lot that can go wrong if you introduce a hot blonde girl in a short skirt, hand her a deadly weapon and send a swarm of zombies towards her, giving her a license to decapitate them as viciously as she likes. Yet, Grasshopper Manufacture has somehow managed to take the mentioned ingredients, put them in a mix and come up with a product that leaves a sour taste in the mouth, to say the least.
Lollipop Chainsaw is an action hack and slash video game released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on June 12, 2012. The game has dared to be bold, but while doing so, it completely forgot about its true identity. True to any action game, Lollipop Chainsaw fails to commit to amazing action and thus everything else impressive about it becomes insignificant. The humour, music and characters fail to compensate for the shortcomings of the game.
Presentation
The only two things that come off as appealing about Lollipop Chainsaw are the music and the main character Juliet Sterling’s boyfriend Nick, who is just a talking head hooked with Juliet’s skirt. Despite being in such a miserable state, Nick is full of humorous, sarcastic and witty remarks. It is his presence that keeps the player from wishing that Juliet uses the chainsaw to cut her own self into half and bring the torture to an end.
The music is pretty impressive, with the rock and roll genre serving as a pretty good representation of a high school girl in a zombie-oriented infestation.
The aesthetics seem to hit the mark, creating an atmosphere of eeriness to show that the world is indeed being overrun by zombies. The glittery effects and lots of blood while killing zombies may appeal to some players, though a vast majority would find themselves turned off by the bright lights flashing unnecessarily during an intense fight.
Juliet Sterling has been portrayed as a stereotypical high school cheerleader who may know how to kick butt and use a chainsaw effectively, but is a bimbo with heaps of annoying stuff to say. The developers wanted to make her come off as extremely enticing and that is something that was successfully accomplished.
The obscene dialogues, provocative scenes and wackiness leaves the player with only two options, to immerse himself in the game and get used to the profanity and other stuff that are normally found in games, or simply walk away from the game and never look in its direction again.
Another thing about the game is that it comes off as a bit degrading towards women who believe that females are not merely sex objects.
Gameplay
Failing to maintain balance between quality and craziness is something that has been a recurring problem for Grasshopper for quite some time now. The same flaws have made their way into Lollipop Chainsaw. Insane world with funny characters and a lot of obscene stuff is once again what is being offered here and unfortunately shows the same problems that seen in games in which the developer used a similar formula.
There is not much to dislike about an over-sexualised character and funny, though pretty obscene, dialogues. However, the gameplay of the game does not come off as great.
Lollipop Chainsaw seems pretty comfortable with presenting the players with nothing new as far as combat is concerned. A player will be simply required to mash buttons to kill a horde of zombies, clear the area, move to the next zombie infested area and go through the motions once again. While this starts off as fun, it does not take too long to become monotonous.
Upgrades are expensive and take a terribly long time to unlock. It is not until late game when players will feel capable of shopping for new upgrades. Even with the upgrades, the combat system feels only as robust as the beginning of majority of the action games. This realisation simply acts to the disappointments that Lollipop Chainsaw has in store for anyone who dared to have expectations off it.
The mini-games are hardly enjoyable, something that does not come off as a surprise. If the main game lacks quality, it is a little absurd to expect a great deal from its mini-games.
The bosses in Lollipop Chainsaw are pretty average. Grasshopper has been praised in the past for creating really good bosses, but unfortunately that is not the case in their latest title. Each boss will have three phases and attack with predictable patterns. It would not take much effort to learn these patterns and get done with a fight that you would have really looked forward to.
Verdict
The cool concept of Lollipop Chainsaw has been ruined by its poor presentation and mediocre gameplay. The lack of ambition is apparent throughout the course of the game. The developer seemed to have fallen so much in love with the idea that it forgot to prep up the action.
We give the game a 5.00 and recommend it to gamers who are looking for some casual action hack and slash video game. As for the core gamers, it would definitely do you well to skip this one.
The mini-games are hardly enjoyable, something that does not come off as a surprise. If the main game lacks quality, it is a little absurd to expect a great deal from its mini-games.
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