Cutting Our Teeth Into High School Horror With Lollipop chainsaw
Genre: hack'n'slash, horror, survival horrorstory:
lollipop chain's story is the most batshit thing ive ever fucking played. And I fucking loved it. The game follows Juliet a zombie hunter on her 18th birthday as a zombie outbreak happens. While convenient, it is kinda cool how its explained later. Her boyfriend Nick, who is attacked by zombies while waiting for juliet so they can go to school together.
After the attack Juliet does a non-explained black magic ritual (typical white women stuff) and saves his reanimated head. AND ITS FUCKING AMAZING. We then follow Juliet on her quest to save the world from the zombie apocalypse. And it's a roller coaster and a half
Tutorial:
The tutorial level is our introduction to Juliet, a young zombie hunter, who is late on her way to school. Sadly no toast. But we’ll live. On her way she's supposed to meet up with her boyfriend Nick. on the way some shenanigans happen and we learn about the controls, and the mechanic of saving civilians. Once you kill the zombies you save them. Something I wish dead rising would do personally. But that's a rant for another day. As she stops by to meet Nick she is attacked by zombies, unaware of her double life Nick goes to save her.. Which sadly doesn't work as he is attacked and bit by zombies, in a panic Juliet rushes to save him and cuts Nick's head off and rushes him to safety in one of the classrooms.
School:
in one of the classrooms Juliet reveals to Nick that she is a zombie hunter who knows magic rituals to reanimate body-less heads.. it's not able to be fully told at the time because zombies attack. We learn in this level zombies can be suicide bombers, and we learn she is a fucking weeb. Who has a perverted Japanese teacher (travis touchdown would be so ashamed smh). Who explains that there are three dimensions, earth, heaven, and the evil world, and somehow the dark evil worlds gasses were let free thanks to someone who threw a fucking a thing of cartoon dynamite! Its fucking DUMB AND ITS GREAT. Its just so dumb but like in the best way a cheesy b grade sci-fi horror movie should be.
After this we meet our game bosses, Zed an undead punk rock zombie, Vikke the viking, Mariska the white woman, Josey, the auto tuned rapper zombie in voodoo face paint that'd make papa shango jealous. And the leader, swan who is totally not the crow not at all. As he reveals he's responsible for the zombie apocalypse. And he leaves.
the stadium:
Before the stadium starts properly we have a moment between Nick and Juliet where Nick kinda just gives up because.. well life as just a head kinda sucks. But Juliet sees this opportunity to say its cool because that's kinda cool to her. the stadium is my second favorite level, and is super fucking fun. In the stadium we traverse the stadium filled with cars and debris, as you meet our first official boss,
zed the undead punk rocker. The fight itself is a puzzle fight utilizing his speakers. But during it. Zed literally throws a lot of colorful words our way like coozie (seriously who the fuck uses coozie?). And Juliet does whatever good zombie hunter does and cuts him in half.
After this we get another moment of rest as Juliet's sister appears saying that she does in fact exist and it's kind of cool. She looks like if you took Trish from “Devil May Cry” but designed by someone else. But we are once again interrupted by someone else.
Vikke the viking metal. And he's sadly very metal and mean. HONESTLY, this boss is probably one of my favorites, because how dumb it is. It utilizes the blaster. During the fight you'll cut him in half but his other half will attack you. After that his head will a
farm:
The farm is what feels like the longest level in my opinion. But in my opinion its also the most fun of the levels. The story is pretty simple, Juliet has a weird daydream nightmare of zombie Nick. Juliet freaks out but is thrusted out of it via her little sister joyriding a stolen school bus. Now more concerned with her sister's well-being, our heroine must traverse the decaying farmland to save her sister's life.
Along the way we see a weird mushroom. Being kind of stupid she Juliet decides to cut it open sending her to a trippy location to fight a giant zombie chicken. The fight being a giant chicken is easy. And were spat back to reality. As Juliet is now on a tractor mowing the zombie filled fields. But the farmhouse fun is over shortly as we bump back into the school bus, who is being attacked by zombie farmers. Juliet hops on it and saves the day, but the sister kicks it into high gear and abandons her on the farm lands again.
But we at least get more drugs as we find another mushroom. And much like the later family guy season, we get multiple giant chicken fights in a row. The first one is easy. But after killing the first bosses. We get a THREE HEADED MECHANIZED ZOMBIE CHICKEN FIGHT. And its pretty cool, it's a test of patience and tactics. So you kill the chicken and get picked up by your sister. We hop on the bus, and sis is acting a little sus. She's a sussy baka if you will. But the trip continues as we are dropped off to the boss.
Marisaka the hippie. And the hippie fight is pretty tough. You cut her in half and she multiplies like a cell. So this happens a few times and the four marisaka’s decide to go ahead and use magic.. Aka tripping to make you hallucinate her driving a tractor and a giant chicken head. It's a simple fight.
mall:
Before the mall starts we get a phone call from auto-tune saying that your sister was in another castle and that she's actually at the mall? How long was she there? Who knows but we gotta go to the mall baby! Before that; We get introduced to Juliet's dad who is a bit of a hard ass, but in the end he's a nice guy. We arrive at the mall and we got to make a plan. Dad takes the top, and we enter the mall and take it out.
The
mall is the blandest of the levels, but that's due to personal
nonsense about Atari style graphics. It also unlike dead rising which
claims its not a reference to night of the living dead, this mall is
called the fulci fun center a cute reference to Lucio
Fulci,
the mall is one giant reference to Pacman as well as older atari
games. But they're kind
of
hit
or miss. But that's ok as we meet our boss. A rapping zombie, in a
voodoo shaman outfit. And has an auto tune voice. T-papa shango if
you will.
He does what an auto tune zombie does best. ATTACKS US WITH A FLYING SAUCER. The fight is a two rounder like the rest have been. Round one is a bull fight. But the second fight HE REVEALS HE HAS JULIET'S SISTER and we have to defeat him to get her back. We defeat him but he refuses to give us the sister.
But thankfully our dad comes in to save the sister, and we descend back to earth
The cathedral
the streets, the final level, before the story starts Nick has a moment where he feels like he's not actually with Juliet because she loves him but because it'd be cool to have a head for a boyfriend and asks her to let him die to the zombies, Juliet is offended by the notion but before they can have a moment she is interrupted by her dad and her sisters. They set up a plan, the dad goes up top of the cathedral for a surprise attack and Juliet goes through the streets with her sisters as support. As she goes the streets Juliet is stopped at an elevator, and its a tedious enemies fall to stop the elevator puzzle. But it's short but kind of annoying.
We finally get to the cathedral, and it's a great twist on this sort of thing. Swan antagonizes Juliet, and reveals he has one more boss for her to fight. A motorcycle guitar playing gunman named Legend and i love him.
The boss fight itself is a bull fight. He rides around and tries to hit you. You get some hits in. BUT THE SECOND PHASE KICKS IN AND HE GETS INTO A FUCKING SKELETON MECH. and the fight is kinda bad ass. It's amazing. But sadly the high ends as Juliet is confronted by swan who reveals that after the fight with legend fully ends, swan reveals that the bosses were all pawns, and that he tricked Juliet that each boss had a catch phrase to say when they died, activating the final phase of the ritual and that something big is coming. But before he has one bit of lore to tell us.. And i kind of hate it
final level
Swan reveals that the reason he caused the zombie apocalypse was because he was in love with Juliet but she had a boyfriend.. I hate to use this phrase but the bad guy sounds very incel-y mixed with school shooter-y vibes and its kind of. Though that's just one weebs opinion. Much. His entire motive is that he was bullied and she was with Nick and he hates that. If it was she was also his bully id be more inclined to go “ok yeah” I don't know maybe that's just me though, his entire speech ends and he reveals that we have one more boss to fight.
And its a something. It's my least favorite boss so i’ll sum it up shortly. Its with a giant rockabilly zombie called killabilly. The road to killabilly is paved with zombies and speed boosts but once you overcome that you get to fight his hands and stomach. Once you get to the finishing section Juliet's dad flies by on a motorcycle covered in tnt and explodes kill’s head leaving a hole in the middle of killabillys head.
Juliet crestfallen gives up. She can't do it now that her dad is dead. But gets a phone call from a familiar racist accent. Marakawa Marakawa sensei tells her not to give up and she has to do it. If not for her but for her dad who believed in her. Still sad but determined she goes forth into the giant hole. As she enters she gets another phone call from Marakawa sensei telling her that she has to destroy killabilly to save the world. And how to do it.
It's simple really, in the middle of killabillys heart is the decapitated body of Swan.. Which is convenient to say the least. And its rigged to explode, but it needs Nick's head to do so, Juliet refuses saying she already lost her dad and can't lose Nick too. But Nick tells her that this was his purpose and will do it.
And with that killabilly is destroyed and the universes are intact. However, we get one last moment for Nick as Marakawa sensei reveals that since Nick was a good boy he can be reincarnated. And can reunite with Juliet. But at a price, he has to have his head on Marakawa sensei's body. A little weird and creepy but nothing you can't live with.
Now the game has two endings, a bad and a good ending. And sadly I got the bad ending. The bad ending is pretty cute. Juliet and her family plus Nick go to her house for her birthday party. Only to be berated by her mom who reveals she's a zombie.
gameplay:
lollipop Chainsaw is the most suda51 game suda51 has ever made. And I mean that in the most complimentary ways possible, as a hack and slash, even in Suda/Grasshoppers lower games it has the most fluid gameplay. Juliet can shish-boom-ba her way into several different combos, for example my favorite combo string is one of her more basic combos but its effective. You press x, x, x, x, y she does a 4 punch string then slams her chainsaw down on her enemy. There are other moves to try and learn to add to combos.
In Juliet's bag of tricks, you can attach Nick's head to a ghost body to help her cross paths that are too high for her to jump. Juliet can also rely on her boyfriend in other ways, such as being able to use Nick as a weapon, via a Nick ticket. The tickets are scattered throughout the game, and can be bought. My personal favorite one is Nick Popper, she uses the blaster to shoot his head like a cannonball to confuse and kill enemies.
Much like other horror games Juliet has an arsenal of weapons and health items to fight off the oncoming hoard such as the chainsaw blaster which sadly doesn't shoot chainsaws but bullets. Her chainsaw can also be used like a motorcycle to cross giant gaps via a speed boosting rainbow
The final mechanic for this game includes the survivor, if you rescue one you can get money and a bonus at the end. But you need to be careful. Because If one of the survivors is killed by zombies they themselves become a zombie and will join the hoard in attacking Juliet
Final thoughts:
some minor stuff that I couldn't fit in that deserves some love. Like the George Romero reference. As well as. The music itself, partially composed by Akira Yamaoka, is beautiful. The violence in this game isn't just violence, It’s hyper violent. While not on doom levels. Its a spectacle to behold
Some negative gripes i had are stuff i'm not sure if the issue was me and my controller or the game, juliet would be stuck in a pose and not move except for jumping and i'm not sure what caused this issue
I LOVE THIS FUCKING GAME, Over all lollipop chainsaw is a fucking amazing game and everyone should play it in my opinion
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