Janky, nonsensical . . . and a pretty damn fun ride.
While not the strongest showing from one of my personal favorites - Suda 51, Lollipop Chainsaw succeeds at what it ultimately wants to be - an exploitative, grindhouse-esque guilty pleasure in the form of a mostly mindless hack 'n' slash.
Somewhat janky combat and controls hamper the game a bit, but it's other elements go a long way in making up for the less than stellar gameplay.
Suda games have never really been known for their tight and responsive gameplay, but more for their overall sense of style, largely to do with the less than grounded, and rather bonkers, writing that accompanies just about everything he gets his hands on. Easy to say that the writing in Lollipop Chainsaw doesn't go against this trend, and is most definitely the highlight of this game as well. The likable characters and often times truly comedic dialogue more than make up for an almost non-existent story, and really drove me through the game, short as it might be.
At the end of the day, it's hard to recommend LP as a full price purchase. The game has a lot going for it, but with a noticeable lack of polish and a completion time of around five hours (replay value taken into consideration), this game feels like a comfortable thirty dollar purchase.
It is a solid recommendation for fans of the genre, or just fans of Suda himself. I don't think either party would leave disappointed, as long as they aren't expecting the game to blow their socks off. For anyone else, however, this game might be a hard sell.
