Bargain bin finds: Sucking Lollipop Chainsaw (PS3)
By charlie_victor_bravo 9 Comments
Cheerleader, her decapitated boyfriend, zombies and a killer soundtrack for 10 Euros, sound like a deal right? Well, it might be for right kind of person. On the outside Lollipop Chainsaw seems to have lot going for it, but underneath there is simple and basic arcade action game that feels like a cold dead corpse from the past, rather than new fresh and vibrant modern game.
Key word here is surface value: you get a girl in a skimpy outfit, sometimes witty dialogue and brilliant, but rather small soundtrack. Digging deeper result in disappointment: fighting mechanics are too basic, lack of polish and combo scoring system is flawed, having a problem of seeming to be rather random with the results.
Even with the looks department Lollipop Chainsaw has some problems. Levels tend to be simple (yet overly long), linear and boring looking. Brightly colored places are rarity here, might come as surprise. Also most of the 3d things have a cheap look to them. Speaking of levels, they seem to be rather empty, making huge zombie killing fests rarity in a game that has little nothing else to offer.
For a game that has huge emphasis on high score runs, everything is planned very poorly. Loading screens take a lot of time and there are plenty of them. You have to quit to main menu to change difficulty levels, quit to map to change clothes, go to level to see rescued people data in and to so the shopping. There are plenty of other bothersome quirks, that I will not list here. Also some levels are very time consuming for highscore runs, taking something like 30 minutes for one run. As bonus if you die because of missed quicktime event or failed some minigame, you will have to start level all over again.
So, Lollipop Chainsaw has lots of negative things, but I kind of like it. I think this mainly has to do with its pure arcade-, score hunting nature. That said it is a very short game that is really hard to recommend to anyone – even with 10€ price tag.
ALERT:
I am thinking of turning this into a review and as I don't speak English natively, I would like some feed back and tips how to improve the text.
9 Comments