Lollipop Chainsaw - New Game Of The Day #29

Lollipop Chainsaw – New Game Of The Day #29

What? A game about a zombie-slaying cheerleader from the skewed imagination of Suda51

When? March 2012

Where? PS3 and Xbox 360

In these days of sequels, threequels, prequels, reboots and reimaginings, it’s genuinely exciting when something new comes along. So thank Japan for Suda51 – a man whose very name is a harbinger of the bizarre and intriguing. Having brought us EA’s supernatural shooter Shadows of the Damned earlier this year, the new project by Grasshopper manufacture features a completely different yet no less mental storyline.

Lollipop Chainsaw follows Juliet Starling, an 18-year-old cheerleader at San Romero High (yes, we said Romero), who discovers her unique zombie-murdering heritage when an outbreak spreads through her school, transforming pupils and teachers alike into slavering, brain-munching undead. Armed with an upgradeable chainsaw, a very short skirt and lashings of sass, Juliet will face the zombie hordes with aid from other members of the Starling family and, erm, the decapitated, reanimated head of her former boyfriend – which she carries around tied to her belt.

If it all sounds a bit too mad for you, the fact that the outbreak was caused by “zombie rock and roll gods” probably won’t change your mind – but there is certainly pedigree in the development team. As well as Grasshopper Manufacture’s experienced staff, Hollywood filmmaker James Gunn is also involved. Having directed Nathan Fillion in Slither and created this year’s darkly-comic Super, Gunn also wrote Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake.

Whatever the storyline turns out to be, if these screens are anything to go by there’ll be blood-soaked tube-socks and severed heads aplenty when Lollipop Chainsaw arrives next year.

Developer Legacy: Grasshopper Manufacture are a Japanese outfit led by CEO Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51. A company known to take risks on offbeat projects, Grasshopper are best known in the west for Wii-exclusive hit No More Heroes and the remarkably unusual Shadows of the Damned, released earlier this year. Never one to play it safe, the mere involvement of Suda51 ensures a degree of originality that you simply won’t see elsewhere.

They Say: “Bursting with sex, blood, and rock ‘n’ roll, Lollipop Chainsaw is the ‘un-deadly’ of a sweet and killer zombie hunter and her quest to uncover the root of a colossal zombie outbreak.” – Lollipop Chainsaw Official Website

We Say: Killing zombies is always fun. About the only way to make it more fun is to let you do it as a chainsaw-wielding cheerleader.

Can’t Wait? Play This: Without a great deal of information to go on at this point, it’s difficult to compare Lollipop Chainsaw to anything else, but a good way to prepare yourself for a journey through a Grasshopper Manufacture game is to play one, so we heartily recommend giving the under-appreciated Shadows of the Damned a blast. It may be bat-shit crazy, but it’s also incredibly funny and well-made.

Website: lollipopchainsaw.com (Lollipop Chainsaw trailer here)

Facebook: facebook.com/grasshoppermanufacture

Twitter: twitter.com/lollichainsaw

Words by Mick Fraser (Twitter: @Jedi_Beats_Tank)

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