Lollipop Chainsaw (2012)

The current owners of the Lollipop Chainsaw IP continue to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the demographic that made the original game a cult classic:

Let’s All Read A Shitty Video Game Press Release Together

As with the original, the new title aims to recreate a world rich in dark humor. The development process will prioritize staying true to the distinctive tone and spirit of the original work, without imposing excessive creative restrictions in the name of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).

Trying to appease people like the commenter in the screenshot below will get them nowhere:

OMFG I just cannot believe that final boss. Is so terrible. Bosses in general are hit and miss but this has several boring QTE-filled stages and then a (i presume final) section in which you if you fail a QTE you get an instant fail and need to start from the beginning.

Sometimes there are design choices that are just baffling and it's impossible for me to understand 1) how could anyone can think they are a good idea and 2) how could they have been missed during testing. It's just literally broken and annoying and turns what's supposed to be an exiting final fight into a boring chore.

That last post about 6/10 games reminded me of this badly-reviewed game that I always wanted to try out. So far I'm loving the energy although not so much the misbehaving camera and the QTEpalooza. Juliet personality is infectious and its impossible not to love the colourful action, rainbow effects and cutesy music. The dialogues are also extremely weird but in a compelling way. Like one of the first dudes that tells you "My favorite president is Warren G. Harding".

Cartoony violence, colourful visuals, absurd humour and boobies. This surely has some of the elements of the perfect game.

What's funny is that I was thinking that this might benefit from a remake. Another shot at the same concept and energy but with a more polished combat and camera. And lo and behold, I see the Lollipop Chainsaw Remake when I searched for this game to post this.

I used to love this game when it came out more than a decade ago. Last year, I tried to get back to it but I abandoned the idea quickly after finding the combat heavy and boring in comparission with other character action games.

About a week ago, I decided to try again after the 'remake' was announced. To my surprise, I ended up enjoying it a lot and even finishing in a harder difficulty. Maybe it was because my expectations about it were more accurate and I no longer felt nostalgic about it.

The combat is still bad, but I could find some enjoyement in some combos. The jokes were still bad, but in a some "so-bad-is-actually-kinda-good" way and I fell in love again with Juliet and Nick.

But above all, I absolutely adored the rock-n-roll-pop-punk-rockabilly-metal soundtrack.

I still have to reflect about it, but I think I'm putting this one on my favorite games list again.

I remember absolutely loving this game when I played it almost a decade ago. But I just played it again "for the old times sake" and I just couldn't. The combat felt heavy and boring. The graphics were uglier than I remember and the humor wasn't as tongue-in-cheek as I thought, just bad jokes.

I got played by my own nostalgia.

I popped my head into the 2nd hand store for a quick look as I do occasionally. Their bargain basket was overflowing with PS3 games; I had a dig and grabbed Lollipop Chainsaw and Dynasty Warriors 7 for only a couple bucks. I've never tried a Dynasty Warriors game.

If anyone (like me) is rather late to the PS3 system, now is a perfect time to buy games, or even to invest in a PS3 (if you don't have one). People are upgrading to PS4/PS4-Pro and just chucking away anything PS3-related, the PS3 games and systems are very cheap.