Enjoying Lollipop Chainsaw really depends on how content you are with turning your brain off for a few hours or so.

User Rating: 7.5 | Lollipop Chainsaw X360
Goichi Suda, better known by the moniker Suda 51, can only be defined as a mad genius. He breaks rules, challenges norms, and manages to bring out Frankensteinian concoctions that simply must be noticed. Suda has been breaking gameplay traditions for nearly 20 years now, but with each major release, he manages to push the boundaries of video game design into sick and twisted territory. If the suggestive recharging of the beam katana in No More Heroes wasn't enough for you, Suda brings out a new variety of perversion with his latest project. With a new heroine to the hack-and-slash genre and plenty of upskirt shots for all, Suda 51's Grasshopper Manufacture released Lollipop Chainsaw to an anxious public. It's short, repetitive and constantly lewd, but Lollipop Chainsaw has a sugary charm that few other games have, and that charm pushes it to where other games of its genre fear to tread.

Lollipop Chainsaw follows Juliet Starling, a bubbly cheerleader who also wields a giant chainsaw during her day-to-day adventures through high school. You see, Juliet isn't only a blonde bombshell; she's also a zombie hunter. One day (her birthday, no less), after riding her bicycle to school, Juliet discovers that her campus is overrun with the undead. After reuniting with her boyfriend Nick, Juliet is forced to reveal her secret life as a zombie hunter to him in a bizarre way: by decapitating Nick and keeping his disembodied head alive through a magic spell. Juliet finds her dirty-old-man of a sensei and, after a lengthy and ridiculously vague monologue, takes up the duty of defeating an ancient evil released onto Earth. Oh, and the ancient evil comes in the form of five zombie leaders revived by an egotistic goth kid from Juliet's school. Lollipop Chainsaw is a Suda 51 game and it isn't afraid to show it at every opportunity. From its bizarre concept to its ridiculously playful attitude, Lollipop Chainsaw will constantly bring back the goofy vibe seen in past Suda 51 titles like No More Heroes. It's a hilarious game, something that's apropos for any Suda 51 release, and it'll make its mark long after the game's end.

Very much like No More Heroes, Lollipop Chainsaw is a hack-and-slash game with the same amount of wackiness that's typical of Suda 51. Juliet can slash up zombies with her chainsaw, beat them into a daze with her pom-poms, or rack up the damage with special combo attacks. In addition to typical melee moves, Juliet can use new skills to take out zombies, like shooting explosives or dashing into them. The attacks are easy to pull off, but it's rather disappointing when the combos began to lose their importance and button-mashing manages to be the weapon of choice when dispatching the undead. After seeing games like Bayonetta push the third-person action game so far, Lollipop Chainsaw feels stripped-down and surprisingly bland for what it tries to be. The significant number of quick-time events will also wear on your thumbs. After button-mashing through fallen barriers and closed doors a few dozen times, it is bound to wear on your patience as well. One running sequence features putting Nick's head on a zombie body and having him dance while the player performs a rather lengthy set of quick-time events. These are funny the first couple times, but soon the quick-time event vibe wears itself down to a husk. Repetition is Lollipop Chainsaw's Achilles heel, crippling what is an otherwise insanely fun and extremely memorable game.

Completing the lengthy missions involves trekking down corridors and pathways while ripping through zombie skulls with your chainsaw. Occasionally, you'll find students in distress and need to save them from the walking dead, or you'll need to participate in a few wacky minigames. These minigames can range from Zombie Baseball (where you use a blaster to attack zombies) or simply mowing down the zombies with a giant combine. These sequences are actually quite inventive and don't feel off concerning the game's already crazy vibe. Included alongside these minigames are some fantastic boss fights that follow the Suda 51 pedigree without hesitation. They're inventive, clever, and will keep you entertained to the final blow.

Lollipop Chainsaw may have a very short campaign (clocking in at only six or so hours), but a solid amount of unlockable content like costumes, music, and combos will keep fans coming back. Rankings from both the community and Juliet's zombie-fighting father offer challenges to complete, while grades after each mission will refine the already honed skillset of sharp gamers. It's still a very short game and at $60 US, it's a tough pill to swallow considering its gameplay flaws. If you can overcome the repetition, you'll find another solid game from one of the industry's greatest alternative visionaries.

Lollipop Chainsaw's aesthetic is where it really (and expectantly) pushes the envelope. From the flashy colors and bright rainbows of a Sparkle technique to the gory blood fountains of the zombie enemies, Lollipop Chainsaw has a bottomless reserve of style. The cutscenes are presented in a comic-book-esque design, but the in-game action is full of colors and incredibly expressive animations. The environments are surprisingly varied considering the game mostly takes place on school grounds. To back up the sugary sweet graphics is an amazing mix of licensed music, exciting sound effects, and some very funny voice acting. Jimmy Urine of wacky punk band Mindless Self Indulgence contributes to the boss scores, while licensed music from Five Finger Death Punch, Arch Enemy, and The Chordettes (the band behind the catchy "Lollipop" theme) make the battles even more engaging. Voice actress Tara Strong (known for her work in The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Final Fantasy X) makes a stellar performance as leading lady Juliet, capturing a bubbly personality with just enough edge to keep things interesting. When combined with the exceptionally funny writing of the game, the voice acting is worth playing the game over again to hear.

Lollipop Chainsaw is a flawed gem whose insane presentation and undeniable mature charm (mostly) overshadow its shortcomings. A fantastic amount of style, charm, and vulgarity sets Lollipop Chainsaw apart from the Devil May Crys of our time. The hilarious dialogue, excellent voice acting, and goofy scenarios are exciting and bizarre to witness. Though the mature humor and constant upskirt shots won't appeal to everyone, they will get your attention. Still, the repetitive combat and brief length will leave some gamers wanting more, especially with the bar set so high by other games like Bayonetta. The overuse of quick-time events also makes a mark on an otherwise sublime guilty pleasure. It's quite frankly a flawed masterpiece, right up there with No More Heroes and Killer 7. At the end of the day, Suda 51's latest is a sugary lollipop; it's a sweet concoction that doesn't last forever, but it leaves behind a juicy flavor that's good to the last taste.