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6 days ago
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Lollipop Chainsaw started out as a light-hearted collab between No More Heroes designer ‘Suda51’ and the eventual Guardians of the Galaxy movie director James Gunn when it originally debuted on the Xbox 360 in 2012. Since then, the legendary zombie hunter Juliet has become a bit of a cult hit, with her violent, risqué and expletive-filled hack-and-slash outing developing quite the following over the past decade. Now, the San Romero high school cheerleader is back once again to save the day (and her boyfriend Nick) from a zombie outbreak all while celebrating her birthday in Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP.
This next-generation makeover comes loaded with the original game as well as the new ‘RePOP’ mode, and Dragami Games founder and producer Yoshimi Yasuda has suggested it doesn't feature any censorship. However, there are changes depending on the mode you pick, with the RePOP mode featuring pop-art graphics for damage effects and less violence. So, with this in consideration, how does RePOP enhance the overall experience? Starting with the resolution and frame rate, players can expect 4K and 60FPS support (although visually, the graphics still aren't the easiest on the eyes). Additionally, there are now also “shorter load times” but in all honesty, we still had to wait longer than we’d hoped for in-between certain segments.
In terms of the gameplay, Lollipop Chainsaw was arguably already rough around the edges, and while RePOP has somewhat improved the flow of fights and combat, it’s only been able to polish this core experience so much. There are improvements to the chainsaw combat including faster gameplay, auto lock-on abilities for the Chainsaw Blaster, chained hits improvements and more, but the camera is a nightmare at times. The controls are responsive enough during combat but don't always feel as smooth as they should, and their clunkiness stands out quite a lot during minigame segments and even the speed-orientated platforming sections. The level design doesn't always help with its dated linear and cramped style either. These levels are also still just as long, but all up the game is a relatively short-lived affair (and there is some replay value), so it balances out.
Fortunately, these things combined won’t necessarily stop everyone from having fun with Juliet as you go about beating up zombies, saving fellow classmates, and taking down a bunch of undead bosses. The quick-time events are still in there as well, but a new “auto feature” has been added to make the experience more tolerable. As you make your way through each level, you’ll also be able to splash some cash on Juliet – purchasing new outfits, attacks, chainsaws, artwork and more. Music can also be purchased, with this new release adding in a “streamer mode” which replaces the rock and pop filled soundtrack (which is mostly still there) with an original track. While we're at it, the voice acting is back and a time attack has also been thrown in!
Unfortunately, in our review build we encountered some chapter-breaking bugs where scenes didn’t always activate, forcing us to reset to the previous checkpoint. Probably the most frustrating glitch we encountered was during a boss battle when an enemy glitched out in their final form, and we were just stuck there in limbo until we had to admit defeat and restart the fight from the beginning. It seems Dragami Games has already acknowledged "bugs", so hopefully the issues we encountered are resolved because they really detracted from the experience.
Conclusion
Don’t get us wrong, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a fun fling from start to finish but it was never really a role model student when it arrived on the scene in 2012. Despite the enhancements and improvements in this latest release, the core gameplay and level design can feel quite outdated at times, and the chapter-breaking bugs have been hard to look past. If Dragami's updates resolve these glitches, or you're just a longtime fan of this one, maybe consider giving the zombie slayer an extra star for her efforts.
