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Lollipop Chainsaw passes 1 million copies sold.

March 14th, 2014 by Irwin Fletcher Comments


The Suda-51 produced, James Gunn scripted 2012 Lollipop Chainsaw for the X360 and PS3 has passed a million copies in sales. This has prompted fans to call for a sequel – and Grasshopper’s official English twitter to coyly agree!

This makes it the highest selling game released by Suda51’s studio, Grasshopper Manufacture, which was responsible for download-only titles Demon Pitch and Black Knight Sword as well as the excellent No More Heroes series.

Lollipop chainsaw was a modern scrolling beat ‘em up with a cynical 90s sense of humour, courtesy of writer James Gunn (who you may know from movies Slither, Super and the terrible post-credits section of Movie 43, or perhaps the upcoming Marvel flick Guardians of the Galaxy). Players took the role of teenage zombie slayer Juliet Starling, aiming to earn “sparkle bonuses” by decapitating as many of the undead as possible with single chainsaw swing. Oh, and save the world from a musical, supernatural zombie invasion…

Juliet is accompanied by the disembodied head of her boyfriend, Nick, who is responsible for many of the game’s laugh out loud moments – as well as being used for a very handy ranged attack!

Though the melee-based gameplay does little to separate it from other Suda games – such as the aforementioned No More Heroes or the subsequent Killer is Dead – the script, voice acting and the amount of comedy in the game hit a high note, making it an official cult smash.

The soundtrack was composed by the legendary Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill original series) and Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence. I can particularly recommend the psychedelic loading music from the Mariska level – as well as the super-cheesy licensed music (Hey Mickey, you’re so fine! You’re so fine you blow my mind!).

Part of the fun of games produced by Suda is seeing where exactly you will be taken next – smashing up an arcade full of nerd zombies one minute, the next dodging an enormous profanity released as a projectile by a punk zombie. This combined with the 90s comic visual style make the whole experience unique and memorable, even at a comparatively short playthrough length – mine took about six hours. It’s worth jacking the difficulty up from the start if you’d like a bigger return on your investment.

I recommend picking up if you still have your 360 or PS3 and need something sharp, slick, silly and short to blast through.

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