Lollipop Chainsaw



Lollipop Chainsaw is a game from Grasshopper Manufacture directed by Suda 51 and written by James Gunn for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. It focuses on zombie hunter and cheerleader Juliet Starling, who, along with members of her family and her boyfriend Nick's disembodied head, fight hordes of zombies in San Romero High School, a fictional California high school where Starling formerly cheered. The enemy zombies are led by "a group of zombie rock and roll lords".

Suda looks to create something a bit different from the standard zombie fare with this game. As part of what he brands "a piece of pop zombie entertainment" zombies explode into bright, multicolored displays of light and glitter instead of blood and gore, and he intends to push the limit of how deeply Pop Music sensibilities can be blended into a zombie-themed Hack and Slash.

"Nick: How am I still talking without a fucking thorax?"
 * Absolute Cleavage: The Sexy Rider Suit. It's a hot pink jumpsuit for Juliet, with the front zipper unzipped all the way down to the crotch.
 * Action Girl: Juliet is a textbook example, down to the increasingly common Fan Service.
 * A Love to Dismember: Juliet did this to Nick's head, with the twist that he's still alive.
 * Artistic License: Biology: Hilariously Lampshaded.


 * Badass Adorable
 * Badass Family: Juliet comes from a family of zombie hunters.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Part of Juliet's cheerleading uniform.
 * Big Bad: Swan, the Emo Teen responsible for turning everyone into zombies.
 * Take That: His name is Swan & he's associated with undead (the only way it'd be more obvious is if Swan were female).
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Nick's hobbies are, as listed: "Badminton, Bass Guitar, Masturbation"
 * Catch Phrase: According to the script writer Juliet says "What the dick?" a lot.
 * Chainsaw Good: Juliet's weapon of choice (and a heart-spangled one at that!); Probably the most conventional element of the game so far.
 * Dangerously-Short Skirt: Definitely dangerous, definitely short.
 * Dangerous Eighteenth Birthday
 * Delinquent Hair: Zed, a punk rock archetype, sports a feet-tall bright red mohawk.
 * Fastball Special: Using Nick's head. While he's still conscious and lucid.
 * Gender Flip: In the trailers Juliet comes across a lot like a female version of the protagonist from another game by Suda 51
 * Girlish Pigtails: On Juliet, of course, and between these and the cheerleader outfit the line between cute and sexy is being played for all it's worth.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: There's no real violence in the game, despite it involving chainsaws and zombies. When a zombie is sliced apart or killed, instead of blood, there's rainbows and hearts.
 * Grievous Harm With A Head: It's revealed in the Valentines Day trailer that Juliet can use Nick's head as a weapon for some special attacks.
 * Groin Attack: With a motherloving chainsaw.
 * Hack and Slash: Gameplay looks extremely similar to another game in the Grasshopper pedigree.
 * Hand Wave: Juliet uses magic her sensei taught her to keep Nick's head alive.
 * Half the Man He Used To Be
 * Lighter and Softer: This isn't exactly a harsh zombie apocalypse, compared to other games in the genre.
 * Losing Your Head: Juliet's boyfriend Nick, now attached to her belt. He was bitten by a zombie and she "saved" him the only way she could. He can still talk though, and he definitely voices his displeasure about his predicament. At least the view should be nice. Many of the puzzles in the game are solved by giving Nick a temporary zombie body; Nick always expresses delight in having a body again, however temporarily.
 * Martial Arts and Crafts: Juliet utilizes her cheerleading chops as a branching series of quick, light, set-up combos.
 * Mini-Dress of Power: Juliet wears her San Romero High cheerleading outfit into battle, which includes an archetypal cheerleader miniskirt.
 * Morph Weapon: The chainsaw "magically" changes to a pair of pom-poms and back. No word on further transformations or other weapons that act similarly.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Guess who. The alternate costumes pretty much solidify it.
 * Multiple Endings: Just two: a good ending and a bad ending.
 * Musical Assassin: The zombie rock lords are shaping up to be this; The first, Zed, is confirmed to fire projectiles at you in the form of guitar riffs and lyrical profanities.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: The rank-and-file? Not so much. Their zombie rock lord bosses? Definitely.
 * Panty Shot: Even the first few screenshots indicate that Magic Skirt has gone on a long vacation somewhere. (They're purple.)
 * There's even an achievement for it, called "I Swear! I Did It by Mistake!"
 * Refuge in Audacity: A cheerleader accessorizing with her boyfriend's severed head spunkily chainsawing hordes of undead into a fine, glittery, rainbow mist? What exactly did you expect from Suda?
 * Seashell Bra: One of Juliet's alternate costumes.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The three survivors you rescue during the game's prologue end up dying and turning into zombies anyway after the helicopter they are on crashes.
 * Spiritual Successor: Suda is definitely exploring familiar territory. The hack and slash combat is very No More Heroes and the unusually stylized take on zombies was also present in Killer7.
 * Spoiled Sweet: Juliet appears to cater to this from the various cutscenes. She's obviously got top tier social standing within the school, but doesn't seem to have Alpha Bitch tendencies...excepting Swan and his minions, of course.
 * Sweet Tooth: Lollipops. Juliet's health meter is represented by lollipops and lollipops are used to regenerate lost health.
 * Symbolic Blood: Open wounds gush rainbows and clouds of shiny purple stars and hearts instead of the red stuff.
 * Oddly, this only seems to apply to finishing moves... For everything else, Ludicrous Gibs is in full effect.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Juliet's got to be rocking at least a type A between the miniskirt and leggings.