Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP

Lollipop Chainsaw was released to astonished faces back in 2012. The game was a collaboration between Japanese game designer Goichi "Suda51" Suda and American film director and producer James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad) and was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Big names were gathered there.

When Suda51 is involved, things tend to run off in all sorts of different directions and so does Lollipop Chainsaw. Just listen to this: You take on the role of 18-year-old lollipop-sucking blonde cheerleader Juliet Starling, who in her spare time is a zombie hunter - and it turns out her whole family is too. She's equipped with a large chainsaw with hearts and a built-in phone, and she also has her boyfriend's severed, but still living, head hanging from her belt.

Lollipop Chainsaw may never have been a huge commercial success (it did sell just over 1.2 million copies, so it's not all bad like Concord) but it gained a loyal following of fans. This is probably why Japanese Dragami Games, who were also involved in the original, decided to revisit the game 12 years later and optimise it with higher resolution graphics, gameplay tweaks and a new RePOP Mode.

Basically, Lollipop Chainsaw wasn't a very good game - and neither is the RePOP version. The whole thing reeks of B-movies (that's not necessarily a bad thing) and if you like quite different and quirky games, this one delivers on all parameters, because it is largely the unpredictability into absurdity and total quirkyness, in other words the Suda51 effect, that carries Lollipop Chainsaw.

In addition to the gameplay, which takes place in traditional third person, Lollipop Chainsaw contains plenty of mini-games and various sequences, including putting your boyfriend's living head on a headless zombie body and using some Quick-Time events to clear the way for Juliet by blowing yourself up. You can also harvest zombies with a combine harvester, play basketball with zombie heads or baseball with a rocket launcher. You never know what the game might throw at you next, and that's what helps you live with the game's many other mediocrities.

As mentioned earlier, this new version includes a RePOP Mode, which is a new game mode that downplays the rather pronounced violence and replaces the bloodshed with purple lightning, "BAM!" effects and other things. It's a little hard to tell who this mode is aimed at though, because the game as a whole is definitely aimed more at fans of the original and I don't think they'll go for the RePOP Mode. It seems a bit like a gimmick. Fortunately, you also have the option to play in Original Mode, where the game is completely identical to the original from 2012, with lots of bloody violence and severed limbs and zombie heads flying in all directions.

The combat system in both RePOP Mode and Original Mode is simple, but okay, and as you progress through the game you unlock more attacks and combos, your chainsaw gets upgraded and you get new weapons, including a very useful Chainsaw Blaster. The combat system in both modes has been tweaked a bit compared to the original game, including a more responsive camera (making it easier to see the enemies around you), faster movement, modernised control of Nick's (Juliet's boyfriend) attacks and other small adjustments to make the game feel a bit more contemporary.

Along the way you come across small shops adorned with colourful balloons and teddy bears, where gold coins can buy different types of upgrades and rare platinum coins can buy music and a range of daring costumes for Juliet. The tone of Lollipop Chainsaw is quite muted and the 'humour' is mostly crude. The camera angles often reveal what colour underwear Juliet is wearing (there's even an achievement for positioning the camera so you can see up her skirt) - that's how Lollipop Chainsaw is, and you can feel that this game is from a different time than 2024 - without actually crossing the line, I think.

The visual style is quite accomplished, but it's hard to call it pretty, even with the updated graphics. When you slaughter zombies, blood, body parts, rainbows and pink hearts are all over the place (if you're playing in Original Mode) and the graphics have a slight cartoony feel to them. Everything now runs in 4K at up to 60fps (full HD at 30fps on Nintendo Switch) - but it's still not a pretty game.

Unfortunately, I experienced a number of errors during my time with the game. Among other things, I experienced entering rooms where an NPC was in a T-pose and the event that the NPC should have triggered didn't happen, so I had to start over. I also experienced several times that special moves could not be performed and that a finisher move in a boss battle could not be completed, both of which resulted in my further progress through the game being blocked. There are simply too many bugs and they are not small bugs, but bugs that affect your progress. I did find ways to work around these bugs, but you can't expect everyone to do that and I hope that these things will be fixed in the planned Day 1 patch.

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is the remaster we didn't realise we were missing. I was actually a pretty big fan of the original, because I loved how the game tried to entertain and surprise almost constantly. It still does, but time has not been kind to Lollipop Chainsaw and this RePOP edition is updated less than I thought it would be, especially considering the price tag of around £34. The graphics are blown up to 4K/60fps, but that doesn't make it much prettier, the gameplay updates are welcome, but I find it hard to see who RePOP Mode is aimed at. And there are simply too many bugs in the version we received for review.

This is a decidedly lazy remaster that has only been given a minor visual boost, and in some places it actually looks worse than the original. If you were a big fan of the original Lollipop Chainsaw, then you should consider the RePOP version, but there are just some games you shouldn't because you remember them better than they really were. I think Lollipop Chainsaw is one of those games - this RePOP edition has its bright spots, but the overall impression is that this remaster is simply not good enough.