So....

Having just finished Lollipop Chainsaw, I thought it was a brilliant game, in my opinion very tongue in cheek, humorous & cheerful, as well as being a fun game to play. Was it game of the year to date, not at all, but it definitely WAS good & would probably make my top 5 over the last 12 months of releases.

Lets face it, lollipop chainsaw is a zombie game made for girls, female focused characters have been getting more & more quirky as games go on, from Lara Croft in a semi serious puzzle setting (but really what archaeologist dresses like that, not practical at all!), to Bayonetta in a more left field, comedic, mystical setting & now Juliet Starling in an absolutely ridiculous 'high school with zombies' setting. Furthermore the game is adorned with sparkles & rainbows throughout. It is quite obviously not aimed toward males & very obviously not taking itself serious at all.

When put through the filter of game reviewers this gives some outright nasty results, (not naming any sites or publications specifically here, but some major sites gave it 5's & 6.5's out of 10 & ratings were very mixed mainly due to reasons like the below) I am not sure what these people expected, but low ratings were given with reasoning like the game is simply ‘playing with barbies’  that Juliet is 'definitely a shallow empty headed bimbo' & statements like ‘Sparkle mode is like when that blonde girl that sits behind you in shop class meets up with the other bimbos in the hallway, It is that glow of confidence and power that comes from having an IQ under 90’

Being a blonde ex-cheerleader (thankfully with an IQ well over 90) myself who loves ‘superficial’ pursuits like fashion & clothing alongside gaming. It is hard not to be personally offended by some of the comments. Despite knowing I shouldn’t care what reviewers think (as I know i'm not the target gaming audience) I can’t help but feeling belittled for being of a similar ‘type’ to Juliet. If you ever wondered why girls like me commonly don’t game, well here it is.

I can’t understand all the negativity & hate for such an obviously light hearted & cheery (no pun intended) game. I really can’t fathom what reviewers expect today. (another example would be mass effect 3 starting a story conclusion debate akin to the controversy surrounding Jane Eyre, its a sci fi story with spaceships & guns, not an undiscovered work of Shakespeare!), Maybe if the reviewers (and some gamers) could take games a little less seriously, they might go some way to getting those less serious about gaming into the hobby. In a game about a cheerleader trying to rid her high school from zombies, no one expects a genius level protagonist & deep plot, so there is no need to mark the game down because of it or harshly review it as if it were a blight upon the game!. It’d be like claiming Nintendog’s lacks an amazing plot & contains too many dogs, then marking it down accordingly!

My (also female) housemate who rarely games also is playing and enjoying the game (as she also did Bayonetta), and when shown these reviews all it served to do was put her off the gaming public. As long as reviewers keep spouting this mass negativity it is going to be very hard for any casual games to truly get into gaming.

Sorry about that, rant over, just had to get that off my chest, for what its worth in my opinion I do highly recommend the game, with the aside that it is very girly & if you know nothing about cheerleading you may miss half the humour & references. Still, great to see a game like this get made. It should be celebrated, not harassed.

Sad thing is you know if was the next generic shooter in a famous series, it would be getting massive props for bringing no one new to gaming & being much like the release previous to it ...and then people would complain about lack of originality & innovation in gaming.

I don't think the game is hated that much.

I guess reviewers should be a lot more careful in the words they use to review their games.

lollipop chainsaw is a zombie game made for girls"

No its not.. its probably easier for the ladies to enjoy it, butits definitely a sex sells thing.

I do agree though. LPC just got alot of undeserved backlash. I remember reading a thread on gamefaqs where a user was whining about it not being like DMC. I just think alot of ppl didnt get the game. Its suppose to be like STREETS of RAGE and FINAL FIGHT and other arcade beat em ups where getting the highest score was just as important as beating the game. LCP mixed opinion is the result of a industry out of touch with having fun.

Good points. If you want more people to read this though you probably should condense it and possibly respond to a person or two.

The only complaint I saw about the game was the game-play was repetitive and got boring. Reviewers will grade a game down a lot for that and so will the average gamer because their goal is to have fun.

It's a game made for males although females can play it too of course.

2000c, I kinda doubt you are female BTW. The internet is full of males pretending to be females. I may be old-fashioned and prejudiced but you sound male in your writing style and way of analyzing games.

I would love if you proved me wrong. You can PM me a picture lol.

lol

I think you are talking about online reviews here. The internet is full of negative comments about everything. I don't know why but it seems to be cool to talk bad about anything and seem well informed because you know about so many things. Just ignore the internet (or mass media) and go for those that do it for fun/hobby, not for money. Take a look at small magazines and dig through them and you will find lots of good ones that don't even review games but tell you the positive things about them and why you should check them out yourself. I don't really understand the "repititve" reason anyway. Every game is. Just because environments change or you get items or stats with bigger numbers throughout the game doesn't make it non-repititive. I could play Mario games for hours straight (for weeks, not just one day), also plenty other games that do not offer much variety. I actually can't name any game that is not repititive.

I haven't bought the game yet but I will. I like these games because of the fun and not being serious. There's enough severity in real life, I don't need it in games that are supposed to make me relax and forget about everyday stuff.

I pre-ordered Lollipop Chainsaw, played through the entire game multiple times, unlocked all of the outfits, and I plan to get all of the Achievements at some point. The fact of the matter is, if the game had starred a guy, I wouldn't have even rented the game. The mechanics were pretty bad until I found the one or two combos that I could spam the hell out of. The boss fights were pretty generic. The writing was horrendous and not nearly as clever as they devs thought it was. "Ten hut. Ten butt-fuck.", "Swallow my fist like Tuna, bitch.", and "I hate you more than Carrot-Top!". Please.

It was an enjoyable game but it's plagued with poor graphics, invisible walls, and clunky controls. Style doesn't beat out substance, does it? People like me who buy any game that features a hot chick on the cover got what they wanted, though.

It's short as hell and quite repetitive (due to the chainsaw being the only weapon), no blocking, Nick QTEs are useless etc.
It has its flaws and it's certainly no 90+ game. I think the Metascore of ~70 (69 on 360) is quite fair.

7.5 for me.

It's yet another Suda51 game with style (???) over substance. Mediocre gameplay and a 'wacky' sense of humour (I mean it looks like a chore to play through, might as well just watch it on youtube for the jokes if you want) just doesn't cut it for some reviewers, pretty girl or no pretty girl.