» Review: Lollipop Chainsaw

Leave it to the Japanese to encapsulate Western culture in a video game. OK, maybe it’s just their take on Western culture.

Lollipop Chainsaw casts you in the role of Juliet Starling, a Buffy the Vampire Slayeresque cheerleader – only instead of vampires and stakes, zombies are your raison d’etre and the chainsaw is your modus operandi. It’s the latest offering from Japan’s Grasshopper Manufacture – a gaming company known for original, if not twisted, video games.

Your high school – San Romero High – has been overrun by the shufflin’ brain-suckers, so business is good. As it happens, someone has breached the gap between our world and the great beyond, allowing the undead to flow into the city, led by particularly nasty bosses – including a hippie chick, a funk master and a viking on a motorcycle.

It’s Juliet’s birthday and a horde of zombies has spoiled the party. To make things worse, her boyfriend Nick has been bitten by a zombie. In an infinitely logical solution to the problem, Juliet cuts off his head and, using zombie hunter magic, seals his neck so that he is still alive. She then wears him on her belt the rest of the game.

That’s not to say that Nick is completely useless. He comes in handy when a headless zombie is found and provides help when needed.

Nick is also with Nick Roulette. Using Nick tickets, Juliet can spin the wheel and win such things as Nick Popper, a gun that shoots Nick’s head and stuns zombies .

Needless to say, nothing is taken seriously in Lollipop Chainsaw.

Gathering zombie coins lets Juliet purchase new chainsaw moves, such as the chainsaw stab, armadillo spin and the lolli-o-copter. Zombie coins can also be spent on health items, new outfits for Juliet and new MP3s for her music collection.

The game frequently detours into the absurd, with basketball and baseball levels, mystical mushroom-fueled mind trips and encounters with Juliet’s family, who also all happen to be zombie slayers. There is also a little combine driving to harvest country bumpkin zombies.

Performing multiple kills triggers “Sparkle Hunting,” with additional points for number of simultaneous kills. Along the way, Juliet acquires the Chainsaw Blaster, an attachment to her chainsaw that shoots bullets.

Lollipop Chainsaw does not offer a head-to-head multiplayer – featuring only a ranking mode with three choices – score attack, time attack, medal attack. Your scores, times or medal count for each level are ranked among worldwide leaderboards.

One section of the game departs from the norm (if any of the game can be considered that) to offer a loving tribute to old school games such as Pac-Man and Elevator Action, casting Juliet in the leading roles.

The game cheekily addresses the issue of “upskirting,” whereby players of other games have been known to adjust the angle of the camera during gameplay to peer under short skirts. If you try it in this game, Juliet coyly obstructs your view.

Lollipop Chainsaw brings the bizarre, but makes it more playable than some of the past Grasshopper Manufacture games. It is so relentlessly upbeat and colorful, offering a sharp contrast to much of videogaming today.

Platform: PlayStation3, Xbox 360

Manufacturer: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Rating: Mature

Score: 8.5 chilies