Hands-On Lollipop Chainsaw!
Steve Barton
|
/jul11/lolis.jpg
First of all, if you’re a regular DC reader, then you know who and what Lollipop Chainsaw is so I’ma skip all that and tell you about how I put my hands all over it at a private event during GDC (Game Developers Conference).
The level we were shown began with Juliet and her headless man, Nick, riding sidecar on her dad’s motorcycle speeding to a zombie-infested arcade in order to save Juliet’s sister, Rosalind.
Everything starts out simple enough: bum rush the arcade, kill some zombs (who’re STILL obsessed with playing video games), save some dude, jump on the elevator, kill evil dude and rescue your sister. Yeah, STARTS simple enough…then goes into batshit crazy.
As soon as the doors open, you’re thrown into a game maze and have to collect 7 or 8 keys avoiding MASSIVE creatures that look like Pac-Man and Chomps from Super Mario had a love child…who likes to wear a fez. When in their sights, the whole board goes bright red, tiles start shifting as they chase you around the board while a very loud voice yells “INTRUDER!” (which pretty much scared the crap out of me the first time it happened). While I DID see other gamers using the chainsaw to cut their way out, I opted to outrun them because I wanna LIVE, man. Once you collect all the keys and “unlock” the exit with your chainsaw, you think you’re good to go…then 5 seconds later you’re in another classic game then another then another then another.
I had a little trouble during the “Elevator Action”-type level but when you’re surrounded by impatient mouth-breathers, it’s hard to have any quality time to relax and figure out wtf is going on NOR did I get to do the boss battle against a bit of bad news named Josey; a George Clinton/Rob Zombie-looking dude sitting on a mothership of doom and brandishing a keytar.
Because there wasn’t a print-out of the game’s HUD nor could we access the game’s menu, I had to fend for myself but once I figured out a couple of key moves, I was good to go! Pro Tip: if you’ve played Shadows of The Damned, the HUD is about the same. If you’re a bit of a button masher, this game also works for you but don’t be lazy, dude; actually learn some combos because there are some cool as shit moves you can (and at times, NEED) to do; like put Nick’s head on a corpse and guide it around to help you with timed/precision mini games/jumps to move on to the next level.
Everything about this game works and DEFINITELY has Gunn’s sensibilities and timing all over it married really well to Suda 51’s gameplay and vision. I found myself yelling “what the fuuuuu” and laughed several times at the dialogue. When Juliet enters the very first game maze, I heard Nick (voiced by Michael Rosenbaum) say something to the effect of “Wow it just got all Commodore 64 up in here”, I laughed hard.
As I was playing, I quickly turned to James Gunn with the biggest grin on my face and enthusiastically yelled (because I forgot I had headphones on) “James, this game is so fucking AWESOME!”
So if you see this demo bus, GET IN LINE and see why everyone’s gonna wanna lick the chainsaw.
Lollipop Chainsaw will be available this June 12th (US) and June 15th (EU) for Xbox 360 and PS3 and I plan on playing the hell out of it (if I live that long).
Eep.
For more information on the game, check out the official Lollipop Chainsaw website.
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Suck on it in the comments section below!
Categorized:Uncategorized
