Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP Review – A Sparkly Bloody Mess

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP Review

Sometimes a game accidentally captures a time period a little too well. Lollipop Chainsaw feels extremely 2012, for example. As such, the remaster’s authenticity is a double-edged sword. Yes the game is (mostly) preserved, but at what cost? Also, and this is important, maybe they should have let Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP cook just a little bit longer. I haven’t played the original, so my playthrough is less rooted to the first release. But there’s no way the Xbox 360 version was this janky, right?

Normally I don’t stress about performance too much, especially during a review period. But there’s a lot to linger on here. The music cuts out or fades at weird times. Loading screens feel strangely abrupt. Combat animations stutter or stumble at the transition phase. Also, the audio quality will randomly get worse, specifically for dialogue. On a larger scale, the polished visuals feel like a transplant, and not a seamless one. Tiny stutters, clips, and jagged edges plagued my playthrough. Dialogue and animation smashed into each other during scene changes. Maybe this will all get patched out at some point? However, since I’ve never played the original, I can’t cleanly separate remaster issues from quirks of the original release.

Pretty Janky TBH

For the unfamiliar, you play as Juliet, a cheerleader and zombie hunter in the midst of an undead outbreak. The writing is deeply unserious, which I appreciate. Every line is pretty ridiculous, though the zombies themselves are on another level. Even character deaths are treated like punchline opportunities. Most of the zombie bosses are great, though one is a hippy for some reason? Like, that would be a great button to lean on in 1999. It feels super weird here. Also? The boyfriend’s random lines are awful. If Nick has something clever to say while you’re in a menu, he’ll say it at least five times. Sometimes in less than a minute. It’s really bad!

Killing zombies starts out okay and gets steadily better as you acquire more skills. Really, once I unlocked the Blaster upgrade RePOP started to make a lot more sense. The more I relied on specials and super moves, the more fun I had. Although my prime motivation quickly shifted to outfit unlocks. Gotta look cool while covered in gore, you know? The level design is switched up frequently, but you’re still killing zombies in small rooms wherever you go. At least the boss fights kept me on my toes.

To be clear, the boss fights are still a hot mess, but they’re well-crafted in concept. Shooting clones out of the sky, dodging lightning bolts, and smashing speaker towers are all cool ideas. The character designs are clever and fun, and the boss arenas are all crammed with weird charm. The fight mechanics are busted, though. Specifically, your attacks don’t land if the boss is in the middle of certain animations. So I’d be slashing away, but the health bar doesn’t move at all. The boss has to finish their long, flailing dance first.

Some Cool ideas

RePOP refers not only to the game’s remastered status, but also a new game mode that’s been added. RePOP Mode is a sloppy, sparkly censorship that replaces certain nasty business with more palatable alternatives. So, blood is now pink and glittery. Some severed body parts also get swapped out for cute things like footballs. Honestly, everything else is pretty much the same. It’s actually very weird seeing these gory monstrosities spew glittery bile instead of blood. All the zombies look exactly as nasty, though some of their innards have been swept aside and erased. It’s more like a cheeky parody of censorship than anything else.

This game is kind of a mess. There’s a ton of tiny glitches, the writing is all over the place, and some fights feel pretty wonky. But I still had fun. Maybe it’s just because I never played the original release. Or maybe my expectations were never terribly high. But killing zombies with a chainsaw amidst a flurry of sparkly gore can be a pretty good time. On the other hand, I hesitate to recommend this game for purchase. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP isn’t quite worth a full-price commitment yet. You might want to catch this one on sale in the near future, once a few patches have dropped.

***An Xbox Series X code was provided by the publisher***