Preview Y8 Game: Lollipop Chainsaw
What happens when a few great developers get together and try to work on something relaxing, effortless, and completely new? Something like Shadows of the Damned appears. Goichi Suda, Shinji Mikami and, most excitingly, Akira Yamaoka showed us what talented Japanese people can do when they sit at the same desk. The game gathered a decent press, sold well and gained popularity. The workflow, as you can see, has begun. This year (more precisely, next month) we will face a new attack from the Japanese tired of predictable indecency towards the stale industrial pop. Suda 51 and Akira Yamaoka with helpLollipop Chainsaw intend to mercilessly walk on the corrosive cliches of zombie action games, simultaneously giving nuts to all the heroes of stupid American comedies.
Shinji Mikami this time, unfortunately, is out of work. The rest of the team will definitely complete the entire program for three. For example, if we can evaluate the works and efforts of Akira Yamaoka in Lollipop Chainsaw only after the release (the developers deliberately insert some "left" tracks into the demo versions of the game, saving the collection of Akira's played notes before the project is sent to print), then Goichi Suda's corporate identity can be assessed now. For a more complete analysis of cultural values, we will hasten to bring you up to date.
We again have to contact the zombie action. The genre still feels good enough. Over the past five years, we have managed to chop tons of carrion in supermarkets, on abandoned ranches and endlessly long bridges, in villages and large cities. I even had to arrange a large-scale zombie genocide on a beautiful resort island. Now the turn of the American educational institution of minimal prestige has come. But the most important thing is not to forget about Suda 51's great influence on the development of any game that is assigned to it.
Goichi Soudahas long been known as a developer who has formed his own recognizable style. He is not averse to denigrating popular culture, and he can communicate with the audience. Add to a typical Suda 51 game the obligatory first-class soundtrack and special visual design, filled with bright colors and sharp transitions, and we get what is called the complete picture.
The uniqueness of Lollipop Chainsaw is clearly not to be missed. The main character unexpectedly turned out to be a cheerleader of the school football team (somewhere out there, far over the ocean, they are called cheerleaders). Juliet Starling is the name of an eighteen-year-old blonde with multi-colored pom-poms in her hands and her boyfriend's head on her belt. Our slayer of school carrion is passionate about how she loves to wield a chainsaw and gives out such a number of acrobatic numbers per unit of time that we will not be surprised if she suddenly turns out to be a member of the IFC according to the plot.
Generally, acrobatics in Lollipop Chainsaw- a key element of the gameplay. The choice of weapons in the game will be pretty meager. Yes, there is the main thing cold (it is already clear what kind of thing it will be with a chain in the form of a fennel with hearts) and a very ultimatum shotgun-rocket launcher of solid size. But these are only auxiliary tools for cutting. Juliet will be among the first volunteers to kill zombies in a beautiful and athletic way. A familiar picture from the new game Goichi Courts : crowds of zombies in bewilderment try to surround our blonde, she bounces off the wall, throws herself high in the air (while holding a solid-sized chainsaw in her hands) and rushes into the crowd like a kite.
If the fight takes place with a small number of opponents, then Juliet does not hesitate to process each one with additional grabs, jumps and other acrobatic pirouettes with an unobtrusive display of underwear (the girl is used to performing exclusively in short skirts and no less revealing T-shirts). In short, in Lollipop Chainsaw the main conditions for fighting are insane speed and variability. And the weapon - and okay with him. We'd better look at the girls.
The Japanese traditionally pay a lot of attention to the costumes of the characters. Especially if they are female minors. For all those who like to look under the skirts of their wards, the Grasshopper studio has prepared an expectedly pleasant surprise. Our Juliet Starling will be allowed to dress in a variety of tastes and preferences. There will even be frankly mocking and unexpected options.
...Or zombies. The action of the game, recall, takes place at school. You can already boldly imagine bespectacled teachers without a lower jaw, physical trainers, "tanks", nerdy sickles and other colorful characters drooling snot. All of them in the course of action will meet us regularly. The appearance of some new teacher (this time, say, in physics) will be marked by grasping and merciless phrases. Options "Have you learned your homework?" or there "I put a two in the magazine!" not yet the most dramatic.
We can respond to the streams of such a dull school routine with, say, basketball, where the severed heads of 7th grade musicians act as balls. For each individual location from the Lollipop School, Chainsaw will offer its own set of mini-games. It's clear with the gym - there the heads and other parts of the body of the zombies are listed as sports equipment. If this is a locker room, then the door of the locker can pinch something and someone for sure. In a chemical laboratory, at least test tubes with substances will be used. Well, there is nothing to say about simple classes: there are countless pointers and chairs.
One cheerleader will, of course, struggle with an entire school. Lollipop chainsaw- it's not only about zombies with globes in their hands, but also about girls in frank "school" outfits. Juliet cannot do without the help of her sisters. The older one bears the beautiful name Cordelia. Twenty-year-old blonde (forget about the other hair color) in black gives out "headshots", hates gays and lesbians and loves to eat quesadilla for morning, lunch and dinner. As you have already figured out for yourself, we will use Cordelia for sniper cover. Juliet's younger sister, Rosaline, can be added to the list of favorite video game characters right now - at least for her secret dream. Imagine, she wants to meet the same Justin Bieber(Justin Bieber) for a noble purpose - to cut off his head, dry it and put it in a personal collection of collected skulls. Rosaline, despite her barely full sixteen years, is a pretty good driver of a school bus that can be used to massacre zombie teachers.
What is this action game in which there are no interesting "bosses"? Suda 51 knows no such. His "bosses" in the new game are another nod to youth pop culture. There is such a Swan - a typical notorious nerd, mowing like a Goth. He swears very funny, scrupulously choosing caustic words, and dreams of enslaving the world with the help of his spells from a very, very sinister book. He also feeds exclusively on pills. The principal of the school will definitely be the final opponent, and ridiculously dressed "zombie rock bosses", ready to kill with their correct music with wild guitar plays, accompanied by guttural screams and other joys, will oblige to help him along the way. Psychedelic, funk and death metal - all musical trends revered by young people were found by a pronounced representative among the "bosses"Lollipop Chainsaw.
A separate line in the list of acting characters in Lollipop Chainsaw should also mention Juliet's boyfriend, Nick Carlisle. By convictions and behavior, he is a typical weakling, who is beaten at school by self-confident and strong guys. Zombies have reached the “meaning of life” of our sportswoman. So that the zombie plague did not get right into Nick's brain, the heroine cut off the head of her beloved with her beloved chainsaw. Such is the story, full of love and compassion. Now Julia's boyfriend, or, more simply, the "talking head", hangs on the belt of his beloved. And he got a good job: he lets out teenage comments about the undisguised charms of his girlfriend, serves as a bonus weapon for her. You can play Nicobol at any suitable moment. Here again I would like to note the style of Goichi Suda... The companion head was even in last year's Shadows of the Damned.
Actually, this is the whole Lollipop Chainsaw . Pop culture ridicule, unusual characters, fresh zombie Rubilov setting, main character costumes and great influence from experienced developers. Ah yes, Akira Yamaoka is writing the soundtrack again. Before us is a typical summer blockbuster from the gaming industry. Spectacular, light, catchy for a short time and extremely frivolous. However, this is exactly what it should be.
