Lollipop Chainsaw

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As far as last things to see before you die (again) go, this one's not so bad.

Lollipop Chainsaw is a game from Grasshopper Manufacture directed by Suda 51 and written by James Gunn for the Play Station 3 and the Xbox 360. It focuses on zombie hunter and cheerleader Juliet Starling, who, along with members of her family and her boyfriend Nick's disembodied head, fight hordes of zombies in San Romero High School, a fictional California high school where Starling formerly cheered. The enemy zombies are led by "a group of zombie rock and roll lords".

Suda looks to create something a bit different from the standard zombie fare with this game. As part of what he brands "a piece of pop zombie entertainment" zombies explode into bright, multicolored displays of light and glitter instead of blood and gore, and he intends to push the limit of how deeply Pop Music sensibilities can be blended into a zombie-themed Hack and Slash.

Tropes used in Lollipop Chainsaw include:
  • Absolute Cleavage: The Sexy Rider Suit. It's a hot pink jumpsuit for Juliet, with the front zipper unzipped all the way down to the crotch.
  • Action Girl: Juliet is a textbook example, down to the increasingly common Fan Service.
  • A Love to Dismember: Juliet did this to Nick's head, with the twist that he's still alive.
  • All Men Are Perverts: With the possible exception of Juliet's dad. Even Nick may be a moderate example, hinting that he watches German porn, his files listing masturbation as a hobby. Many of Juliet's male classmates say some raunchy joke after rescue.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Zombies are not mindless and many can recognize Juliet, but undeath turns their personalities vile and horrific.
  • Artistic License: Biology: Hilariously Lampshaded.

Nick: How am I still talking without a fucking thorax?

  • Badass Adorable
  • Badass Family: Juliet comes from a family of zombie hunters.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Part of Juliet's cheerleading uniform.
  • Black Comedy: Tons of it, mostly between Juliet and Nick. When fire zombies leap at them from a helicopter, he asks if she's heard the song "It's Raining Men"; he calls two zombie police "an undead Starsky and Hutch. And a lot of bad jokes are made about his condition.
  • Big Bad: Swan, the Emo Teen responsible for turning everyone into zombies.
  • BFG: The second upgrade for Juliet's saw turns it into a Chainsaw Blaster, which looks like a big Tommy gun but works like a shotgun.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Nick's hobbies are, as listed: "Badminton, Bass Guitar, Masturbation". Morikawa's are listed as karate, kama sutra, and collecting women's underwear.
  • Car Fu: Some mooks try to run Juliet down, the first and final boss can throw them at her. Juliet herself uses a grain-thresher tractor to mow zombies down in the third stage, and in the sixth stage, Rosalind uses a wrecking ball to fight them. (Well, she tries to, but this has as much chance of hurting Juliet too, who comments that Rosalind wanted a wrecking ball for Christmas and this is proof she shouldn't have one.)
  • Catch Phrase: According to the script writer Juliet says "What the dick?" a lot.
  • Chainsaw Good: Juliet's weapon of choice (and a heart-spangled one at that!); Probably the most conventional element of the game so far.
  • The Cheerleader: Juliet herself subverts the trope as a heroic cheerleader, but in Stage 2, she finds her squad has been zombified too, going so far as to darkly pervert their cheer:

Zombie Cheerleaders: "You all suck and we are great! D-d-d-decapitate!"

  • Chef of Iron: Morikawa is a sushi chef in his "day job", and can fight zombies with kitchen knives.
  • Dangerously-Short Skirt: Definitely dangerous, definitely short.
  • Dangerous Eighteenth Birthday
  • Dead Weight: Fat zombies start appearing in Stage 3. Tougher than the average mooks, they can use a powerful belly-flop attack.
  • Delinquent Hair: Zed, a punk rock archetype, sports a feet-tall bright red mohawk.
  • Dumb Blonde: Juliet seems to parody the Trope, being scatterbrained and spacey in her dialogue.
  • Elite Mook: Most zombies are killed with one or a couple of swings, but zombies with life bars (other than bosses) are tougher.
  • Evil Teacher: In Stage 1, named zombies include two of Nick and Juliet's teachers, Mr. Fitzgibbon and Roberta. The former was, sadly, a nice guy before being zombified if his file can be believed, but Nick isn't sorry Juliet has to kill him, as he'd given Nick a bad grade the previous week.
  • Fastball Special: Using Nick's head. While he's still conscious and lucid.
  • Funbag Airbag: Happens to Morikawa twice. In the span of about five minutes.
  • Gender Flip: In the trailers Juliet comes across a lot like a female version of the protagonist from another game by Suda 51
  • Girlish Pigtails: On Juliet, of course, and between these and the cheerleader outfit the line between cute and sexy is being played for all it's worth.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: There's no real violence in the game, despite it involving chainsaws and zombies. When a zombie is sliced apart or killed, instead of blood, there's rainbows and hearts.
  • Grievous Harm With A Head: It's revealed in the Valentines Day trailer that Juliet can use Nick's head as a weapon for some special attacks.
  • Groin Attack: With a motherloving chainsaw.
  • Hack and Slash: Gameplay is extremely similar to another game in the Grasshopper pedigree.
  • Hand Wave: Juliet uses magic her sensei taught her to keep Nick's head alive.
  • Half the Man He Used To Be: One of the typical ways Juliet finishes off tougher zombies and bosses.
  • The Hero's Birthday: The events of the game start with Juliet's 18th birthday. Many of the upgrades she gets are presents from her family and allies.
  • The Hunter: The whole game is sort of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer on on acid instead of meth.
  • I Know Madden Kombat:
    • In Stage 1, Juliet has to defeat a mob of zombies at Zombie Basketball, a which means "score more than 100 points by zombies and punting their heads through a hoop" (one tries to block you) in three minutes. Much like true basketball, each score is two points, and yes, you can make three-point shots. The mini-game appears again in Stage 2, but this time you have only two minutes.
    • Stage 2 has Zombie Baseball. In this one, Juliet has to protect Nick (with a zombie body) from the zombies by launching baseballs at them. To win the game, Nick must score three times before time runs out.
  • Intrepid Merchant: Chop-2-Shop consoles are devices that appear at certain areas, where Juliet can buy lollipops, outfits, and unlock skills.
  • Lighter and Softer: This isn't exactly a harsh zombie apocalypse, compared to other games in the genre.
  • Losing Your Head: Juliet's boyfriend Nick, now attached to her belt. He was bitten by a zombie and she "saved" him the only way she could. He can still talk though, and he definitely voices his displeasure about his predicament. At least the view should be nice. Many of the puzzles in the game are solved by giving Nick a temporary zombie body; Nick always expresses delight in having a body again, however temporarily.
  • Martial Arts and Crafts: Juliet utilizes her cheerleading chops as a branching series of quick, light, set-up combos.
  • Mercy Rewarded: Juliet and Nick come across a cowardly student in Stage 1 who blocks their way out; later, they find him cornered by zombies. While Nick does suggest letting him rot, saving him gains Juliet the standard amount of coins for rescue, and is still needed for completion.
  • Milkman Conspiracy: Juliet claims Frankenberry cereal is a propaganda tool that Frankenberries (as in plural) use to get people to trust them. Noodle Incident She personally fought a whole tribe of them.
  • Mini-Dress of Power: Juliet wears her San Romero High cheerleading outfit into battle, which includes an archetypal cheerleader miniskirt.
  • Morph Weapon: The chainsaw "magically" changes to a pair of pom-poms and back. No word on further transformations or other weapons that act similarly.
  • Most Dangerous Game: Stage 4 has a few video game themed parts that Juliet has to get through, including a Homage to Pac-Man.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Guess who. The alternate costumes pretty much solidify it.
  • Multiple Endings: Just two: a good ending and a bad ending. To get the good ending, Juliet must rescue every single one of her distressed classmates. Missing even one results in the bad ending.
  • Musical Assassin: The zombie rock lords are shaping up to be this; The first, Zed, is confirmed to fire projectiles at you in the form of guitar riffs and lyrical profanities.
  • Mysterious Backer: Just who is the unseen announcer supporting her during the mini-games?
  • Noodle Incident:
    • The aforementioned fight with the Frankenberries. Also, Juliet has fought yeti in the past, claiming they're "a bunch of dicks".
    • Every named zombie has something like this in their File. For instance, Mark (a tough zombie from Stage 3) once "photoshopped Juliet's head onto the body of Miss April 2008", and Josephine (a cheerleader zombie) was once Juliet's rival and made her cookies with laxatives in the chocolate.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: The rank-and-file? Not so much. Their zombie rock lord bosses? Definitely.
  • Panty Shot: Even the first few screenshots indicate that Magic Skirt has gone on a long vacation somewhere. (They're purple.)
  • Police Are Useless: Downplayed. The cops at least try to help Juliet, but aren't very good at zombie fighting, leading to her having to fight a few very dangerous undead police. ("A zombie with a gun?" she yells. "No fair!")
  • Refuge in Audacity: A cheerleader accessorizing with her boyfriend's severed head spunkily chainsawing hordes of undead into a fine, glittery, rainbow mist? What exactly did you expect from Suda?
  • Seashell Bra: One of Juliet's alternate costumes.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The three survivors you rescue during the game's prologue end up dying and turning into zombies anyway after the helicopter they are on crashes.
  • Spiritual Successor: Suda is definitely exploring familiar territory. The hack and slash combat is very No More Heroes and the unusually stylized take on zombies was also present in Killer7.
  • Skewed Priorities: Some students show this after rescue. One wants to post the encounter on YouTube, another is most upset that the zombies made her underwear ride up. (Rather than, say, trying to eat her.)
  • Spoiled Sweet: Juliet appears to cater to this from the various cutscenes. She's obviously got top tier social standing within the school, but doesn't seem to have Alpha Bitch tendencies...excepting Swan and his minions, of course.
  • Sweet Tooth: Lollipops. Juliet's health meter is represented by lollipops and lollipops are used to regenerate lost health, and buy jellybeans and sugary cereal to enhance her abilities.
  • Symbolic Blood: Open wounds gush rainbows and clouds of shiny purple stars and hearts instead of the red stuff.
    • Oddly, this only seems to apply to finishing moves... For everything else, Ludicrous Gibs is in full effect.
  • Vulnerable Civilian: If a survivor with an "S.O.S" sign appears, Juliet has to rescue him or her before the zombies reduce the student's life bar to zero. Saving them all is required for the Good Ending.
  • We Sell Anything: It's implied that Juliet can get upgrades for the Chainsaw on Amazon, claiming that she put Rosalind's gift on her Wish List on the site.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: Downplayed. Juliet's Bedazzled Chainsaw is her sole weapon, but she upgraded it several times during the course of the game.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Juliet's got to be rocking at least a type A between the miniskirt and leggings.
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