Game Review: Lollipop Chainsaw

Attractive girls can kill zombies too...

Lollipop Chainsaw has been surrounded by controversy. It has been accused from many corners of objectifying women, perpetuating stereotypes and being downright crude. But what all of the publicity has tended to leave in the dark is - it's a pretty average game. The opening cinematic plays out like a nineties chick flick along the same lines as Clueless and heroine Juliet is equally as vapid as the film's Cher. The melange of the undead and high school drama isn't exactly original but provides the foundation for a story which is at times genuinely witty and entertaining, despite its self-conscious ridiculousness.

Juliet Starling is a chainsaw-wielding, cheer leading, scantily clad, blonde bombshell, whose ditsy dialogue often invokes eye-rolling and the occasional chuckle. As she fights her way across her hometown she is accompanied by boyfriend, who thanks to an unfortunate zombie-biting incident at the beginning of the game, is now a decapitated but animate head.

Comic book style animation and stills combined with a cel-shaded colourful approach provide Chainsaw with a fresh, endearing look which combines perfectly with the light-hearted comedy which is at the heart of the game. It is a shame that so much of the animation is dedicated to Juliet in compromising positions; never a cut scene goes by without an up skirt shot, which is ironic given that an achievement is awarded for managing this in-game. Unfortunately, this does not even scratch the surface of the misogynistic behaviour that Juliet is subjected too. She is frequently called a 'whore' or 'bitch' and one of her classmates tells her he will 'totally masturbate to you tonight'.

The controls are your basic hack and slash. Juliet has a pom-pom stunning attack as well as her basic chainsaw move. I often found the controls to be sluggish and at times even unresponsive. The combo moves are simple button combinations but only a couple seem to hit consistently. After gaining enough meter Juliet can unleash her super mode which allows her to take out zombies in one hit while 'Hey Mickey' plays in the background - CAUTION: you will know most of the words by the end of the game if you don't already. Juliet gains other super moves throughout the rest of the game, involved propelling Nick out of a cannon and gaining a super blaster projectile weapon which is probably the most accurate weapon. Juliet does a dance after racking up some combo kills which leaves her vulnerable to attack, which can be very irritating and damaging if she is in the middle of a group of zombies.

There is little in the way of original features on offer in Chainsaw. Some of the stages have some quirky features, such as the hallucinogenic farm area which allows you to plough through a field of zombies on a combine harvester and the Funland stage which features Pacman and Pong influenced levels.

If the tiny outfits, misogynist comments and dodgy controls haven't put you off yet, it is purely because of the humour. While Juliet's remarks often fall flat ('you're like a kitten, a kitten that doesn't speak Japanese') her boyfriend's banter is what keeps the comedy in the game. With gems such as 'This is so much fun, I almost forgot all my friends are dead!'. However, the main problem with Chainsaw, is that the line between satire and filth is constantly blurred. What begins as an ironic poke at American culture quickly becomes an excuse to objectify Juliet in every way possible, leaving an uncomfortable aftertaste. Some of the worst moments include Juliet revealing her aged Sensei taught her how to pole dance and gave her some 'sweet lap dancing moves'.

While the controls are temperamental and the behaviour towards Juliet outrageous, Lollipop Chainsaw offers some entertainment. Juliet is far from an engaging protagonist but Nick and family go a little way in making up for that. If you can look past the often distasteful but sometimes witty jokes and see the game for what it is - a bit of fun - Lollipop Chainsaw is a reasonable way to spend a couple of hours and empty your head.

Developer: Kurukowa Games/Grasshopper Manufacture

Publisher: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.

Platforms: PS3 & Xbox 360

Genre: Hack & Slash/Horror

Release Date: 15 June 2012

Price: £29.99/$59.99

By Emma-Lee Davidson

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Game Feature: Sexism in Horror Video Games (NSFW)

"Of course, they see me as a piece of meat...they're zombies!" - Sexism in Survival Horror & Zombie Games

Gaming in general has been accused of objectifying women pretty much since the introduction of the first female protagonist into arcades. In 1982, Ms Pacman was introduced as ‘the new femme fatale of the game world’ on a poster that features the lady herself, a highly made up ball on legs. While the Pacman games are hardly known for an engaging storyline (or any storyline at all), players of Ms Pacman were treated to a closing scene showing Ms Pacman’s reward for completing her trials, as having a family. The world of gaming has changed colossally since the eighties, now volumes of games of all genres are available for the different home consoles. The perception of women’s roles has also changed, however, sexism is still apparent and perhaps more widely in gaming than in any other medium. Many different genres are guilty of sexism to varying degrees and perhaps one of the worst is the survival horror/zombie game, after fighting games of course. 

Team Ninja's highly sexualised fighter 'Dead or Alive series

While it's debatable whether or not Resident evil created the survival horror genre, there's no arguing it made it popular. At first glance, the Resident Evil series could be said to be one of the lesser offenders. On the surface, the original Resident Evil even seems to be a champion for the cause, allowing players to choose between male or female characters, Chris and Jill. However, after deeper analysis we see that the game is much easier while playing as Jill as she is given two extra item slots in addition to a lockpick, allowing the player to avoid the tedious key collecting required to progress through the Chris game. This is completely independent of the difficulty setting, as you choose that separately before you begin the game. There are two possible occasions in the game whereby Jill can find herself being rescued from danger by the NPC Barry Burton. In one situation a trap is activated and the ceiling starts to descend threatening to squish the player, and the other involves a giant blood-thirsty mutant plant. Meanwhile, in Chris story mode, no one ever comes to his rescue should he find himself in danger. Instead of Barry, Chris' companion for the game is the young Rebecca Chambers, the medic of the Bravo team. She does not engage in combat, merely waiting by her teammate Richard while Chris explores the mansion and requires the player controlling Chris to rescue her at one point in the game.

The prequel, Resident Evil 0, also offers a male/female character choice, though this time in an ongoing manner using the 'partner system' whereby the character not chosen by the player is controlled by the game. This time the pick is between Rebecca of the first game and escaped convict Billy. Rebecca is equally as drippy in this game as she was in the original, coming away with such dialogue gems as 'Don't call me princess' in a high-pitched nasal tone. Resident Evil 4 features the defenceless Ashley following Leon around, having been rescued multiple times by him throughout the game and in the end asking him for some very suggestive 'overtime', and sporting a cleavage heavy bonus costume after beating the game.

Was this really necessary?

The other two female characters, on the other hand, seem to be far less stereotypical. Hunnigan has little to do in the grand scheme of the game but does turn Leon down when he asks for her phone number which is slightly refreshing after Ashley has been pining after him for the whole game. Ada is a far more developed character with a rich back story and more than once through the game she saves Leon's life. In fact, at several points throughout the games she is shown to be cunning and quick-witted, frequently outmanoeuvring her male co-stars. Yet, it is not enough for her to be clever and resourceful. For Resident Evil 4 Ada's outfit was given a more sexualised upgrade, with a high slit in dress and less coverage on her back. Besides Ada though, most of the female characters within the Resident Evil canon are only there concerning men or to play stereotypical roles. Rebecca is looking to recapture Billy; Claire is looking for her brother and along the way mothers Sherry and Jill spend the duration of Resident Evil 1 searching for Chris.

If the lack of independent, fully characterised women in the Resident Evil series is disillusioning, that is nothing compared to the Dead Rising series. Resident Evil could be accused of tokenism and less than fully developed female characters, whereas Dead Rising is filled with blatant, old school sexism. In both Dead Rising 1 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, you can gain experience points by taking pictures of various targets which come under the headings of Horror, Outtake, Drama, Brutality and Erotica. To score highly in the Erotica category, protagonist Frank must try and get snaps of scantily clad legs, cleavage and upskirt shots. In the original, survivor Cheryl actually asks Frank to take Erotica pictures of her.

Dead Rising 2's protagonist Chuck is a more respectful character, but the women featured in the game are still generally helpless. Three missions require you to carry next-to-naked women back to the Safe House; one of whom wearing a mermaid costume she won't take off because she isn't wearing any underwear. The main female characters Stacey Forsythe and Rebecca Chang are portrayed as strong intelligent women, at least at the beginning of the story. Off the Record is virtually the same game remade with Frank West of the original, so all the sexism of the photography feature combines with a storyline made even more sexually charged. Rebecca Chang becomes Frank's love interest and requires Frank to come to her rescue at various points throughout the game.

Other games that have stirred up controversy include the likes of Dead Island, which included in its code a skill ever so subtly called 'Feminist Whore' and the newly released Lollipop Chainsaw, whose heroine is a big busted blonde bombshell, who slays zombies in a miniskirt and crop top like a soft-core pornographic Buffy caricature.

No points for guessing who this was marketed towards?

Onechenbara: Bikini Samurai Squad is not unlike Lollipop Chainsaw in that it's a Japanese developed zombie killing game starring a scantily-clad, busty protagonist. However, unlike Lollipop Chainsaw it saw poor reviews due to lacking any real enjoyable or compelling gameplay. In an interesting provoked publicity stunt, the games publisher D3 supplied naked pictures of the main protagonist to world-renown Playboy when requested for their review of the game.

A poor 'by the numbers game' with breasts as the main selling point

There are the likes of the Left 4 Dead games which don't appear to be sexist at all but still suffer from what 'Feminist Frequency' dubs the Smurfette Principle, where the female characters appear in an ensemble of men, special infected included. It could be argued that in the case of Left 4 Dead the vast majority of players are male and so may want to play as male characters. However, although not Zombie games, the protagonists of the Metroid and Portal series are female and these have proved popular regardless of that fact (although in the original Metroid it is not apparent that the character of Samus is a woman until the credits at the end of the game).

Slightly less revealing than the previous image

In light of what is stated above, it could be said that there is a lot of work to do in the portrayal of women in survival horror/zombie games and in gaming more generally. The current female characters are underdeveloped and overly sexualised and this detracts from the authenticity of the scenario. As it is, there are and have been many fantastic zombie games that are hugely entertaining (including most of the games mentioned above) but until there are richer characters of both genders, they will fail to fulfil the potential they have to make a dramatic impact.

By Emma-Lee Davidson
Co-written by guest writers Rhiannon Davidson, Connor Keegan and Sean Keegan.

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Game Review: Dead Island

Tropical paradise. Now with more zombies!

Publisher: Deep Silver

Developer: Techland

Platforms: PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/PC

Genres: First-Person-Shooter/Horror

Release Date: September 9th 2011

Price: PC- £29.99 Xbox 360/PS3- £39.99 (RRP)

Ok, let me just say this straight off the bat, I'm a huge zombie nut. I don't know why, but there's something so strangely compelling about the idea of undead humans stumbling around and feasting on our soon-to-extinct bodies. Of course, what makes this situation so compelling is the idea of survival. The idea of living against the odds and being a true hero of mankind, or something like that. Unfortunately, I doubt this would be the case if a zombie apocalypse were to actually spring up on our planet, (It could just happen yet, just you wait!)

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