As my second Grasshopper Manufacture title, this one was a huge let down. The combat was boring, once you get the Armadillo spin, which you can get on the first level, everything becomes mindless. You just spin your way through zombie town destroying everything in your path.

Now, obviously you are encouraged to buy more moves and string combos together to get the maximum amount of medals, but I just don't care. The player is always going to take the easiest option, even if it's more boring, because it's easier. That being said, if I liked the game's plot and themes, maybe I would have reason to try to play the game as intended. Try to make the fun gameplay match the great story. The problem with that is, the story is drivel.

Never in my life have I played as hateful a game as this one. This game hates everyone, teenage girls, anorexic people, asian people, mentally ill people, fat people, you name it Lollipop Chainsaw hates it. Well, except white dudes obviously. All of this comes from the mind of one white dude in particular. One James Gunn.

Now, I love James Gunn's Guardians movies, and I'm not really the biggest Marvel fan out there. In fact I find them rather boring. But I respect James Gunn's vision most of the time. Here however? He's just trying to provoke a reaction.

There's so many times where I feel like the game's going to turn the whole situation on it's head. That it's going to become a brilliant piece of political satire ala Bamboozled, Bulworth, or hell even No More Heroes! Instead, James Gunn chooses to wallow in pure shock value humour. And not in a cool John Waters-type challenging the status quo way. No, just in a boring white guy way. Where punching down is the funniest fucking thing in the world.

At the end of the day, I don't really blame any of the team working on it. I don't even entirely blame James Gunn. Yes, this game fucking sucks, but James Gunn seems to have realised the hurtfulness of his prior brand of humour. As well, this really doesn't feel like a Suda51 game, none of his trademarks seem to be here at all. And particularly, this game came right after Grasshopper Manufacture would balloon in size from around 70 to over 140 employees.

The company became too big for Suda51 to direct and oversee the company. Tomo Ikeda, the game's director, had never directed a game before. On top of all that, Grasshopper Manufacture released 5 other games in 2012 alongside Lollipop Chainsaw. It's really no wonder this game is drab and directionless. It just got lost in the shuffle.

This was my very first Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture title, and it was a damn good one. Now, this game isn't going to go down in history as one of the all time greats, but god if it isn't a fun time. This game oozes atmosphere, and going through hell looking for your girlfriend is such a cool plot to play through, if paper thin in terms of subtext and themes. Obviously I would have preferred Suda51's original concept called Kurayami, but alas EA struck again. Regardless, if you like action shooters, and can cope with the fun, but admittedly a little cringy humour, then you should have a grand old time. If you're anything other than a casual gamer though, I'd recommend playing on the hardest difficulty, as easy and normal are a breeze.