4 STAR GAME - 2.5 STAR PORT...split the difference?
Lollipop Chainsaw is STILL brilliant, but RePop's Benefits are at odds with it's Drawbacks
Juliet's Birthday has always been an extremely fun romp, and her torso-less boyfriend Nick retro-actively brings a new meaning to the term "Short King." This is a not-so-guilty-pleasure game for me. You won't find Devil May Cry style depth in it's combat, nor Nier: Automata's incredible exploration and depth of it's themes and story. What you will find however, is one of the funniest and best examples of a simply fun action game. Not all the writing has aged well, but I think it's worst offences are ones that were already fairly obscured behind progress and secrets, though it definitely shows how much James Gunn's writing has come in the many years since this originally released.
There's a lot of late 2000s, early 2010's humour, a couple jokes of which hasn't aged well, but along with the interactions between the main cast of characters and not-obnoxious meta-humour, it culminates in this immensely charming package.
The dialogue is the stand-out amongst it all, with jokes I forgot about that got me laughing out loud. However, don't let any ass-hat from some garbage, reactionary YouTube channel or twatter account tell you this is "Peak Pre-Political-Correctness-Gone-Mad video game content". This game obviously wasn't made with any kind of anti-anyone agenda, unless you like screamo-metal I guess. Yes, the kinds of jokes this game makes, sometimes at the indirect expense of people who don't deserve it, wouldn't be made in such prominence in the industry today. But to anyone who doesn't want to get this game just because some arsehole with a shitty opinion, shitty twitter bio and an even shittier lack of media-literacy wants to try prop up media like this as some sort of 'anti-woke' nonsense, I promise you there is enough good fun and funny dialogue in this game to leave you walking away with a smile on your face, even if you don't entirely like that it did so.
Don't let Bozo The Clown rob you of experiencing an entertaining night at a great circus.
Now, there's also some jank.
Think less 'Crashing constantly and falling through the world' jank and more "The devs clearly had little to no budget which is why I just saw my character pop from one animation into another right before a stiffly animated set-piece triggers the next enemy encounter/loading-screen" kind of jank. It doesn't take away from the gameplay experience, but jank that does remind you it's not a "1st Party" or "Triple-A" experience and oh how I wish I could say this RePop remaster elevates it to where that doesn't matter. I loved playing this back on the 360 & PS3, so seeing it get any kind of official PC port is fantastic, but that monkey-paw wish of a PC port is still a monkey-paw wish. The finger definitely curled.
This is a great game brought down by the state of this remaster.
I'd still recommend it if you don't want to try your luck at emulating or finding a used 360/PS3 copy and while I didn't have any crashes, this port barely qualifies as a "remaster".
*My main issues are; *
- New effect additions like dynamic soft-shadows, better depth of field and chromatic aberration do not make up for the removal of the old effects that gave the original such a clear sense of style, causing some textures and colours to look more muted, spot-lights to not make characters and objects stand out like they should and shadows missing in certain spots changing the mood and vibe of some shots.
- Up-scaled textures are muddied by Unreal's effects
- Sound bugs: (Mistimed sounds, most sounds dampened due to stacked effects it can't quite handle at once, couple missing dialogue lines and distortion due to peaking in voice lines)
- and Lack of controller UI options (only XBOX prompts without a mod)
I didn't necessarily mind the original jankiness of the game not getting treated, I knew going in most of it was likely still gonna be there. What I do mind is that there was not enough care taken to the visuals. In the original there are lost of very intentional post-effects going on screen for very obvious and intentional reasons, the easiest moment to point to is Juliet's face being obscured by a light-beam/god-ray until her comic panel intro. That does not exist in this remaster, along with a few other visual touches the original had that make the colours pop and the shadows bring a nice moody atmosphere.
What also hurts the visuals are the insanely high amounts of Unreal5 light bloom and over-exposure making the game look unfinished in bright spots like the schools windows or stacked fire effects.
I recommend installing the Enhanced Lollipop Visuals mod by FrancisLouis, as well as the RePop Classic Style ReShade Preset by celestialrhodes123 using the "RePop Less Classic" preset. It's not without unintended visual bugs, but the moment to moment game looks a hell of a lot better with this mode and preset.
Yeah it sucks they couldn't afford to pay for the licensed music tracks from the original, like "Hey Mickey", "You Spin me Right Round" and others, same for the licensed costumes like the Ash Vs Evil Dead one and others from the original premium release, but there is an original soundtrack mod and original costumes mod to put them back in.
The New Content is Brilliant! The new additions, like music, modes and costumes are fantastic! The new music to replace the missing OST fits perfectly and new costumes are always welcome! More-than-welcome additions for this remaster, but the new "Nightmare" and "RePop" modes are by far the biggest additions.
*RePop mode is an attempt at stylised censorship, with censors including: *
- Dismemberment & decapitations effects removed
- Zombie-inside-effects blanked out
- Blood-sprays replaced with pink fire, stars & sparkle effects
- and Character introduction texts altered to remove sexual references
(Please remember this censored version of the game is entirely option. Don't be an idiot and cry that the game got "ruined by the woke" or any garbage like that. It didn't. Please grow up)
Nightmare on the other hand is an entirely different beast and only unlocked once the game has beaten at least once. *Nightmare Mode is likened to the DMC series' Turbo mode, though with some unique twists: *
- Enemies and player-character are 20% faster in both movement and attack speeds
- The post-processing changes to a darker, more grim aesthetic
- Gold & Silver Coin rewards are increased
- New unlocks & upgrades at high cost to spend said coin rewards on.
This is especially fun if the regular Hard and Very Hard difficulties aren't quite to your liking and you're looking for more challenge, as the modes and difficulties can be mix-n-matched to your preference. Several of these upgrades can be disabled in the settings menu if you want to return to the original speeds and flow of the game, so while they're permanent, they don't have to be a constant if you don't want them to be.
Last thing I'll mention is while there is audio peaking in some voice-lines, the voice acting and cast ensemble is still excellent. I'm not gonna give you the wiki-run-down of who's who, but some of the names in this game still surprise me to this day. Favourite character by far is Nick, with his unique perspective, attitude and predicament all serving towards some brilliant dialogue and exchanges with Juliet. A true Short-King before the term was even invented.
TL;DR = 4 Star game, 2.5 Star Port. This remaster barely qualifies as one and introduces some new annoyances, but still isn't enough to dissuade me from recommending Lollipop Chainsaw as a terribly fun, if slightly dated, experience. Grab a few Vanilla+ style mods and a ReShade preset and you'll have a great time!