Lollipop Chainsaw

Overview

Lollipop Chainsaw is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture. It came out of a collaboration between game designer Goichi Suda, known as Suda51, and filmmaker James Gunn. It was published in Japan by Kadokawa Games and elsewhere by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in June 2012.

You play Juliet Starling, a cheerleader and zombie hunter fighting zombies at a fictional California high school. It is a hack and slash game. Juliet fights with melee attacks and a chainsaw, and zombies that have been beaten into a groggy state can be finished off with a chainsaw attack. Gold medals earned from zombies, objects and rescued classmates are spent at Chop2Shop.zom stores on new moves and stat boosts. Killing several zombies at once gives a Sparkle Hunting bonus that pays platinum medals, which buy costumes, music and artwork.

On her 18th birthday, a zombie outbreak hits San Romero High School while Juliet is meeting her boyfriend Nick. Nick is bitten, so Juliet decapitates him and keeps him alive with a ritual. His head hangs from her belt and can be used in play. The outbreak was started by a goth named Swan, who calls up five bosses called the Dark Purveyors, each tied to a style of rock music.

The game was announced in July 2011. James Gunn had a hand in the story and characters. The illustrator NekoshowguN designed the characters and the chainsaw. Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence wrote the boss music and voiced Zed. Downloadable costumes were based on characters from four anime series. A Valentine Edition was released in Japan on February 14, 2013.

Reviews were mixed. The PS3 version has a Metacritic score of 67 and the Xbox 360 version 70. Japanese critics liked the combo-based play and the satire, while Western critics were put off by the repetitive play and crude story. It still gained a cult following and sold over 1.24 million units by June 2024, making it Grasshopper Manufacture's most successful game.

A remaster, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, was released in September 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X and S, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions in December 2024.

Official trailer

Lollipop Chainsaw - Launch Trailer, GameSpot. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Lollipop Chainsaw (PS3) Gameplay Walkthrough | Full Game | No Commentary, JesterQuinn Gaming. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Action-adventure, Hack and slash

Developer

Grasshopper Manufacture

Publisher

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Series

Lollipop Chainsaw

Engine

Unreal Engine 3

Composers

Akira Yamaoka, Mac Nobuka, Jimmy Urine

Writers

Masahiro Yuki, James Gunn

Producers

Masa Shidara, Masahiro Yuki

Directors

Tomo Ikeda, Goichi Suda

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Trophies

Trophies51

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

1

Silver

15

Bronze

34

Total

51

Points

1350

Platinum time

30 hours

100% time

30 hours

Difficulty

4 out of 10

Playthroughs for platinum

2

Playthroughs for 100%

2

Platinum without online

No

Online trophies

1

Online servers running

Yes

Boosting needed

No

Online note

International Zombie Hunter needs a Ranking mode score on the leaderboards for every stage.

DLC has trophies

No

Platinum includes DLC

No

100% includes DLC

No

DLC still for sale

No

DLC note

The costume DLC has no trophies; the anime costumes can also be bought in the in-game shop.

Missable trophies

0

Chapter select fixes a miss

Yes

Separate trophy lists by region

No

Only in a language other than English

No

Online-only version

No

Digital-only

No

Disc-only

No

Trophy list shared with other versions

No

Other versions

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS4 and PS5 has its own lists.

Players with the platinum

13.37%

Grind

• Millionaire Hunter and Zombie Slayer!: medals and zombie kills
• Love Nick
• Lollipop wrappers and unique zombies, which only appear on Hard

• Legendary Zombie Hunter 100% Complete! Thank you for playing! Platinum 13.37% of players
• Zombie Hunter Apprentice Buy a combo at Chop2Shop.Zom and use it. Bronze 87.77% of players
• Unclean and Uncool Defeated Hazmat in Prologue. Bronze 91.06% of players
• Zed’s Dead, Baby, Zed’s Dead Defeated Zed. Bronze 74.92% of players
• Viking Metal Rules! Defeated Vikke. Bronze 64.8% of players
• Dirty Hippy Defeated Mariska. Bronze 59.58% of players
• Disco's Dead Defeated Josey. Bronze 55.12% of players
• Rock'n Roll Isn't Here Anymore Defeated Lewis LEGEND. Bronze 53.01% of players
• I Came, I Saw, I Kicked Its Ass Defeated Killabilly. Bronze 51.59% of players
• Leapfrog girl Leapfrogged 10 times in a row. Bronze 34.61% of players
• I Swear! I Did It By Mistake! Peeped under Juliet's skirt once. Bronze 52.9% of players
• Endorsed by Cordelia Get 30 headshots. Bronze 20.31% of players
• Sparkle Hunting Master Succeed in 7 zombie Sparkle Hunting. Bronze 34.43% of players
• Gunn Struck Struck by lightning 10 times. Bronze 35.13% of players
• Super Shopper Spend 10,000 medals at Chop2Shop.Zom. Bronze 20.9% of players
• Love Nick Kissed Nick 100 times. Bronze 14.6% of players
• JULIET51 51 successful dropkicks. Bronze 46.67% of players
• International Zombie Hunter Registered in world leaderboards for all stages. Bronze Needs online 13.83% of players
• Groovy Hunter Kill 500 zombies. Bronze 64.77% of players
• Zombie Slayer?! Kill 3,000 zombies. Silver 19.1% of players
• Rich Hunter Pick up 1,000 zombie medals. Bronze 71.59% of players
• Millionaire Hunter Pick up 10,000 zombie medals. Silver 22.53% of players
• San Romero Knights Savior Rescued All Classmates. Silver 27.6% of players
• Lollipop Addict Collected all lollipop wrappers. Silver 15.04% of players
• Always On The Phone Collected all telephone messages. Bronze 51.64% of players
• Zombie Fancier Completed the zombie album. Silver 14.69% of players
• OMG, Music Is Soooo Coooool Collected all BGM. Silver 14.73% of players
• Perfect Body Completely level up Juliet. Silver 23.24% of players
• Master Sushi Chef Collected all combos. Silver 23.11% of players
• Watch Out For The Balls Dodge & Counter Zed's Electric Balls 15 times. Bronze 21.09% of players
• Cheerleader Overboard! Succeed in QTE at edge of Vikke's ship. Bronze 23.92% of players
• Third Eye Dodge all balloon attacks in Mariska battle. Bronze 20.77% of players
• Critical UFO Finish Funk Josey in the last 10 seconds. Bronze 21.28% of players
• Elephant Tamer Counter Lewis' attack 10 times. Bronze 17.97% of players
• Fingered Cut off 20 fingers during Killabilly's fight! Bronze 45.45% of players
• Life Guard Rescued all classmates in Prologue. Bronze 86.96% of players
• Accidental Vandalism Destroyed 300 objects in the game. Bronze 62.64% of players
• Go, Medal Racer, Go! Picked up all zombie medals on the rooftop with Chainsaw Dash. Bronze 18.09% of players
• Legendary harvester Harvested all crops in the 1st field with the combine in Stage 3. Bronze 24.35% of players
• No Fear Of Heights Beat the Gondola game without shooting. Bronze 18.04% of players
• Little Sisters Are The Worst! Do not get hit by Rosalind's wrecking ball. Bronze 27.06% of players
• Aced Auto-shop Class Clear all the Kill Car QTE's in a row. Bronze 45.36% of players
• n00b Zombie Hunter Clear Prologue, surpassing Dad's score. Silver 26.06% of players
• Beginner Zombie Hunter Clear Stage 1, surpassing Dad's score. Silver 24.99% of players
• Intermediate Zombie Hunter Clear Stage 2, surpassing Dad's score. Silver 17.31% of players
• Advanced Zombie Hunter Clear Stage 3, surpassing Dad's score. Silver 19.46% of players
• Super Zombie Hunter Clear Stage 4, surpassing Dad's score. Silver 16.1% of players
• Excellent Zombie Hunter Clear Stage 5, surpassing Dad's score. Silver 47.76% of players
• Master Zombie Hunter Clear Stage 6, surpassing Dad's score. Silver 28.38% of players
• Congratulations! Happy Birthday! Watched the happy ending. Gold 25.63% of players
• Horrid Birthday Watched the bad ending. Bronze 47.88% of players

Space and patches

Space neededAbout 6.3 GB

Update patchNo patch

DLC

A costume pack dresses Juliet as characters from four anime series. The costumes can also be bought in the in-game shop.

Items

Name	Adds
Anime costume pack	Costumes based on Rei Miyamoto and Saeko Busujima from Highschool of the Dead, Shiro from Deadman Wonderland, Manyu Chifusa from Manyu Hiken-cho and Haruna from Is This a Zombie?

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Single-player, and the leaderboards still take scores.

Online

Online servers runningYes

Plays offlineYes

There is no multiplayer. Ranking mode posts scores to online leaderboards.

Services

Service	Status
Ranking mode leaderboards	running

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	67	100
Metacritic	Xbox 360	70	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Edge	7	10
Game Informer	7.5	10
GameSpot	6.5	10
IGN	5	10
Eurogamer	6	10
PlayStation Magazine	6	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Tomo Ikeda
Director	Goichi Suda
Producer	Masa Shidara
Producer	Masahiro Yuki
Writer	Masahiro Yuki
Writer	James Gunn
Character design	NekoshowguN
Composer	Akira Yamaoka
Composer	Mac Nobuka
Composer	Jimmy Urine

Cast

Character	Actor
Juliet Starling (English)	Tara Strong
Juliet Starling (Japanese, PS3)	Yoko Hikasa
Zed	Jimmy Urine

Notes for collectors

• The Japanese Premium Edition (disc ID BLJS10125) is the uncensored version, with a CERO Z rating. The standard Japanese version is the toned-down version, rated CERO D.
• On limited uncensored versions, the player can switch Juliet's Japanese voice between two actors after finishing the game once. The PS3 version uses Yoko Hikasa and the Xbox 360 version uses Eri Kitamura.
• International Zombie Hunter needs every stage cleared in Ranking mode with the score registered on the online leaderboards.
• Nick's head can be attached to a decapitated zombie body for short rhythm button sections.
• The Japanese Valentine Edition was released on February 14, 2013 with two bonus DVDs.

Credits

Publisher

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Developer

Grasshopper Manufacture

Director

Tomo Ikeda and Goichi Suda

Released

2012-06-12

Age rating

ESRB M

Disc ID

BLUS30917

Region

US

Time to beat

about 6.5 hours