At a "Lollipop Chainsaw Summer Appreciation Event" held in Japan over the weekend, it was revealed that the game is Grasshopper's highest selling game to date.
Lollipop Chainsaw sold over 700,000 copies. While this is small potatoes compared to titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops, which sold 12 million copies on the XBox 360 alone, it's still a benchmark for the studio. Lollipop Chainsaw surpassed their previous top seller, No More Heroes, which sold approximately 500,000. Both titles shadow over Grasshopper's CEO and designer Suda 51's prior PS3 and 360 title, Shadow of the Damned, which shipped around 100,000 copies worldwide.
Having never played any of Suda's other titles, I can't really compare them to Chainsaw, so I can't say why it did better than his others. But I have played Chainsaw, and I can't quite understand why it sold so well. There was definitely a lot of hype surrounding the game, which I feel is normal when you pair a buxom blonde cheerleader with a chainsaw against an undead horde. But the actual gameplay doesn't justify Lollipop Chainsaw being Grasshopper's best selling game.
The game definitely got some help with its voice cast. Chainsaw was able to get some notables to lend their voice to help make the living dead bosses come...well..."alive." Alumnus of "Walking Dead" and "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," Michael Rooker provided the voice of Vikke; Jimmy Urine of the band Mindless Self Indulgence played the punk zombie Zed, and Shawnee Smith from "Saw" was psychedelic zombie Mariska.
The soundtrack was great too. Decapitating zombies while the likes of Children of Bodom and Dragonforce blast in the background is pretty cool. Juliet can also purchase new mp3s at "Chop2Shop.zom." The soundtrack also features the likes of Skrillex, Five Finger Death Punch, Toy Dolls, and Joan Jett. While the tracks are great, they can get repetitive quickly. You'll have to drop by the Chop Shop frequently to upgrade your arsenal and stats. But by my third visit, I was completely sick of the Chrodettes' "Lollipop." Sure it was funny at first, but dear Lord did it get old quick.
Though it had a lot of style, the gameplay is what really drove Lollipop Chainsaw into the ground for me. Zombies can easily bust through Juliet's pom-pom combos, soaking up hits like a fleshy rotting sponge. Find yourself in the middle of a zombie horde and you'll get frustrated quickly. As Juliet isn't equipped with a block, her only way out is to leap frog over zombies until she's out of trouble. But even this can be difficult with an often ill-tempered camera and fractured targeting system.
Cheers to Grasshopper and Suda on their accomplishment. Looks like they're well on their way to even more success. I just hope they make some adjustments to their next game.