Dragami Games has announced a remake of Lollipop Chainsaw, which will arrive next year. The 2012 original was a cult hit. It’s a hack-and-slash title from the mind of producer Yoshimi Yasuda, creative director Goichi “Suda51” Suda (of No More Heroes fame) and Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who was a writer on game.
Lollipop Chainsaw focuses on Juliet Starling, a cheerleader who fights zombies at a California high school. Surprisingly, Juliet handles a chainsaw that she can use in a variety of ways (including ranged attacks). You can also pick up lollipops to regain your health. Juliet is accompanied in her search by her boyfriend’s disembodied head. It’s not a serious game.
Dragami Games is led by Yasuda. which will also produce the remake. The development team includes other people who have previously worked at Lollipop Chainsaw. As IGN points out, some aspects will be different in the remake. Yasuda said the new version will leverage the current generation of console hardware to offer “a more realistic approach to graphics.” It will also have new music, due to licensing issues.
Dragami acquired the intellectual property of Lollipop Chainsaw and other titles from the original publisher Kadokawa Games (Dragami recently separated from the latter). “Unfortunately, several factors made things so that fans could no longer easily play Lollipop Chainsaw, and players have long been unable to access the game on current consoles,” Yasuda wrote in a statement on Twitter. “We, the original development staff at Lollipop Chainsaw, think the game is very precious to us and we didn’t want to leave it in limbo, where players who want to play it can’t.”