Lollipop Chainsaw remake with ‘more realistic’ graphics is launching next year [Updated]

[Updated on June 5 @ 5:03 PM ET]: Movie director and Lollipop Chainsaw writer, James Gunn, has stated that neither he nor Suda51 are involved with the remake. The game will include some former developers, but Gunn wrote on Twitter that “no one ever approached us about it.” 

The original article, published on June 5, is as follows. 

As teased last month, Lollipop Chainsaw is making a comeback as a full remake set to release next year. The news was confirmed earlier today by the original game’s producer and director, Yoshimi Yasuda, over Twitter. Some of the original development team is also on board, along with Yasuda. However, while the announcement should get your chainsaw revving, there are some caveats. The Lollipop Chainsaw remake team is aiming for “more realistic” graphics, and some songs aren’t coming along for the ride.

According to the message by Yasuda, the new game is going to look and sound a bit different. With modern hardware being more powerful than that of 2012, the game’s release, the Lollipop Chainsaw remake will boast “a more realistic approach to the graphics this time.” That’s quite the hammer to drop. The original game was far from realistic, with bright colors, glitter, and rainbows highlighting every zombie massacre. Perhaps Yasuda means these effects will be more robust and high quality, rather than gritty and dark. Otherwise, the game could lose its gaudy identity.

The Lollipop Chainsaw remake is losing out on some songs, sadly. Yasuda mentions that the 2012 release included 15 licensed songs, but it would be “difficult for [them] to implement all of them this time.” Instead, the game will include some new tracks. Hopefully, the team is at least able to keep “Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways. That was pretty much the theme song.

Lollipop lore

Yasuda launched into a story of the original game’s creation in the announcement. And there is some interesting lore to match the overall bizarre game that is Lollipop Chainsaw, where you play as a zombie-killing high school cheerleader. The game began development in 2009. It was created under joint development by Grasshopper Manufacture and Kadokawa games. With gaming auteur Suda51 busy with other projects, Yasuda and his team oversaw Lollipop Chainsaw. Following Warner Bros. picking it up for publishing, the script was rewritten by none other than director James Gunn. The game released to decent reviews, and gathered a small but loyal following.

The Lollipop Chainsaw remake is scheduled to arrive in 2023, but no platform has been confirmed. However, the impetus of the remake is to make the game more easily available. I can see a PC release being very likely.