After a tease last month, we have confirmation: Lollipop Chainsaw will receive a full remake in 2023.
Announced by publisher Dragami Games – which is led by the original game’s producer, Yoshimi Yasuda – the game will arrive worldwide next year, although a formal title or platforms have not yet been announced. It will be developed by “a combination of development staff from the original version, including Yasuda as producer, and new development staff from Dragami Games.”
The game will aim to recreate the original, but Yasuda explained that the remake will feature a couple of key differences. Due to the power of new-gen hardware, the new game will feature “a more realistic approach to graphics.” Less welcome for fans will be the news that music licensing issues means that, as opposed to the first game’s 16 licensed tracks, in the remake, “aside from a few licensed tracks, the soundtrack will consist of new music.”
Juliet Starling in action in Lollipop Chainsaw. (Image: Dragami Games)
Yasuda teased that the game would make some kind of return last month, to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The cult action game was released in 2012, and saw game director Suda51, movie director James Gunn and Yasuda collaborate to present the story of Juliet Starling – a high school cheerleader caught amid an outbreak of zombies.
Writing about the original game’s creation and its new return, Yasuda explained: “Unfortunately, various factors resulted in things making it so that fans can no longer easily play Lollipop Chainsaw, and it has been some time since players have not been able to access the game on current consoles.
“We, the original development staff on Lollipop Chainsaw, think of the game as very precious to us, and did not want to leave it in limbo, where players who want to play it cannot. As such, we purchased the Lollipop Chainsaw intellectual property from Kadokawa Games, and decided to develop a remake. We have already contacted Warner Bros. about development, and are being supported by them in this endeavor.”
The game picked up a cult following but in our 5/10 review, IGN said: “Lollipop Chainsaw doesn’t even attempt to differentiate itself from the genre, and most of what it does try new in the realm of its characters and writing ultimately ends up taking away from an incredible-on-paper action game.”
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.