The high-school zombie hack-and-slash revival is almost upon us. The LolliPop Chainsaw remaster, called RePOP, is coming out earlier than expected with a price tag that has some fans scratching their heads.
The ham-fisted action game about a cheerleader who slices through hordes of undead was originally set to come out on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 26. But today Dragami Games announced the remaster of the 2012 cult horror game will arrive early in digital form on September 12.
That’s the part that has fans hyped. The part of the announcement that’s going over less well is the remaster’s retail price tag: $US45. Some fans seem to think that’s the price of the digital version, but my reading of the announcement from producer Yoshimi Yasuda is that it’s for the physical editions, which often tend to be slightly higher for limited runs.
Even at $US40, however, the price strikes some as a little high considering RePOP is a remaster rather than a remake, and that it’s seemingly missing the original’s licensed soundtrack, which included Skrillex, Dragonforce, Sleigh Bells, and many others. Another Grasshopper Manufacturer game, Shadows of the Damned, came out a year before Lollipop Chainsaw and its recent remaster is only $US25.
The Lollipop Chainsaw remaster was originally going to be a full-blown remake, but the company behind it said it was walking that back at the request of fans. While the original game was co-written by James Gunn and co-directed by Suda51, neither are involved in the remaster at all, leaving some fans worried about how faithful it will be to the feel and spirit of the 2012 version.
To deal with that skepticism, Yasuda keeps promising fans an “uncensored” version of the game’s outfits, a seeming nod to the recent obsessions with sexy outfits in Stellar Blade. It’s not entirely clear if he’s being facetious or trying to capitalize on that movement to juice sales.
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