The Summer Of 8-Bit: Time Lord

Today's video takes a look at Rare's Time Lord.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Solomon's Key

Today's video looks at the NES port of Solomon's Key by Tecmo

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Fester's Quest

Today's video takes a look at Fester's Quest by Sunsoft.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Ice Climber

Today's video takes a look at Ice Climber by Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Gotcha - The Sport

Today's video takes a look at Gotcha - The Sport by LJN

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Contra Force

Today's video takes a look at Contra Force by Konami

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Gyromite

Today's video takes a look at Gyromite, one of only two games compatible with the R.O.B.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Golgo 13 - Top Secret Episode

Today's video takes a look at Golgo 13 - Top Secret Episode from Vic Tokai

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Cabal

Today's video takes a look at the NES port of Cabal

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Street Fighter 2010 - The Final Fight

Today's video takes a look at Street Fighter 2010 - The Final Fight by Capcom.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Bump N Jump

Today's video takes a look at the NES port of Data East's Bump N Jump

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Trojan

Today's video takes a look at Capcom's Trojan

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Dig Dug II

Today's video takes a look at the NES port of Dig Dug II.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: BurgerTime

Today's video takes a look at the NES port of Data East's BurgerTime.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: The Ikari Warriors Trilogy

Today's video takes a look at SNK's Ikari Warriors trilogy.

Will You Help Us Save The Games?

Every day, video games are neglected, disrespected, and destroyed. This doesn't have to be the case, as we here at the Home For Wayward Video Games will give them a good home. Won't you help us save the games?

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Blaster Master

Today's video takes a look at Sunsoft's Blaster Master

The Summer Of 8-Bit: River City Ransom

Today's video takes a look at River City Ransom

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Blades Of Steel

Today's video takes a look at the timeless hockey game, Blades Of Steel

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Balloon Fight

Today's video takes a look at Balloon Fight by Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Legendary Wings

Today's video takes a look at Legendary Wings by Capcom

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Kabuki Quantum Fighter

Today's video takes a look at Kabuki Quantum Fighter

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Wizards And Warriors I & II

Today's video takes a look at the first two games in the Wizards and Warriors trilogy.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Lode Runner

Today's video takes a look at Broderbund's NES port of Doug Smith's Lode Runner.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Kung Fu

Today's video takes a look at Kung Fu, the NES port of Irem's Kung Fu Master.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Hoops

Today's video takes a look at Hoops by Jaleco.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Life Force

Today's video takes a look at Konami's Life Force.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Super Dodge Ball

Today's video takes a look at Technos Japan's Super Dodge Ball.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero

Today's video takes a look at G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero by Taxan

Lollipop Chainsaw: Gaming Pariah, Champion Of Equality, Or Just A Game

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The climate in gaming right now is a precarious one. Gamers, much like so many other segments of society have become far more segregated, which brings about brutal instances of discrimination and a climate where many gamers feel left out of not just the player experience, but also in the lack of representation with regards to characters and the stories they tell. The lack of meaningful female protagonists in video games has led to every game featuring one being placed under quite the microscope. No recent game featuring a female lead has been under as much scrutiny as Lollipop Chainsaw. The game proved to be a lot of things to different people; to some, it’s just a game that happens to star a female character, to others it’s full of objectionable content that proves to be a bit much, while to others it’s something else entirely. I fall in the latter, with the game proving to use it’s seemingly crude content to speak to much larger issues within gaming.

Lollipop Chainsaw’s story focuses on a high school cheerleader named Juliet Starling, who happened to be celebrating her birthday on the day the events of the game take place (that’s actually an important plot point). On her way to school to meet up with her boyfriend, Nick, zombies attack the school and all hell breaks loose. What Nick doesn’t know is that his lovely seemingly harmless girlfriend is a member of a family of zombie hunters. Juliet calmly pulls a chainsaw from her purse and administers violent chainsaw death to the undead occupying San Romero High, but not before one of the zombies takes a faithful bite out of Nick’s arm. Faced with the choice of killing Nick and letting him become a zombie that she’d have to eventually kill anyway, Juliet makes a bold decision that actually puts the wheels of one of the most important story facets of this game into motion. All of the stuff I just mentioned happens in the prologue level, by the way.

If the story feels like a campy Hollywood horror movie, it’s because the game’s script was written by James Gunn, who was responsible for the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, Scooby Doo, and Slither among other films. Strangely enough the seemingly cheesy writing Gunn is known for seems to work well within the confines of a Grasshopper Manufacture game. Neither takes themselves seriously, and that helps breathe a lot of life into the zombie action game genre, which has been beaten to death over the years. The one thing that felt a bit overdone at first was the overuse of certain phrases being levied at Juliet during the course of the game, most notably in the first level. My concern seemed to wane however when the encounter with the first boss took place and you realize this was a big portion of the theme within the first level. You see, the first boss hurls vicious insults that actually take physical form that can damage Juliet. It’s literally the personification of the phrase “words can hurt”. For those who can see what’s actually happening there, it can prove quite the teachable moment.

Then there is the plight of Nick, who during the course of the game has moments where he’s treated like an accessory for Juliet during her mission. The rest of the Starling family actually does a lot to belittle him as well. It’s quite the interesting piece of reverse objectification that yet again will become quite apparent to those who get it. Sadly, for the commentary hidden with the game’s writing, many gamers that the message is supposed to impact will completely miss it; while some gamers will be instantly put off by the way the message is made and will decry it.

At its core though, Lollipop Chainsaw is an action game with typical modern hack and slash game problems. The core game play runs the risk of becoming repetitive on multiple occasions, the camera can prove to be problematic at several points, and there are a few moments where the extra weapons seem shoehorned in. One such moment was the Zombie Baseball segment of level 2. There are moments where the auto aim was absolutely frustrating, and there seemed to be points where Juliet’s Chainsaw blaster could not fire around Nick, which left him vulnerable to enemy attack. These minor gripes aside though, you’ll have an absolute ball cutting zombies in half, and the boss fight are a blast.

Lollipop Chainsaw won’t be for a lot of gamers, in fact, a lot of them will be down right offended. It does however succeed in one important facet, that being it turns the mirror on the player and forces them to confront their treatment of other gamers. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a very fun game, and if you get nothing else from Lollipop Chainsaw, you’ll get a good time.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Bubble Bobble

Today's video takes a look at Taito's Bubble Bobble.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Little Nemo - The Dream Master

Today's video takes a look at Little Nemo - The Dream Master by Capcom.

The Summer Of 8-Bit: Xevious

Today's video takes a look at Bandai's port of Namco's Xevious.