Discussing how development began on Lollipop Chainsaw 2: Back2Back during an official stage show at Tokyo Game Show, producer Joe Tung of Nada Holdings preceded his comments by giving his sincere gratitude to the original game’s creators, Suda51, James Gunn, and Yoshimi Yasuda. Their work on the original was “legendary,” as he puts it, and drove his desire to live up to their efforts when he got the chance to work on the recent remake, RePop. That work led to him and the remake development team, Dragami Games, being involved in bringing the series back for its first sequel after almost 15 years, notably without the involvement of three legendary creative leads.

Sadly, far from living up to the legacy of the original, the early demo showcased during Tokyo Game Show suggests the sequel is more an aimless zombified corpse of what was once a living idea.

From the beginning, the intent with this sequel has not been to reinvent the wheel, and that became very clear when playing the demo on the show floor. Just approaching the demo area, I was greeted with an overwhelming sense of the familiar, complete with a photo spot where attendees could snap a pic with protagonist Juliet and three zombies ready to be sliced down. Yes, the first game’s cheerleader heroine is back, with the severed head of her boyfriend still firmly attached to her waist. With all this familiarity on display, it’s hard to glean what new ideas the devs have planned to justify this game’s existence and make it more than just a rehash of its predecessor.

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