Pretty, Little, Pixels | Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and Lollipop Chainsaw RePop
I know who I would be running from more during a zombie apocalypse.
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Edits: Becca Stump and Nathan Miller
Lollipop Chainsaw RePop and Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster both allow audiences to take control of two very different perspectives while battling the same sort of mindless zombie hordes, shining a light on the patriarchal smog unnaturally polluting the world that women are forced to find space in.
Frank West has the same facial expressions and intelligence of Donkey Kong through each and every moment of the 72 hours he is investigating—and surviving—inside the zombie-filled mall in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster.
And it’s not his fault that he’s a big, dumb, lovable oaf.
Frank West is out of his element, a journalist who literally dropped onto the rooftop of a mall, from a helicopter, after breaking inside of a town that’s under a quarantine lock-down.
Frank West is determined to crack the story of what’s happening inside the locked-down city, in an effort to bolster his freelance journalist career.
There’s nothing wrong with career ambition but it’s just another reminder of the difference between how our society often views the context of actions done by white men that just show up uninvited to insert themselves in situations, as opposed to how women who are trained experts, and helping in the same kind of situation, will often be mocked, belittled, objectified, or even just questioned … like we have less of a right to be there.
In Lollipop Chainsaw, Juliet is a senior in high school, as well as a skilled zombie hunter—trained by a zombie training expert, who is essentially just racist stereotypes and movie references propping each other up—and yet the game still frames her skill set against killing the undead like it’s “quirky” and “cute.”
I know, I know, different games from different developers, but they have the same target audience, inside of the same world.
And yet, a man who knows nothing about anything could play Dead Rising and feel empowered, while changing into random outfits in different department stores, and killing zombies with golf clubs and food court benches as Frank West at the Willamette Parkview Mall …
On the other hand, I challenge anyone to feel powerful while dazzling and destroying dozens of zombies—effortlessly—with Juliet’s black magic, zombie hunting powers.
It may not be Frank West’s fault that he’s just a dumb, silly, golden retriever, who is curious and wants to make a name for himself, but it is Juliet’s fault that she’s a trained professional in the same playing field—and yet she’s framed like she’s as clumsy as Lollipop Chainsaw’s perverted camera system.
Sometimes video games are an escape from this patriarichal society, digital gateways to different destinations, and other times games are just another reminder of how out of place women are often made to feel, in a world that doesn’t even deserve to be saved by our zombie hunting powers.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and Lollipop Chainsaw RePop are both available on Steam, as well as Xbox and PlayStation platforms, for about fifty bucks.