Suda51 deliver a wild slasher dressed like an auteur manga, with a charismatic Mondo Zappa and cutscenes of singular elegance. The combat is rough, the pacing erratic, but the artistic ride stays a wild curio worth discovering.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player18+
Description
Action game by Grasshopper Manufacture and Kadokawa, August 2013. Mysterious hitman Mondo Zappa eliminates targets with his katana Musselback in obscure criminal cases. Stylised katana combat with spectacular bullet-time executions, music mode and surrealist visual aesthetic. Suda51 cult action game.
Killer Is Dead review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
3/5
Story
★★★★★
"Solid"
Cel-shading of sharp contrasts by Suda51: deep black, golden flashes and surreal design compose a universe stylish to excess. The pop imagery and theatrical staging overflow with audacity. This visual direction, elegant and baffling, asserts an auteur signature immediately recognisable.
An action game from Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture, Killer Is Dead follows an elegant executioner hunting targets in a world of sharp visual style, blending snappy sword combat, contrasted cel-shading and a deliberately opaque narrative. The singular art direction, the dreamlike mood and the offbeat humour make it an immediately recognisable auteur work. The repetitive combat system and some questionable mini games divide. An action game apart for fans of stylised propositions and of Suda51's eccentric world.
