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Killer Is Dead Fan Edition

PLAYSTATION 3
Also available on:XBOX 360
Killer Is Dead Fan Edition
Deep Silver8/30/2013REGION 2

Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture have never made a boring collector's edition, and Killer Is Dead's Fan Edition on PlayStation 3 is proof. This package overflows with personality: a full-color art book, a poster showcasing the game's striking cel-shaded visuals, Akira Yamaoka's complete soundtrack on CD, a papercraft diorama, and the Smooth Operator DLC pack with a bonus mission, Gigolo Glasses, and an additional character. It's a love letter to the kind of stylish, unapologetically weird action games that thrived in the PS3 era.

The soundtrack CD alone is worth the pursuit. Yamaoka, the sonic architect behind Silent Hill's most haunting scores, brought a completely different energy to Killer Is Dead, and owning it on physical media is a flex for any game music collector. The art book captures the visual DNA of a studio that treats every frame like a graphic novel panel, while the papercraft diorama adds a handmade, almost punk-rock charm to the package.

Grasshopper Manufacture titles tend to develop cult followings that intensify over time, and their collector's editions follow the same trajectory. The Fan Edition is already one of those packages that surfaces in "hidden gem" threads, and the complete sets with all inserts intact are getting harder to pin down. Weird, wonderful, and unmistakably Suda.