Scott Pilgrim Vs the World Review

A TALE OF 

 ONE YOUNG MANS 

EPIC FIGHT   

FOR TRUE LOVE?

Ramona's seven evil X's

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is a game available for download on XBLA or PSN, it's based off the hit movie and book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Scott Pilgrim is your average young love story? The story goes that Scott Pilgrim is a average joe kinda guy who lives and performs in a band with his friend Stephen Stills and his x-girlfriend Kim Pine, one day he meets the mysterious girl Ramona Flowers and his life is changed forever. All sounds pretty normal to me, yawn..... Oh but wait it turns out Ramona has 7 evil X's that vow to stop her from ever again dating, Scott must fight and defeat them to keep dating Ramona, okay okay I admit the story is a little silly but if you accept it for what it is then you will enjoy yourself, the books are well written and comical, the movie was very well made and worth watching and the game is no exception.                                                              

 (character select screen reference to Super Mario bros 2)

At a glance it looks like any old 2D arcade game but beneath its surface this game has so much more to offer, with its charming 8-bit graphics style presented in glorious HD and complimented by the music of New York's Indie Chip-tune band Anamanaguchi their impressive tracks make for one of the best 8-bit soundtracks I have ever heard. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World borrows from pretty much every old school Brawler/Platformer it can possibly find, with game-play similar to that of  Double Dragon, Golden Axe,    Streets of Rage and Final Fight.      
In addition to the Game-play there are also many visual gags and puns in the game that make reference to retro gaming, games such as Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Megaman, Sonic the Hedgehog, King of Fighters, Guitar Hero ( i know this one isn't retro ) and many more.

Scott smashing some coin blocks in subspace 

Guitar Battle with Todd Ingram, Evil X number three.

All that aside the game itself plays pretty damn well, its fast paced, there are loads of enemies,The character animation in the game is also very smooth and every sprite type has it own unique moves and taunts, some have different and creative death animations which are always fun and comical, they remind me of Metal Slug games. It looks great, the soundtrack is catchy and it's got four player co-op, now its local co-op only, and a lot of people I know bitched about this, why cant we play it online? well to be quite frank I don't give a damn, I actually think it's a good thing, local only play encourages friends to meet up and actually be social rather than yelling at each other through headsets in a dimly lit room.... just saying, that seems to be a trend these days. Because of this I feel the game developers knew this and this decision was clearly on purpose in an attempt to further the old school gaming vibe they are trying to achieve.

Game Over-world

The game is split into 7 stages each with its own evil-X to defeat as the stage boss, each stage is linked by an overworld, a reference to Mario bros 3. Each stage is unique in its own way, from level design, to enemies and obviously the boss.
Ramona's X's are seriously the weirdest bunch of people anyone could possibly date, but they make for fun bosses with their individual fighting styles. From Matthew Patel who fights with Fire balls and Demon lackies, to Todd Ingram whose Guitar blasts break down walls and his Super attack similar to that of K9999 from King of Fighters.  

Todd performing his ultimate vegan attack.

As you progress through the game your character will level up to a maximum of 16, every time you level up you unlock new moves and gain stat boosts, you can also use the various in-game shops to buy items which affect your players status, as there are four players to complete and multiple difficulties as well as an unlockable character this adds to the games re-play value.


Now one thing I do think I should mention is this game does glitch, it has a horrible habit of freezing during a boss fight forcing you to re-do the whole stage again, now this is a real pain especially when your on the later stages because some of them get pretty hard on your first play-through. But the game is fun and addictive enough that you will go back and try again, so its not the end of the world.



All in all Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is wonderful homage to retro gaming and a fast and fun game for you and a few friends to sit down an play in remembrance of a simpler time in gaming when it wasn't all about your gamer-score or your K/D spread.


THE SCORE:  7.5/10   
+ 8-Bit style looks great in HD      
+ Ingenious soundtrack
+ Solid gameplay

- Short
- Less fun alone
- Prone to glitching