Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game

Developers: Ubisoft Montreal & Ubisoft Chengdu

Publishers: Ubisoft, Universal Studios

Platform: PSN (now) & XBLA (Aug. 25th)

Genre: 2D Beat 'em Up, RPG

1-4 players Simultaneous action

Rating: T for Teen

Story:

Scott Pilgrim is a 23-year-old Canadian slacker, hero, and part-time bassist who is living in Toronto and plays bass guitar in the band "Sex Bob-omb." He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her.

You play as Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Kim Pine or Stephen Stills (along with two other unlockable characters)

Pros:

The graphics on this game are awesome in a very "let's bring it back to old school" kind of way. Very reminiscent of the NES classic River City Ransom. To match the graphics it does provide a good bit of that RPG aspect that RCR had that made it a true classic among those original gamers, like leveling up to gain new attacks and increase your defense. You can even use the money you earn from defeating enemies (they turn into coins when they die) to buy food and accessories to become stronger.

The controls are pretty simple: You have a light attack, a hard attack, jump, and block. I can't forget to mention the Special attack that takes down a large group of enemies when you feel you are in a real desperate situation and the Striker assist, which is when Knives Chau, (a supporting character) comes in to help for just a moment. I like that the enemies are very creative and humorous, plus you get to pick up just about ANYTHING in the game and use it as a weapon! During co-operative play, certain actions can be performed such as simultaneously taunting to defeat enemies or reviving fallen comrades before they lose a life.

The look and feel of this game brings you back to the original graphic novel series by Brian O' Malley's artwork. This game is loaded with tons of homage pieces to other popular video games, comics and anime. We're talking about from Mario-esque question blocks that are full of coins, to one of the bosses having the giant mutating arm like in the anime Akira.

The other one thing that had me a bit worried was what they were going to do with the sound. I remember with NES games it was hit or miss. You either got memorable MIDI music, or the most annoying beeps and boops your poor little ears ever heard. Thankfully the music is a cute pleasant stroll down memory lane with a new school indie style flare to it.

The gameplay is generally solid and fun whether or not you have four players, or stuck going through this "romp" solo. Which brings me to the cons...

Cons

Now don't freak out there aren't that many pressing issues that will turn you away from this game, but they have to be pointed out.

One of the things that really get under my skin is the lack of online co-op play that any game that is four players simultaneous action should have.

The other thing is that if you do play with someone, they are considered a guest and any upgrades that character gets disappears once you turn off the game. The only way for them to have any level ups stick around, is by playing the game with the other characters in one player mode and playing through the same story and cutscenes. Very VERY tedious.

The last thing that can get on my nerves is that the characters feel heavy/sluggish when you walk around with them. I mean sometimes they just move too slow! Thankfully they did add a dash move (which helps a lot), but it would've been way easier to just have them move just a little bit faster. You get use to it after a while though.

See that wasn't so bad now was it?

Overall, it's a solid game and worth the $10. GOOD OLD FUN!

Rating: 4/5

Reviewed by Jason Richardson.