Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game (You are my density.)

Back in the day, when arcades were still around, you couldn’t toss a quarter without hitting a side scrolling co-op beat ‘em up. But now, with the living room being the dominant venue for gaming, that genre has all but disappeared. Enter Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The Game.

“Throwback� is probably the best word I can use to describe the game. There are references to other games hiding in every nook and cranny of this side-scroller beat ‘em up. If you played videogames within the past 20 years, odds are that you’ll recognize at least one (and probably more) of the easter eggs hidden within. Even the music and the sound of the game are made in a throwback 8-bit style, with the soundtrack being provided by Anamanaguchi . The chiptune style of the music instantly transports you back to a simpler time when a game’s sound was limited to the palette of bleeps and bloops that the console could generate.

While the game, at first glance, could be mistaken for a game made back in the arcade’s heyday, there’s a polish to the sprites that make you realize that very few games looked as good as Scott Pilgrim does. The sprites are done in a chibi or super-deformed style which invokes Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley’s original designs, but makes them fit the retro stylings of the rest of the game.

But speaking of Bryan Lee O’Malley, you’ll probably need to have read his Scott Pilgrim series to really get the references to the series’ plot. The attract mode (another arcade reference) for the game basically sets up the premise, i.e. to date the mysterious Ramona Flowers, Scott Pilgrim needs to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends, but the game itself doesn’t explain the story any further. Why do you fight two chicks (one with a bionic arm) in the middle of level 3? It’s never really explained in the game, but if you’ve read the books, you know exactly who they are.

The game mechanics are solid yet simple. You initially have access to a light attack, a heavy attack, jump and block, as well as an area attack and a helper character which deplete one of your gauges. But as you defeat more and more of the similarly dressed thugs, you’ll level up your character and gain access to different and more powerful moves. There are also a number of shops scattered throughout the levels which allow you to purchase items (with the Canadian coins the enemies drop) with varying effects like boosting your stats, replenishing your health and even giving you experience bonuses to level up quicker.

And you’ll probably want to level up because the game is hard. Much like it’s arcade ancestors, which were designed to keep you feeding quarters into the machine at a steady pace, Scott Pilgrim’s difficulty feels like it was designed to do the same. The game only saves between each of the seven levels in the game, so if you lose all your lives before beating the final boss for the level, you’ll need to start all over again. Which can be a little frustrating if you end up losing your last life on the final boss. But on the flip side, the game’s difficulty ultimately makes finishing the game much more rewarding.

You and up to three of your other friends can choose one of four characters for a little four player co-op... that is, if your three friends happen to be sitting next to you on your couch. In a world where online gaming is the norm, the exclusion of any online co-op is mind boggling. Especially since the co-op makes the game exponentially more fun. One could make a case that the exclusion of online play is a design choice intended to fit with the arcade sensibilities of the game. But if that’s the case, where’s the drop in, drop out co-op? In the arcades, the only thing you needed to join someone else’s game was a quarter. But in Scott Pilgrim, all the players need to join in from the very beginning, otherwise if a friend of yours wants to join in while you’re playing, you’ll need to restart all over again from the main menus.

Despite those minor shortcomings (which will hopefully be rectified with a patch later on down the line), Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game is all around fun. It’s a simple game that you can just pick up and play. It doesn't really do anything new, but that’s not really the point. Scott Pilgrim transports you to a simpler time and really highlights that they don’t make games like this anymore.

Rating

Recommendations