Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Review

The bob-omb?

Version tested: PlayStation 3

Scott Pilgrim is one of us. While Hollywood's zeitgeist-chasing writers and directors clutch at game references in an effort to appeal to those born into videogames, Scott Pilgrim out-nerds even the medium's firstborn by knowing the bass line to Final Fantasy II off by heart. Aged 16, he joined a three-piece indie band called Sonic and Knuckles in an effort to transcend his non-jock plebeian school status. He owns a Mithril Skateboard (+4 to Speed, +3 to Kick, +1 to Will), plays Tony Hawk to train, Bomberman to relax and saves tiny worlds on a daily basis.

His worldview is filtered through a Nintendo lens: health measured in Zelda sprite hearts, cans of soda replenishing HP in quarter increments. Girls are won by defeating boss-fight personifications of their issues. When Scott does battle, his puny, cathode-tan arms are transformed into Street Fighter weapons, his body all suspension-wire fly-kick shapes, silhouetted against a scrolling parallax sunset.

Scott Pilgrim daydreams in videogame verbs. He is one of us.

And therein lies the problem with his game. Despite looking like one of us, despite speaking our language and making references that only we could ever understand, Scott Pilgrim nevertheless represents some uncomfortable things about the state of gaming today. Ubisoft-licensed, it is the videogame of the movie of the comic book, its very existence reinforcing the idea that games are no more than a third-tier advertising revenue stream filled with product precision-timed to support the box office.

Viewed ungenerously, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is as much an example of adver-gaming as so many Watchmen, Transformers and James Bond tie-ins have been before it. Just because its protagonist is one of us doesn't necessarily mean his game shares the same hopes and dreams for the medium as us. Does it?

"Winners Don't Eat Meat".

The parody of FBI Director William S. Sessions' "Winners Don't Do Drugs" slogan, seen at the start-up of all American videogame arcade machines in the nineties, is the first thing you see in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. It's a simple joke that speaks volumes. All six volumes of the Scott Pilgrim comic books, in fact; it's evidence that developer Ubisoft Montreal has digested every page of Bryan Lee O'Malley's lifework, and is confident to kick off with a joke entirely absent from the paperback series, and yet entirely in keeping with its spirit.

From thereon in, the knowing delights combo upwards: Paul Robertson's effortless pixel art captures the essence of the 8- and 16-bit Japanese scrolling beat-'em-ups the game apes, while Anamanaguchi's cute/dramatic/cute brand of chiptune soundtracks every flurry of punches with Casiotone arpeggios.

It's the attention to detail that's gone into this Final Fight clone that elevates it above a predictable movie tie-in. The world of the comics has been recreated in fine detail, each of the four (initially) playable characters –Scott, Kim Pine, Steven Stills and Ramona Flowers – communicating a great deal of their on-page personality in a handful of effective sprite animations. There are ten thousand in-jokes for fans of the books, the game offering players the chance to pay back Scott's video rental fine ($504.25) or to eat vegan food to replenish health.

Likewise, where the books celebrate formative Japanese gaming culture, so the game contains endless micro-tributes to yesterday's gaming landscape, from the obvious Super Mario World level select hub, to more subtle flourishes such as the Triforce symbols painted on the side of recycling bins or the choice of pale Earthbound text box colours in the shops.

In play, the game is a competent brawler. Two attack buttons, fast and strong, can be combined with jumps and blocks to thread together long, exciting combos. A fast dash (executed with a double tap of the directional input) allows you to knock an enemy backwards into the air, dash in to keep apace with them, and continue the juggle.

As well as a health gauge, each character has a set of guts points which can be spent on two types of special moves: one to knock a cluster of surrounding enemies out of the way, and the other to summon a back-up attack from Scott's underage admirer, Knives Chau (17 years old). It's best to use gut points sparingly as, when your health is depleted and you're knocked out, you can use them to regain consciousness, converting gut points into heart points.

The potential to thread attacks together like this with precision timing nudges this low-level aspect to the game slightly in front of closest rival Castle Crashers, but make no mistake: Scott Pilgrim is every bit as straightforward as the Streets of Rage and Teenage Mutant Turtles games it parodies. It's a celebration of the past, not a roadmap to the future.

The structure of the game mirrors that of the series: seven stages, each punctuated by a boss fight with one of Ramona Flowers' seven evil ex-boyfriends. Stages match locations from the books, with occasional diversions through unassuming doorways into sub-space warps from one area to the next, filled with glitches and soundtracked by nostalgic tape loading sounds that will be familiar to all gamers of a certain age.

More on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Enemies drop Canadian dollars and cents when defeated, money which can be used to buy restorative items as well as character-augmenting weaponry, bionic arms and so on. However, the use of bought upgrades is far less involved than in Castle Crashers, and as a result the long-term goals in the game can feel far nearer than in The Behemoth's lengthy proposition.

Each of your characters levels up through 16 levels, a new move or combo unlocked at each threshold. As in most modern scrolling beat-'em-ups that enjoy RPG-lite elements, characters keep their level after the Game Over screen, and can restart the game where they left off, ability-wise.

The difficulty ramps up quickly and, for the solitary player, represents a tall challenge. Played in local multiplayer, where player-characters can juggle enemies between them hurl one another into groups of opponents to launch an Ultimate Band Attack, the difficulty curve becomes far more manageable. For this reason, the lack of online multiplayer is an obvious disappointment.

The Scott Pilgrim franchise is, in one sense, a triumph for those of us who grew up with videogames, the kids whose quiet, nerdish avenue of escapism has somehow became the aesthetic of the hip present. A fanzine-esque comic book turned Hollywood blockbuster, it is our niche shoved onto culture's main stage. It's the geeks inheriting the earth: pixel-art T-shirts in Top Man, chiptune seasoning on Number 1 records, a hundred thousand hipster Tumblr blogs celebrating gaming's minutiae and detritus.

And yet, because the series is a tribute to 20-year-old gaming culture, any actual videogame born from this universe is subject to those restraints. For this reason, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is pretty much the perfect Scott Pilgrim game, hitting all the notes that fans of the series and its worldview could want. But for those who couldn't tell an Envy Adams from a Julie Powers (pity them), it's little more than a cute parody game, meticulously detailed, but outdated by design.

7 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is released on the PlayStation Network next Wednesday, 11th August, as a timed PS3 exclusive. An Xbox 360 version is planned but has no announced release date.

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy

Comments (44) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • sneetch #1 2 years ago

    Yeah I know, I have both a PS3 and a 360 but timed exclusives (hell, exclusives in general) still irritate the hell out of me.
  • andywilkie35 #2 2 years ago

    Not even gonna read the review, the last picture means he's get some ASS and I want to see it and have a massive wank, then store it in the wank bank for lunchtimes at work to have another massive wank
  • Diogo_Ribeiro #3 2 years ago

    Reads like a 6 but I still love you, Simon.

    I was discussing the very same thing with a friend the other day. That MSN chat window would burn if it were capable of spontaneous combustion when I said it felt more like an advergame, even if it was a good looking advert about games. Kinda weird: many people will claim some medium shouldn't be used to speak of itself ("movies shouldn't be used to talk about movies", etc). Not sure how many feel the same about videogames although I've seen it expressed several times, but I am sure most of them would love Scott Pilgrim on the basis that it's talking not only about games but about gamers.

    Which may or may not be important to talk about regarding a light, downloadable title, but the idea is worth pursuing, I think.
  • thedaveeyres #4 2 years ago

    Very minimalist review. I approve.
  • Capa26 #5 2 years ago

    Oops... embargo problems...

    Enjoyed the first page of the review anyway.
    Edited by 1 at 05/08/10 @ 17:31
  • mkreku #6 2 years ago

    What the.. It disappears in the middle of me reading?!
  • MightyMouse #7 2 years ago

  • MadDave123 #8 2 years ago

    7/10, in case you didn't see. ;)
  • Cronan #9 2 years ago

    Did anyone get the text?
  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #10 2 years ago

    Sorry about this, everyone. It really wasn't our fault.
  • RedPanda #11 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012
  • Dreddnaught #12 2 years ago

    Woah....

    ...I kinda feel the need for cheap clothing an shoes.....

    That came out if nowhere...
  • skowhegan Verified Staff, Eurogamer Network #13 2 years ago

  • ryandsimmons #14 2 years ago

    Why was it pulled?

    Broke an embargo?
  • Boomerang #15 2 years ago

  • LetsGo #16 2 years ago

    Such a shame, I was looking forward to this :(.
  • SlackMaster #17 2 years ago

    With many downloadable games now I think I'll wait and see if they drop the price. Which ever does it first I'll get it on.
  • Dizzy #18 2 years ago

    No online? Skip. Games like this need multiplayer.
  • SpaceMonkey77 #19 2 years ago

    7/10 isn't bad. That lame exclusivity thing does blow, though.

    Meant to bag the SP manga a while ago, but I've been sidetracked by so many games. Just hope Ubisoft hurry up get this game onto Live, with online play, possibly its only real flaw.
  • RobotRocker #20 2 years ago

    GAH! BASTARD EXCLUSIVES!

    Only for two weeks though. PSN release is to time with the film being released in the US this week and the XBLA release is when the film is released in the UK and Ireland (25th of August).

    You can keep calm till then right?

    Edit: Conformation of that XBLA release [link url=http://www.joystiq.com/2010/0 7/20/scott-pilgrim-fights-evil-exes-on-xbla-august-25/ ]http://ww w.joystiq.com/2010/07/20/scott-...[/link]
    Edited by 1 at 10/08/10 @ 18:05
  • Octaeder #21 2 years ago

    "Meant to bag the SP manga a while ago"

    It's not a manga, despite certain influences/homages.
  • lavalant #22 2 years ago

    Scott Pilgrim is every bit as straightforward as the Streets of Rage and Teenage Mutant Turtles games it parodies. It's a celebration of the past, not a roadmap to the future.

    Exactly what I was looking for, Sold!
  • RedPanda #23 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012
  • Razz #24 2 years ago

    I was lucky enough to get an early copy, and I would trend to agree with this review. However, I would've been a lot more generous with the score :)
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/10 @ 08:22
  • tachometer #25 2 years ago

    What it needs is some horribly airbrushed boxart for the American market
  • sailesh #26 2 years ago

    Gonna wait a coupla weeks and purchase this!!!!! Woooo hooooo!! OMG.
  • Machetazo #27 2 years ago

    Advert for what? It doesn't look much like a live-action movie.... To me, it just looks like an entertaining, solidly put together side scrolling beat em up, with its heart in the right place. When you see some of the tie-in CRAP that gets released, and then sold at premium, with all the community coverage they can muster to try to fool people (the author even references - as some kind of comparison! - Watchmen, in the article /facepalm.) then, to see disregard/disinterest like this where some effort does appear to have been made, is disheartening.

    Overall, I'd just like to have known whether it was an enjoyable game for what it WAS, not what misgivings the reviewer put upon it, and the advert/game conundrum having been mused over within a broader, comprehensive opinion piece, on the subject at a later date. If it IS an advert - who cares! Does the one who has pad in hand, ready to play, or soon will have?
    Is the game any good? Am I likely to believe I got value for money? These are far more relevant questions to be answered.
    Edited by 1 at 10/08/10 @ 19:53
  • Gambit1977 #28 2 years ago

    I've got the last book here to read, may just buy this tomorrow anyway. How much Is it?
  • ProfessorLesser #29 2 years ago

    @Review - on the other hand, why the fuck shouldn't Scott Pilgrim be made into a videogame? Of all the comic-film-game transitions, surely he is the most appropriate? You think just because a film also exists, the console release must be cynical? I say, grow up - you're trying too hard.
  • Genji #30 2 years ago

    I've seen the movie, and do think that it would have very little appeal for people who aren't gamers.

    That doesn't really apply so much here because, well, it's a *game*. As long as it's a good game, then I'll play it. :)
  • xenoss #31 2 years ago

    I agree with notmyrealname's comments on the last book.

    It felt like a rushed, ran-out-of-steam ending to the series. I'm glad there is closure, but the entire book just wasnt as fun to read as the previous books in the series. It felt as though it lost touch with the series; it didn't feel the same. The ending was also very disappointing.

    All the way to book 5, I was very happy with this weird little series. But the book 6 was a let down.
  • Widge #32 2 years ago

    Sorry, neg Dizzy all you want, but this screams out for online.
  • coyote37 #33 2 years ago

    With Scott's obsession with Metroid, Zelda and Mario (Sex Bob-omb!), and the retro style, this seems like the perfect Wii release. Stupid Xbox and stupid PS3. Stick to space marines!
  • hulahoops #34 2 years ago

    "its very existence reinforcing the idea that games are no more than a third-tier advertising revenue stream filled with product precision-timed to support the box office."

    ? Was this sentence written in the early 90s?

    Compare the amount of games based on films in the last year to the amount of films based on games.

    The whole situation has completely reversed. Hollywood rides off the coat-tails of games now, not the other way round.
  • CRG199 #35 2 years ago

    I want to get this game. But I want to read the comics first. But I still have to finish the deathnote series first.
  • BOBBYLUPO #36 2 years ago

    @BlankOBlank!

    Not strictly true. While Hollywood rides of the coattails of anything with recognition (including remakes, comics, toys and even boardgames!?) I can only think of Prince of Persia as a videogame to film released in the past year.

    Compare that with games of Iron Man 2, Avatar, Terminator Salvation, Watchmen, Star Trek, Kick Ass etc. you can see that crap games based on films still dominate.

    EDIT: spellin
    Edited by 1 at 11/08/10 @ 14:09
  • Kazzahdrane #37 2 years ago

    Real shame there's no online co-op, especially from a sales point of view. My mate and I would love to both buy this and play it together online, but instead he'll probably come round to play it and Ubisoft will only get one sale from us.
  • neems #38 2 years ago

    Strange one this. Was really looking forward to playing it, and downloaded the trial. Fire it up, and everything is perfect - music, visuals, they're spot on. When the game starts... it doesn't feel quite right. Character feels very sluggish at first (I've only played as one character- Stephen Stills - so they may differ). It's not until you get the hang of the dash / run that it starts to feel right. Once you get your teeth into it, it's really quite a nice little brawler, but I'd still like a slightly nippier player character - although I think you may be able to upgrade speed amongst other things.

    Anyway, after a slight initial wobble, I'm definitely buying it.

    Also, agreed that book 6 was a bit disappointing. I actually quite liked all the stuff where Scott was getting himself together, but the actual denouement was just a mess.
  • cherryuk #39 2 years ago

    Firstly this game owes more to River City Ransom on the NES than Final Fight. Triforce logo, I'll look closer next time, loving the MarioWorld map screen, is there a star world?? I think this is one of the more successful PSN games, loving the retro. I think it will be better than the film, which is unheard of nowadays, just imagine that!
  • AidyD #40 2 years ago

    Never heard of the comics before, downloaded the demo yesterday, played for 10 minutes local 2 player and....

    Loved it. Laughed my way through and will be buying it later. So refreshing to play a game without the restraints of millions of pounds investment and trying to emotionally direct me with characters Im meant to give a shit about.

  • neems #41 2 years ago

    Wow, I'm no great shakes at these side scrolling brawlers, but this game is HARD. I'm getting my arse kicked all over the shop on the Lucas Lee stages (fecking aliens / dragons). I think I need to go back and do some grinding :-(
  • erp #42 2 years ago

    The demo of this is crashing my PS3. :(

    First off the movies at the beginning don't play properly (the Universal logo, etc.). Then the map screen doesn't seem to let me do anything. Then it takes ages to load into the level. Then there's no music, just the occasional sound effect. And the level flow seems to be broken - occasionally stand around with nothing to do until it allows progress again. And the Pause button doesn't work.

    And finally, when I press the PS button to quit back to the XMB, the XMB overlay appears with the pause menu in the background and the system crashes.

    Anyone else experienced such problems?

    I've downloaded it twice but had same problems both times.

    I'm bummed because I was really looking forward to it too... :(
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/10 @ 23:23
  • erp #43 2 years ago

    UPDATE: I discovered the cause of my crashing problem was the fact I was doing some background downloads. Once they'd finished it worked fine, and I've subsequently bought the full version.

    Phew!

    PS. It's great.
  • Snixtor #44 1 year ago

    @neems Yes, I was having dragon-suits + alien nightmares, and it doesn't seem to get any easier from there.