Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game was released first on PS3 on August 10th. It will release later on the Xbox 360 on August 25. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal along with Ubisoft Chengdu.
Story
The game is based loosely on the graphics novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The story (if you don't know by now) is about 23-year old Scott Pilgrim. Pilgrim meets Ramona Flowers at a party and falls in love with her instantly. In the game, you battle through several levels to defeat Ramona's seven evil exes.
Gamplay
Scott Pilgrim is a 2D side-scrolling beat em' up with RPG elements. From the start you have 4 characters to choose from: Scott, Kim, Stills or Ramona. Light attacks are carried out by pressing the square button and heavy attacks triangle. The X button is used to jump and circle to block. It's a pretty basic setup up, but it's perfect. You have an assist partner called a Striker that you can call on for help by pressing the L1 button. The default Striker (Knives) has a different effect for each character. You can unleash a super attack by pressing R1. Dashing is carried out by double-tapping left or right on the D-pad. As you progress in the game, you will level up and learn new abilities and attacks to unleash on your enemies. Experience points are earned by damaging enemies or from buying items from various stores located throughout the levels. There's also tons of weapons and objects in the environment that you can use to punish your enemies. There's items such as bats, shovels, swords, plastic cups (yeaaaaah), or even snowballs. While playing with all four characters the game becomes a blast. You can lend other players health, lend them money in stores, and also help them get up faster after being knocked down. When a player loses all their lives, they turn into a ghost for a short period of time. During this period, they have the ability to try and steal a life from other players. When all characters taunt simultaneously, they unleash their super co-op attack which consumes Gut Points.
The HUD during gameplay consists of your lives, Heart Points, money, and Gut Points. You lose Heart Points when attacked or by using super attacks while have zero Gut Points. Gut Points are lost by either calling your Striker or doing a super attack. Money, in the form of coins, is collected by defeating enemies. It can also be collected by entering Subspace, which is a bonus area in each level. Both Heart Points and Gut Points can be obtained by spending your hard-earned money on items in stores. Both can also be completely restored by leveling up. During progression you obtain a lot a moves. If you can't remember how to do them, they can be viewed by pausing during gameplay or on the world map. You can also check your character's status there as well. This game is pretty accessible.
Presentation
This game is like a huge thank you to its predecessors of its kind. There are references to so many old school games. I can't even name them all. I've seen references from River City Ransom, Mario, Streets of Rage, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, Sonic, Mega Man, etc. The art of this game was handled by Paul Robertson. If you don't know who he his, you can check out one of his popular works here. The world map in this game is an obvious reference to Mario. When completing a level, Pilgrim also vanishes like Mega Man does after a level. The music and sound effects in this game are amazing. The game's soundtrack was done by chiptune band Anamanaguchi. They are an amazing band. I was a fan of their music before this game so if you like them after playing this game, check them out here. One thing I'm not going to do is knock this game for a lack of online play if it was Ubisoft's intent to leave it out. Back in the day, online play for me was having family or friends alongside me playing and I think this game can be better enjoyed that way. Maybe the developers wanted the game to be as old-school as possible. (Then again, if the Xbox 360 version has online play I might become a little pissed) Either way, I think Scott Pilgrim is great game everyone!
Pros
- Classic old school feel
- Many references to old school games
- RPG elements
Cons
- A few bugs, crashing and music cutting out
Score: 4/5
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