As a gamer, I'm obligated to try out something new in case the routine gets old. Sometimes playing the same game gets tiresome and you play it to death. That game sadly commonly gets sacrificed or shoved aside like a raggedy toy. In this case it's a game and it gets sold or trade in for little of what it's worth though you paid extraneous amounts of money for it. I don't know what I'm getting at, but I want to tell you about some games that get passed for something more black and more dakka like. That game I'm talking about is Scott Pilgrim vs The World the Game.
Now hold your horses and don't you dare think about clicking the close button. Let me at least get this out of the way: I love this series. It's like a love letter from someone long ago. That would be from the beat em up genre as he introduced his cute meganekko sister. Scott Pilgrim the game is that cute meganekko sister.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World the Game is as it is, a game based on the graphic novel to tie in with the movie. Normally that is a disaster waiting to happen as the cardinal rule of video games is: Games based on movies suck! It's a fact. Just take a look at the remote landfills of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Underneath it's desolating lands lie millions and millions of unsold E.T cartridges on the Atari 2600. In fact, the landfill there would be considered the Video Game Wasteland. So yeah, movie games have a bad rap of sucking. It's a type of curse or something. Scott Pilgrim however, is a cures than a curse as it's very very good. So much so that as you play it, it hearkens back to an older golden time when we were blessed as kids and gamers to enjoy a beat em up without the consequence of being realistic or mothers complaining about how games are too violent just because some poor bad guy turned into a pile of money. Won't somebody PLEASE think of the money morphing bad guy?! Those were simpler times.
Sorry, I got off tangent. So yeah, this game is awesome. As I said it's based on the graphic novel and it's look almost has that same style. The premise is simple. Beat Ramona's 7 evil exes in order to date her. Sound simple, but dating a chick with emotional baggage isn't easy. Believe me, I tried. The music in the game is a hearing to behold. Chiptune legend Anamanaguchi (yeah I never heard of them) brings to the table a plethora of catchy tunes that you will listen to constantly to how great they are.
Scott Pilgrim is basically a beat em up RPG in the same way as River City Ransom. You kick ass, you take names, people turn into coins, it's as simple as that. But this time around it's much more deeper than you can imagine. You gain better stats by buying attributes. That's right, the brutally murdered monetary remains of your enemies are used to make you stronger. It makes sense to me in a hilarious way. Also, there are chances to gain more money in the subspace highway from flying piggy banks. That one not so much. The more experience you get from kicking ass, you unlock more moves. Those moves will be used to your advantage against the 7 evil Xs that form the League. In other words, kick some evil ex ass with your skillz (Z in skills is relevant).
Speaking of X, your opponents are tough, really tough if your not powerful enough. Matthew can use fire pulse and summon demon hipster chicks, Lucas hits you with his doubles and skateboard, Todd is a psychic vegan which pretty much kills any suspension of disbelief, with an AT Field, and electric attacks, bastard; Roxy is a ninja, Ken and Kyle are twin Japanese Djs, Nega Scott is Nega Scott, and Gideon is one evil bastard. He turns super, gets a one winged angel form and attacks you with a digitana. No, I'm serious, that's his weapon: a sword made from hand movements. There's not enough drunken jutsu in the world to see that weapon is stupid. Once you beat these poorly misunderstood punks you get the girl... or do you?
The graphics look like it's novel counterpart, and the backgrounds and stages look like it's in Toronto. From the snowy streets, to the eerie forest, to even the top of a building with dark smoke covering the sky. Within each stage there is a shop run by a different person. I won't get into detail about it, mostly because I can't remember the other names of the people running the shops other than Wallace and Mobile (yes, his name is Mobile). It just looks great, I can't tell anymore about it.
Whats unique about Scott Pilgrim vs the World (the movie) the Game is that it's not like your ordinary beat em up. For one I haven't played a great beat em up like this since Godhand. Plus, it's on the cheap side. For only $10 to download on the XBLA and PSN there's a lot of meat on this platter. Sure you can't play online, but these kinds of games are meant to be played with local friends. You know, to join in and steal all the money for yourself and hit each other with baseballs by accident. I'm sure there's some of you who would want online co-op, but then again who wants to play with hackers huh? I know some of the online community would put countless hours and figure out a way to TAS (Tool Assisted Speedrun) it even though it's only a downloaded game. The plus side of this is in honor of the release of the movie based on this on bluray/DVD, there is going to be DLC already for a downloadable game where you get to play as Knives and a patch to fix the difficulty on Average Joe. I admit I was a bit frustrated in the elevator at stage 7. The hit detection just went bonkers and lost everything before arriving at Gideon. Seriously you guys, it's not that hard to do a little training before you take on the big boys! But give me some space without pushing me into the pit! Finally, the game is half off, that's right. You can download this game for 5 bucks to coincide with the DVD/bluray. How can you not pass this up?
With the value your getting for this game, the content included, battle system, music, graphics, and game play, I'm glad to have bought this game based on a great series. Even though my cardinal rule is movie licensed games suck, my exception to that rule is this game. Brian Lee O'Malley, your a genius. This game deserves my Suzaku's Seal of Awesome. Good going, Ubisoft.
9 out of 10
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