Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
16-Bit Colorful Happiness
Posted August 13, 2010
Quite the throwback to those days of 16-bit heaven, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a hard-punching, old-school, side-view fighter, reminding me of the days or playing Double Dragon on the ole C64. Released for the Playstation Network and Xbox 360, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was developed by a team at Ubisoft Montreal. The game is molded around the events in the movie / graphic novel. You are put into the role of Scott Pilgrim and his journey to win the love of Ramona Flowers. If you aren’t familiar with the story of Romona’s seven evil exes, you will be fine with the opening setup during the presentation. (But obviously, you are doing a disservice if you don’t check out the movie. Here's one of our DVDTalk reviews of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).
This type of game is really designed to be enjoyed with a group. Up to four players can star the game (no drop-in allowed) and play as the aforementioned Scott Pilgrim, Kim Pine, Stephen Stills and Ramona Flowers. Players have four attacks at their disposal, heavy, light, summon and special. It’s possible to string attacks together to form combos as well. More combo attacks as well as health / defense are unlocked as Scott progresses via the leveling system. If you are playing by yourself, it certainly helps to do a bit of grinding to beef up Scott for the latter levels. Playing in a group is preferred if you wanted to do it in one sitting.
The game takes place in worlds designed around those seven evil exes and is quite distinctive. There are tons of inside jokes in the game for those familiar with the series and there’s definitely more zaniness in this game than I’ve seen in any game for the past year. It’s also insanely difficult at times, but in a good way. It reminds you have you need to do a little grinding to move to beat that final boss. Also, items can be purchased along the way with the money that’s dropped, upgrades, extra lives, etc…
One negative to the game is that the developer didn’t include a way to drop into an existing game (if another player walks into the room). This also means there’s no online play in the title, something that would have made this title perfect. It’s tough to get folks together to play sometimes and online play is made for this kind of game.
If you are looking for a great way to spend 10 bucks and you are a Scott Pilgrim fan, you would be hard pressed to do worse than downloading Scott Pilgrim vs. The World over the Playstation network. It’s amazing that in an industry that can’t make a quality movie-based game to save their life can create such an inventive and incredible game that treats the fans with respect. Old School gamers, arcade lovers and simply fans of quality entertainment should play this game immediately.
Discuss This Game on Our Official Game Thread Here
This type of game is really designed to be enjoyed with a group. Up to four players can star the game (no drop-in allowed) and play as the aforementioned Scott Pilgrim, Kim Pine, Stephen Stills and Ramona Flowers. Players have four attacks at their disposal, heavy, light, summon and special. It’s possible to string attacks together to form combos as well. More combo attacks as well as health / defense are unlocked as Scott progresses via the leveling system. If you are playing by yourself, it certainly helps to do a bit of grinding to beef up Scott for the latter levels. Playing in a group is preferred if you wanted to do it in one sitting.
The game takes place in worlds designed around those seven evil exes and is quite distinctive. There are tons of inside jokes in the game for those familiar with the series and there’s definitely more zaniness in this game than I’ve seen in any game for the past year. It’s also insanely difficult at times, but in a good way. It reminds you have you need to do a little grinding to move to beat that final boss. Also, items can be purchased along the way with the money that’s dropped, upgrades, extra lives, etc…
One negative to the game is that the developer didn’t include a way to drop into an existing game (if another player walks into the room). This also means there’s no online play in the title, something that would have made this title perfect. It’s tough to get folks together to play sometimes and online play is made for this kind of game.
Graphics
- It’s really refreshing to see a developer take a chance with creating a completely original title in this 8-bit style. It’s not going to win any awards for the graphics engine, but who cares? It’s paying homage to those of us that hovered around arcade machines for hours at a time after school.
- Similar to the graphic novel and movie, the color scheme is powerful and pops off the screen. The animations are slick and blow the heck out of many downloadable titles that are released during the year.
Audio
- The music is really fantastic, catchy and sticks in your head after a level. I really haven’t had the same type of experience with music (in this type of title) since Mario 3. (For those seeking the creator, it’s Anamanaguchi.) The sound effects are excellent as well. (No voiceovers from the cast of the movie, but they aren't really needed in this type of game.)
Conclusion
If you are looking for a great way to spend 10 bucks and you are a Scott Pilgrim fan, you would be hard pressed to do worse than downloading Scott Pilgrim vs. The World over the Playstation network. It’s amazing that in an industry that can’t make a quality movie-based game to save their life can create such an inventive and incredible game that treats the fans with respect. Old School gamers, arcade lovers and simply fans of quality entertainment should play this game immediately.
Discuss This Game on Our Official Game Thread Here