Games review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

By Shane Willoughby at thegamingliberty.com

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is an enigma. It’s a next gen, old school, side scrolling, 8-bit, movie, video game crossover and somehow, SOMEHOW, it’s not terrible. In fact it’s actually quite awesome.

Ubisoft’s Scott Pilgrim is about as old school as you can get on the current generation of consoles and provides a wonderfully insular retro experience that is as charming as it is delightfully addictive.

Those of you who are already familiar with the world Scott Pilgrim finds himself up against will know that our hero must win the heart of one Ramona Flowers. In order to secure her love he must defeat Ramona’s seven evil exes. The only way to do this is through violence, obviously.

Scott must take to the streets of Toronto with his band mates Kim Pine, Stephen Stills and Ramona, to kick, punch, throw, swipe, plunder and pummel pretty must everyone and everything that stands in their way.

Think Streets of Rage or River City Ransom and you might have some idea of what I’m talking about. This is an indulgent old-school beat em up and makes no apologies for it.

The game has more in common with the original comic than the Hollywood movie and sacrifices nothing to recapture the essence of the impetuousness of Scott’s love for Ramona. He must defeat those who stand in the way of his love and it’s so geeky and cute that you can forgive all the actual death and carnage that’s really going on.

What’s immediately obvious from the outset is just how much personality this game has. It’s all very much over the top and all together ludicrous. The game looks gorgeous, there’s beauty to be found in all those huge pixels. It’s colourful, bright and just gushes joyous adolescent cheer and enthusiasm.

Combat is a pretty straight forward affair but it’s very fun. You are limited to basic and undeveloped kicking and punching from the beginning but in time you will learn new moves and new variations on the moves you already have. There’s something of a learning curve in here.

Sure it’s not as complicated, deft and adroit as say an RPG but unlocking and learning new abilities and moves must be complicit in your progress if you want to beat this game.

You can induce upgrades and new abilities yourself by collecting the strewn street pennies of your fallen foes and cashing them in for your own development.

Subtle

It’s subtle stuff but doesn’t take you away from actually playing the game which is important. It’s not all kicking and punching though, with some nice gameplay variations that stop the game from ever becoming boring or repetitive.

If you want to play through the game on your own, well then good luck. This is about as difficult a solo experience as I’ve played this year. You need to play this with friends and take advantage of the 4 player co-op on offer.

Playing solo is a limited experience. On your own it is an unforgiving demanding and taxing experience. Playing with friends will not only make progression easier (but not too easy) but makes the game just so much more fun to play. Win Win.

Co-op is how you can get the best out of Scott Pilgrim. Mind you, they could have refined certain elements of the co-op experience. For example, there’s no drop in or drop out option for co-op so the amount of players you start one of the seven levels with is the amount of players you will end the level with. This is a shame. Even Streets of Rage had a drop in drop out option. There’s also no online option which is pretty inexcusable.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is all about personality. It’s bright, bubbly, colourful and fun. O and the games soundtrack is probably the best game soundtrack you will hear this year. Honestly, the music by the band ‘Anamanaguchi’ is probably worth the asking price alone. It fits the game faultlessly and is a real triumph. After you’ve finished playing the game, you’ll listen to the soundtrack on your iPod for many months after.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is probably the coolest downloadable title you’ll play this year. If you crave nostalgia this generation then this is the game you’ve probably been waiting for. Pick it up now on the Playstation Network or on Xbox Live later this month.

Format: PSN (reviewed), Xbox Live Arcade (released 25 August); Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

TheGamingLiberty.com is Ireland’s Premier Videogame Website.

 

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!