Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Review

13 Aug 2010 at 17:04:13 by John Robertson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

Another week, another game based on a movie. This time a game based on movie taken from a comic book… Yay, it’s The Incredible Hulk game all over again.  Apologies for the dry, sarcastic tone of that opening line but games produced as little more than an advertising gimmick for another product don’t tend to place too highly on my must play list.

And yet, having almost written the game off before loading it up, it’s difficult not to be charmed by Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game from the moment the opening intro video starts rolling.  Heavily pixelated, brightly coloured and strikingly simple, the visual style is clearly designed to appeal to the 8 and 16-bit nostalgic videogame nerd that exists within those of us old enough to remember such an era.  The whole look and feel of the game could be described as retro-geek-chic aimed at the geekiest of geeks, and it works.

The references to old-skool gaming don’t stop with the visuals either.  Upon starting the story mode you find yourself on a world map screen that bears more than a passing resemblance to those you’ll remember from the Super Mario games, complete with clouds moving back and forth and the ever-iconic green pipes.  Further, the ‘blipity-blip’ synthesized soundtrack wouldn’t feel out of place in Streets of Rage or 1991’s The Simpsons Arcade Game.  In short, the aesthetics are wonderful - a real joy to behold – with enough in-jokes to keep the gaming nerd in us all suitably satisfied.      

Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t quite live up to the lofty standard set by the audio-visual components.  While certainly not at all bad, it never feels like a truly worthy accompaniment to the stage it’s played on.  It takes the form of a classic side-scrolling beat ‘em up in which you progress from left to right, dispatching any enemies that appear in your path without a thought for who they are, where they came from and what they want with you.

All the bread and butter components of such a game are present and correct, including having to kill all onscreen opponents being before granted license to continue on your path and that pretty much anything not nailed to the backdrop can be used as a weapon; including umbrellas, snowballs and the ever-dependable trash can.   

To help you on your journey through geek-dom the basic actions consist of jump, block, fast and heavy attacks as well as your standard double tap a given direction to dash.  These simple commands can be skilfully strung together to execute various combos and prevent your enemies from launching attacks of their own.  If you harbour any hopes of progressing past the opening couple of levels, you must spend some time getting to grips with the combo system as it’s the only way to effectively assure that enemies stay down.  Attacking with only your basic arsenal takes much too long to put the bad guys to sleep, leaving you open to all kinds of counterattacks and group beatings from behind.  

Accompanying your basic move set are two types of special attacks which expend a set amount of ‘gut points’.  Find yourself surrounded by nasties and you can create some space by pulling off a Ken/Ryu style spinning hurricane kick (if using Scott) or you can utilise the skills of a black cat-suit clad gal that appears on demand from out of the sky.  Gut points are exhausted quickly so discretion is the name of the game – plus, they can be transformed into health points when you die, so always having a few to fall back on is a wise tactic.

You have the option of player as one of four characters – Scott, Ramona, Stills and Kim – each of which play in the same way but have their own set of animations.  Characters level up as you defeat enemies, earning new moves as each juncture.  As mentioned earlier, due to the difficulty of the game, it’s essential that these new abilities are quickly learned and implemented into your attack.  Mercifully, if you die while traversing through a level, you retain any experience you’d earned up to that point, making each subsequent attempt that little bit less gruelling.  Money gained from downed opponents can be spent in ‘shopping districts’ and provide a boost to your stats (health, gut points, defence etc) and, again, anything gained stays with you if you happen to fail a stage.   

Playing through in co-op mode (local only), with up to four players, significantly decreases the difficulty level and is a great way to quickly level up your character and ready him/her for tackling the game alone in single player.  Plus, no matter what the game, who doesn’t love a little four-player co-op now and again?

The degree to which the development team have gone to create a game that evokes so many memories of gaming’s glorious past, while staying in keeping with the Scott Pilgrim franchise, is admirable.  Those of you who enjoyed the games this is so clearly emulating will find a lot to love, as will the Scott Pilgrim fans out there.  It’s also refreshing to see a title trying to get the basics right rather than attempting to completely reinvent the genre. 

If it wasn’t for the crushing difficulty that forces you to grind your way through stages time after time, in a bid to level up and improve your character, this would be an easy recommendation for almost everyone.  As it stands though, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game a master class in nostalgic aesthetic design but falls short of truly impressing elsewhere.

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