If, like me, you’ve been waiting for a modern-day River City Ransom to materialize, your prayers have just been answered. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a brawler, firmly entrenched in the traditions of the old school, but with a surprisingly deep combat system, should you choose to explore it.
The plot loosely follows the graphic novels, where Scott must defeat Ramona Flowers’ seven evil ex-boyfriends (The League of Evil Exes, mind) in order to date her. There are a lot of little touches, such as earning a skateboard after defeating Lucas Lee (though you can’t use it because you never took skateboarding proficiency back in grade 5) and the game’s lone extra life is earned after defeating Todd Ingram. If you’re a fan of the comic, you’ll appreciate these little touches, but the game doesn’t rely on your familiarity with the source material.
The comparisons to River City Ransom are not unfounded, as this game feels almost exactly like a long-lost sequel made for an alternate-reality post-NES system. Hell, there’s even a secret shop inside a tunnel in the first level. Enemies leak Canadian coinage rather than blood, and you earn experience by defeating enemies and eating different types of food, which goes towards unlocking new moves (each character has a few unique ones you pick up along the way).
Much will be made of the art style, and with good reason. Pixel artist Paul Robertson, of Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 and Kings of Power 4 Billion% fame was tapped to be the art director, and that decision has paid off in spades. Sprites are huge, detailed, full of personality, and complement the style of the original graphic novels well. A mistake many modern sprite-based games make is using too many frames of animation, which might look good but ultimately makes a game feel sluggish. Wisely, Scott Pilgrim doesn’t make this mistake and the game feels very tight because of it.
PAX veterans Anamanaguchi provide an absolutely excellent soundtrack that really brings the package together. With the excellent sprite art, detailed and varied stages, in-jokes and a litany of game references both obvious and obscure (the Clash at Demonhead references don’t stop with band names), you’re getting one hell of an experience.
Up to four players can join in the fun (local only), and as with all brawlers the game is infinitely more fun with friends around. Old favorite techniques like picking up your buddy and using them as a weapon are present in spades. Nothing is quite as fun as clearing a level of enemies only to spear your co-op partner(s) in the back with a thrown katana. Luckily, you’re able to revive fallen buddies, so the consequences of your backstabbing actions may not be so permanent. If your friends aren’t nice enough to revive you after knocking out your last life, rest assured the time-honored ability of stealing their extra lives is present, and as fun/annoying as ever.
The lack of online co-op is a shame. Though I usually enjoy playing brawlers in a couch co-op setting, it’d be nice to be able to pull in extra players from your friends list to help round out the roster. It also suffers the same problems that have plagued games in this genre since the beginning: no matter how much fun the core game is, you’re never doing much else but walking to the right and mashing attacks on an army of clones. Though the enemies are themed to the level they’re in, they tread dangerously close to outstaying their welcome.
Fans of co-op brawlers have enjoyed some great titles in the past few years, with Castle Crashers and the excellent Final Fight: Double Impact being released, and it’s with pleasure I can say that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a worthy addition to anybody’s collection. Now if only Ubisoft would release the soundtrack...