Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game (XBLA) – Review – Xbox 360

I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll say it again. There seems to be a growing trend or interest in retro/classic games. We’ve seen many ports of classic NES, SNES, arcade cabinet games, and so on for the XBLA and with the XBLIG marketplace we’ve seen many original games with a classic look and feel. Even with games like Dark Void Zero on the iPhone and DS, there are still original games with a classic look and feel being released. To be honest, I’m all for it. I still like playing Super Mario Bros. and other classic games. Continuing this trend on the XBLA however is a game based off of a comic that recently released in theatres – Scott Pilgrim: The Game.

Story: The game is based on the original comic book series by Bryan Lee O’Malley. The game takes place in Toronto Canada where Scott meets Ramona Flowers, the girl of his dreams. That is until he finds out he must defeat her 7 evil ex-boyfriends that stand in the way for some unknown reason.

Gameplay: If you’ve ever played River City Ransom back in the day, you’ll know exactly what Scott Pilgrim is like. Like River City Ransom, Scott Pilgrim is a 2D beat-em-up game. You travel to various locations around Toronto defeating enemies, collecting gold, levelling up and defeating Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends. One major problem I had right away was the combat. Even on the easiest difficulty, the game is no walk in the park until you level up. At the start, and actually for quite a while, you are very weak. Weak isn’t really the problem, it’s more the clunky attacks and how the enemies attack you. You will constantly get knocked down by enemies. If your speed and gut points aren’t very high, which at the start they won’t be, it’ll take a few seconds before you get back up. Blocking is another issue. When an enemy attacks, most of the time he attacks with a combo. You can’t block in the middle of a combo. Even the counter attack is tricky to pull off and it isn’t available until you reach about level 3. This game requires a lot of grinding to gain money and experience to level up. I found myself playing the first few levels over and over again until I was able to max out my character. After that, the game was a breeze and much more enjoyable. I was now stronger, faster, had more powerful attacks, and I could even jump out of a fall so I wouldn’t be lying vulnerable on the ground. Throughout the game you will come across shops. Within these shops you can buy drinks, food, books, videos, music, etc. which will give you extra lives, health boosts experience points and most importantly these items will increase your skill attributes. The thing is, you don’t know what each item does until after you buy it so you’ll pretty much be guessing when you initially buy things. Levelling up will grant you a new move but I didn’t really find anything useful until about level 12 and up. So once I finally maxed out my character, my opinion completely changed for this game. I immediately fell in love with it. I mean, you can actually attack quickly now without worrying about the frustrating and slow attacks you started with and the annoying enemies. Once I completed the game I went back and played it over again. I’ll no doubt play it again very soon especially with co-op.

Co-op can be played with up to 3 other friends on the same console. Sadly, there is no online co-op and honestly, it would have been a really nice feature for this game. Local co-op is still just as fun but it seems people prefer to play online more than with real people in one room on one TV. Co-op doesn’t really change the overall experience a whole lot. You can perform some co-op moves but the enemies still spawn the same and still take the same about of damage.

Graphics/Audio: The best thing about this game and just about the only redeeming factor for the weak combat is the overall presentation. To start, the game uses 8 bit inspired graphics. Of course, the pixels are high quality, but you can’t help but feel young again and wanting to play games like Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Metroid, or Castlevania. Actually the other neat thing about the game is the use of many classic video game references. As I mentioned before, the actual core gameplay mechanic is straight from River City Ransom. The level select screen is very reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. When defeating a boss there is a K.O. screen. Pause menu music is very similar to Battletoads. You’ll notice a lot more especially since a lot are mentioned in the comics but I’m not going to mention them all. The music is quite awesome as well – very good original and inspired chip tune music that will be stuck in your head for quite a while just like say the Mario Bros. theme song for instance.

Overall: With the amazing 8-bit inspired presentation, I knew Scott Pilgrim would be good. When it came to the combat though, it felt really clunky. Levelling up is key and once you max out your character, the game is much more enjoyable but I still feel the combat was a little clunky. With that said, I just can’t get enough of this game. Co-op expands the gameplay a bit and with 3 other characters plus 2 unlockable characters, 3 difficulty settings and an unlockable zombie mode, there is no shortage of things you can do. Online co-op would have been a really nice feature and probably would have made me love this game even more, but sadly it is not present. So in the end, for those that want a a modern pixel art game, chip tune audio with classic video game references and based off an awesome comic, this game is for you. If you aren’t one of those people, the combat may turn you off at first, but stick with it, level up your character and I guarantee you’ll love it.

Pros:
-Classic 8-bit presentation (Art and audio)
-Many video game references that bring back good or bad memories
-Hidden rooms for extra money – subspace highway
-Great replay value
-4 player local co-op

Cons:
-clunky combat
-items show attribute description after you buy it
-Too much grinding before it becomes enjoyable
-No online co-op

Overall Score: 7.5/10

A Copy of this game was provided to the reviewer for reviewing purposes from the publisher

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