Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition

Genre: Arcade Brawler

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local), 2-4 Co-Op (Local, Online), Online Leaderboards

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: UbiSoft

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Review:

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game is an Arcade-style Brawler that has a bit of a storied history within the realm of videogames. The Scott Pilgrim franchise started out as a graphic novel series by creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, becoming an indie darling within the medium. When a film adaptation was planned for release multiple game companies approached O’Malley seeking to do a videogame adaptation, with Ubisoft eventually securing the rights to the game.

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Once Upon a Time, In the Mysterious Land of Toronto, Canada…

Far from a quick cash-in on the license, Ubisoft reached out to multiple parties to work on the game, including both O’Malley and the film’s director Edgar Wright on the creative process, getting beloved chiptune artist Anamanaguchi to provide the soundtrack, and having the art done by Paul Robertson, who had provided the art for multiple games, but at that time may have been best known for his Arcade Brawler-style animation Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 (Warning: NSFW), which many found to be an idealized imagining of an original entry in the genre.

When the film released in theaters, it was critically well-received, but moviegoers didn’t show up, causing the movie to bomb at the box office. The game would release shortly afterwards, coming out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2010. The game was generally seen as a solid entry in the genre, and would go on to receive two additional DLC packs.

Then, in 2014, the game was pulled from digital storefronts, likely due to licensing rights.

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You Once Were a Ve-gone, But Now You Will Be Gone!

Suddenly, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game became something else entirely – a rallying cry for support of digital media, and a warning against the industry’s shift to digital formats. Without a physical release, it was now impossible to play this game via legal means unless you had purchased it prior to the delisting.

Now that the game was no longer available, it became something of a legend. Players who had managed to get a copy before the delisting praised it as a pinnacle of the genre, and as the Scott Pilgrim film gained a cult following, you had increasing numbers of fans eager to get their hands on this supposedly fantastic game based on the license. Bryan Lee O’Malley found himself hassled by fans, reassuring them that he would absolutely love to see the game re-released, but assuring them that it wasn’t up to him. In 2020, O’Malley posted on Twitter publicly calling for Ubisoft to bring the game back, being joined shortly after by Edgar Wright demanding the same.

Surprisingly, Ubisoft obliged.

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Prepare to Feel the Wrath of the League of Evil Exes!

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition released in 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, among other platforms, and this time the game would even see a physical release, thanks to Limited Run Games. This version of the game includes all of the DLC released for the original version of the game. Initially, playing as the character Knives Chau reputedly required logging into a Ubisoft account within the game, but it seems that this requirement has since been removed and Knives is now available to play right from the start.

For those unfamiliar with the Scott Pilgrim franchise, the story may be difficult to follow for those who haven’t read the graphic novels, or at least watched the movie. The game covers the core story in broad strokes – Scott loves Ramona, but needs to fight her evil exes for reasons not elaborated on here, and along the way beat up about a thousand other guys because it’s an Arcade Brawler and that wouldn’t quite work with only 7 enemies. However, without being familiar with the franchise, a lot of the context and the subtle references throughout the game will be lost on the player.

Whether or not you understand the references, the presentation in this game has aged remarkably well. This is in part thanks to the game’s design already being crafted to represent an idealized version of classic entries in the Arcade Brawler genre. Paul Robertson’s pixel art graphics are colorful, full of personality, wonderfully animated, overflowing with imagination, and faithful both to O’Malley’s art style as well as the art style of the Pirate Baby video that fans adored. Meanwhile, Amananaguchi’s chiptune soundtrack is superb, with great energetic songs like Scott Pilgrim Anthem, Another Winter, and Gideon Wrath (Part I), to name a few. In short, this game looked and sounded great when it was released over a decade ago, and it still looks and sounds great.

But then, of course comes the question – is this really the great pinnacle of the genre so many have been touting it as over the last half-decade or so?

Well… yeah, actually.

Scott Pilgrim succeeds in part because it is a great mix of elements of various foundational games in the genre, but the strongest influence here is clearly River City Ransom. As in that game, Scott Pilgrim features an RPG-like experience system, complete with shops where players can purchase upgrade items, and players are encouraged to return back to these shops when they have more cash to power up. However, Scott Pilgrim improves on River City Ransom by having a world map so players don’t need to backtrack through the game, memorizing the layout of the game’s locations to reach their destination.

This great RPG-style progression is built on top of excellent Arcade Brawler gameplay, with a good variety of moves, enemies, and different situations. It doesn’t quite escape the inevitable fate of all Arcade Brawlers – it’s still a bit repetitive at times, and it’s a bit on the short side (the game can be completed in roughly 5-6 hours). However, it manages to keep things lively more than most games in the genre.

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Scott Earned the Power of Love!

Let me sum it all up by saying this. If you were to ask me what the best Arcade Brawler is, I’d have trouble deciding. Castle Crashers, Streets of Rage 4, and the classic Ninja Turtles arcade games would all be top contenders for that title in my book. And Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game would be right up there with them. This game has a phenomenal presentation, great variety, plenty of content, and while it still has flaws that are common to the genre, this is still easily one of the best games this genre has ever seen. If you enjoy Arcade Brawler-style games, you absolutely need to play this one.

tl;dr – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game is quite simply one of the greatest Arcade Brawlers ever made, and its long-awaited release on Nintendo Switch does not disappoint. While this game still bears some of the flaws of the genre (short length, repetitive combat), it is nevertheless an outstanding experience with tons of depth and a great retro-style presentation that is a must-have for any fan of the genre.

Grade: A-

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