Scott Pilgrim EX
Genre: Arcade Brawler
Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local / Online)
The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference
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Review:
Scott Pilgrim EX is an Arcade Brawler released in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. Despite the “EX” in the title seeming to imply this is a remake of the classic Arcade Brawler Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, this is actually a spiritual successor of sorts, taking place after the events of the graphic novel series, and apparently also after the animated Scott Pilgrim Takes Off series on Netflix.
This is… not really clear from the game itself, and fans of the graphic novels or Michael Cera film who never watched the Netflix series may find themselves scratching their heads why Scott and Ramona are now apparently friends with the “Evil Exes” from the original story… though seemingly only some of them? As someone who did watch the Netflix series, I was still perplexed at the story here… or rather, the lack thereof.
After a brief text intro, players are left to wonder just what the heck is going on in the world of Scott Pilgrim EX, and while players can talk with some characters, there’s a lot going on here that seems to make the player just shrug and go with it. Given that Scott Pilgrim series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and Netflix series co-creator BenDavid Grabinski both collaborated on this game, I can’t help but feel like his contributions weren’t well-used here.
The short version is: Scott’s hometown of Toronto is besieged by a trio of gangs (the Vegans, the Demons, and the Robots… and that’s not just their names, they’re literal vegans, demons, and robots). As if that wasn’t bad enough, Metal Scott (like Metal Sonic, but for Scott) has kidnapped Scott’s bandmates and stolen their instruments. As such, Scott sets out with the help of Ramona, as well as former “Evil Exes” Roxie, Lucas, Matthew, and Gideon… and the robot Robot-01 (again, just go with it), with the goal of rescuing Scott’s bandmates, retrieving their instruments, and defeating Metal Scott.
While I have my issues with the writing and story, the rest of the presentation is top-notch. This game’s 2D pixel art visuals are wonderfully-detailed and well-animated, with an absolute wealth of personality and a lot going on on-screen at a time. While I do prefer the style of the original Scott Pilgrim game over this one, they each have their own charm. In addition, this game wisely brings back Anamanaguchi, delivering another outstanding chiptune soundtrack, with examples including the excellent One More Summer, as well as High Park, The Beaches, Phantom Twin, King of the Rails, Casa Vania, and Epilogue 20XX.
When it comes to the gameplay itself, the core gameplay in Scott Pilgrim EX is surprisingly nuanced, with the different playable characters all having significant differences and move sets with a lot of variety by using combinations of attack button and directional input, though novice players will probably be able to get by with basic button-mashing. Your standard controls have weak and strong attacks, a throw button that also picks up weapons, a jump button, a guard, a run button, and a Fighting Game-style “assist” button, though you also have multiple additional moves that depend on timing or multiple inputs, like parries, throw counters, special moves, and so on – there’s a lot of depth here if you’re looking to explore that. Also, weapons are fairly plentiful in this game, and come in a variety of forms, including rideable ones like skateboards. All in all, there’s a ton of depth and variety to combat, and it flows fluidly in a way that’s really satisfying, though it can get frustrating when you’re swarmed by enemies.
The level layout of Scott Pilgrim EX takes a lot of inspiration from the classic Arcade Brawler, River City Ransom, even more so than the original Scott Pilgrim. In other words, be prepared to have to refer back repeatedly to your map to figure out just where it is you’re trying to get to… and even then it’s not always clear. As with both River City Ransom and the first Scott Pilgrim game, the areas you’ll be going through will be lined with shops where you can exchange cash earned from defeating enemies for equippable upgrades as well as health refills… though if you’re short on cash, be prepared to backtrack if you want to get a particular shop’s wares.
Yeah, the constant backtracking and referring to the map gets a bit tiresome here. Also an issue are spots where the game pushes players to engage in platforming, with this game’s platforming being pretty terrible.
All in all, Scott Pilgrim EX is definitely a much more ambitious game than Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game was, but that ambition only pays off sometimes. The presentation and core gameplay are great, but the confusing map navigation, nonsensical story, and occasional bits of bad platforming… not so much. On balance, this is still an outstanding Arcade Brawler, and a fine sequel to the prior Scott Pilgrim game. But I don’t think it quite lives up to that game’s excellence. Even so, if you’re a fan of the previous game, or of Arcade Brawlers in general, you’ll definitely want to play this one.
tl;dr – Scott Pilgrim EX is an Arcade Brawler that’s a spiritual successor to the excellent Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game. It’s an ambitious follow-up, and in many ways it rises above the prior game, with excellent core gameplay and a superb presentation with an outstanding soundtrack and wonderful visuals. However, this time around the story is nonsensical, players are forced to constantly puzzle over the game’s confusing map, and at times the game pushes you to do platforming that’s just plain bad. However, while this game is in many ways flawed, it is still a superb Arcade Brawler, and one that should be considered a must-play for fans of the genre and especially fans of Scott Pilgrim.
Grade: B+
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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference
Scott Pilgrim EX (Nintendo Switch 2)
Genre: Party Game
Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local / Online)
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Review:
Scott Pilgrim EX offers Nintendo players no upgrade path to go from the Nintendo Switch version of the game to the Nintendo Switch 2 version, so you have to choose which version to get if you have both platforms. Should you get the Nintendo Switch version, which will work on both? Or does the Nintendo Switch 2 version offer enough of an improvement to make it worth getting instead? Let’s have a look…
I’ll just cut straight to the chase: there do not appear to be any noticeable visual or performance upgrades in the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game. I had hoped this might at least improve the framerates, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. The same seems to be true for features and content: zero difference between versions.
The only improvement I can see between the Nintendo Switch version of Scott Pilgrim EX and the Nintendo Switch 2 version appears to be loading times: on Nintendo Switch, it took me 42 seconds to load the game to the title screen and another 7 seconds to load into the game, while on Nintendo Switch 2, it took me 14 seconds and 4 seconds. A respectable difference! But… what about the Nintendo Switch version played on a Nintendo Switch 2? Well, after testing it out… the times come out to 25 seconds and 4 seconds.
In other words, the only thing you get in the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Scott Pilgrim EX that you don’t get in the Nintendo Switch version is that it takes 10 fewer seconds to get to the title screen. That’s it. And in exchange for that, you can no longer play the game on the original Nintendo Switch. Unless you only ever plan on playing this game on Nintendo Switch 2, I can say this just is not worth it. Stick with the Nintendo Switch version of the game.
tl;dr – Scott Pilgrim EX is an Arcade Brawler that’s a spiritual successor to the excellent Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game. It’s an ambitious follow-up, and in many ways it rises above the prior game, with excellent core gameplay and a superb presentation with an outstanding soundtrack and wonderful visuals. However, this time around the story is nonsensical, players are forced to constantly puzzle over the game’s confusing map, and at times the game pushes you to do platforming that’s just plain bad. However, while this game is in many ways flawed, it is still a superb Arcade Brawler, and one that should be considered a must-play for fans of the genre and especially fans of Scott Pilgrim. However, I suggest getting the Nintendo Switch version of the game, not the Nintendo Switch 2 version – the Nintendo Switch 2 version only offers the most minimal improvements to loading times, and can’t be played on Nintendo Switch, a tradeoff I don’t think is worth it.
Grade: B
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