"We've got unfinished business, I and he"
Let's get one thing straight: yes indeed, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is heavy on the references and many a past video game will be mentioned or at the very least illicit a "hey I remember that!". 3D Dot Game Heroes, released earlier this year, did the same thing although its focus was primarily on one thing: Legend of Zelda, and specifically the first one. Scott Pilgrim's on the other hand come from all over the place from Mega Man to River City Ransom to Turtles in Time and many others are in the game as well. But references don't a good game make and it's here where it's actually quite competent as the game tends to get more and more fun as you play, unlock new moves and upgrade your stats and then of course it goes right into the stratosphere of fun when you have buddies to play with. There's some gripes about the game to be sure but as a fan of the books, I very much enjoyed the game though it's slightly hard to recommend for people unfamiliar with the source material as many in-jokes will be completely lost and the allure of playing as these characters becomes a bit lost but underneath it's quite a cool game.
The basic story of the Scott Pilgrim universe is that the title character, the bassist in the band Sex Bob-omb, has begun dating Ramona Flowers, a quirky and quite pretty girl (if you're going by the movies of course). But in order to continue dating Ramona, Scott has to defeat her 7 evil ex's. While the books got a bit more involved with some of the characters, the game is straight up beat-em-up action; you're here for fun so fun you shall have, in other words. Anything more and you'll have to do some reading. The game does have up to 4-player co-op where you can play as Scott, Ramona, the band's drummer Kim Pine and the guitarist Stephen Stills through the levels as you learn new moves, upgrade your stats via snacks, fast food, CD's or a secret store. One thing about the game is that it can be a little tough, but not in that "**** this *****!" sense but rather this game is like the old-school games and even Demon Soul's (but not as extreme) which is "You have to learn to use your attacks, environmental weapons and skills properly or you'll get stomped" way. You can't just button mash this one and expect to win.
The major issue people have with the game and it's the one question mark for the future as well is the omission of online co-op. Unlike Castle Crashers or the recent Castlevania: HD game, there's no online component to Scott Pilgrim and while on one hand it's meant to harken back to the old days where you sat with your buddies laughing your ass off as you played through the game, for some people, the convenience of online implementation would've benefited the game as some people either don't have enough controllers, friends that can visit (much less play games and have PS3 controllers nonetheless) or don't want the hassle of scheduling times to get together. I remember what a pain it was to get Crystal Chronicles going on the Gamecube so if you have friends/siblings/significant other that you can play with then by all means do so. The game is enjoyable solo but it becomes better with more than one person.
I have 2 other issues as well and one is the controls as they feel slightly clunky to me and even on the d-pad, it's hard to be really accurate with your movements and dodging attacks or just the responsiveness of them feels slightly off. Countering enemies can be slightly maddening as well as once you've been hit, it's incredibly hard to break out of there and there's these enemies on stage 2, these paparazzi-like guys that once they hit me once with their camera flash attack, I literally got juggled 60 HP off my health and could do nothing but just wait till they were finished. It's rewarding to do the counter because they tend to be one-hit kills but once you get hit, then it feels slightly useless. Another issue is the stats as there is 2 things you can do: buy snacks, drinks or CD's to upgrade things such as your attacks, defense, speed and whatnot and gain XP as well but then you can do the slightly game-breaking method which is to use the secret store and just buy those items and your stats will practically skyrocket. When one item gives you +50 attack and with stats capped at 100, you can just grind the first level, buy 2 of them and you're Iron Man. But then again the game is tough so guess they come in handy but the challenge of the game might go completely out the window once you notice how to make your character nearly unstoppable.
It's hard to recommend someone playing the game who's unfamiliar with the books since you'll most likely be asking a lot of questions such as "who's that girl when I press L1?" "what's with one boss giving me a skateboard upon defeat?" and "what's this 'subspace' area?" But the game is a competent 2D side scroller beat-em-up in the vein of Double Dragon, River City Ransom, Turtles in Time and Castle Crashers and knowing the material makes the game a little cooler. Couple of gripes about it but other than that, I very much look forward to more times using Ramona's hammer to smack enemies around (+2 against girls!)
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