Scottie Pippin Vs. the World
Did you grow up playing video games? When you hear old school 8-bit music do you get hit with a rush of nostalgia? Do you like side-scrolling beat em ups? Then brother do I have a game for you.
Just like Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The game is an amazing mash up of nostalgic video game references. If you’ve read the comic books or seen the movie, you’ll get a bit more out of the little touches that are put into the game, but even with no knowledge of the Scott Pilgrim property you’re still going to have a great time punching and kicking your way through the games seven levels.
The story is the same as the books and movie; Scott falls in love with Ramona and has to fight her seven evil ex’s to be with her. A premise that’s perfect for a video game. Choose from four different characters, Scott, Ramona, Kim, or Stephen Stills, and set off on one of the best beat em ups since Castel Crashers.
Scott Pilgrim has the same RPG like qualities as River City Ransom, in that you can go to stores and buy food, books, and CD’s to increase you stats. There’s a nice experience system where you can level up and learn new moves as you progress through the story. You can pick up just about anything on screen and use it as a weapon, and I mean anything. From snowballs, trash cans, baseball bats, and enemy weapons, to even lifting the bad guys themselves over your head and beating them into other bad guys, this game has a ton of variety in the ways you get to dish out pain on your foes.
As if the retro gameplay and 16-bit style wasn’t enough to pull you back into the good old days of gaming, the music is done by chiptunes punk band Anamanaguchi. The music alone is well worth the price of admission. I can say with all honesty that this game has one of the best first stage songs in all of gaming. Just a truly awesome soundtrack!
There are a few things that keep this game from being a AAA smash hit. For one, there is no drop in drop out co-op. That’s not too big of a deal, the big problem is the lack of online co-op. What’s with all these games coming out in the past month or so with no online co-op? (DeathSpank, Lara Croft, Scott Pilgrim, shank.) The difficulty of the bosses is also very strange. While the levels always present a tough challenge, almost all of the bosses are painfully easy to defeat. There were actually a couple of times where I just stood right next the a boss and just mashed the basic attack over and over until they died.
No online is really a shame because the co-op is absolutely the best part about the game. There is something to be said about sitting down in the same room with your friends messing around with each other. But hey, you can do that with almost any game, Scott Pilgrim just forces you to play that way. Up to four players can team up to take down the ex’s. Even though they all attack with different animations, they all get the same abilities until their last level up. A little more variety would have been nice.
Even with its flaws, Scott Pilgrim is a fantastic retro throwback with fun gameplay, great art style, and one of the best soundtracks in years. And considering it only costs $10.00, this is an experience you shouldn’t pass up. And hey, if you can’t afford it, just go beat up some people and pick up the change they drop.
