Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game review code for Nintendo Switch was provided by Ubisoft so, thanks to them.

Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. Every gamer has some title from their past that they’re attached to. Regardless of how great or poorly the game is actually designed, it’s easy to look past those flaws if the title meant a lot to you. Now this doesn’t mean that every game that fans are nostalgic for is terrible.  There are famous games like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that plenty of people are openly nostalgic about. And though some view the games through rose-tinted glasses, they’re still remarkable games.

Now, let’s take those feelings of nostalgia and apply them to a title lost to the sands of time. Virtually unplayable due to circumstance, yet given a second chance to make an impression with audiences. It’s time to open the toy chest and see just how well our favourite game still holds up.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is a side-scrolling classic beat ‘em up developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Chengdu while being published by Ubisoft. The game is based off the comic series of the same name by Bryan Lee. The Story follows Scott Pilgrim who develops a crush on the mysterious Ramona Flowers but before they can date, he must defeat her seven-evil ex-boyfriends.

Get Ready For A Beatdown

Scott Fighting two thugs on a street car

Scott Pilgrim plays like a classic side-scrolling beat ‘em up, having the player travel from left to right as they punch the snot out of anybody who gets in their way, with each stage culminating in a boss. However, issues with the title become noticeable from the moment you hit the first stage. Scott simply isn’t a great character to take control of. His movements are imprecise and momentum from movement only ever transfers into one’s jumps if they’re in a full sprint. Maneuvering him around is as if one is attempting to control a heavy tank that only has two speeds, causing any of the precise platforming the game demands you to do later in the title extremely awkward.

This awkward control is further made problematic when the game so often has enemies attack in a full burst from off screen before players have time to react. Also, thugs in Scott Pilgrim hit hard, occasionally dealing a quarter of your health in an attack you couldn’t see coming. Similarly, levels tend to stretch on for a while which wouldn’t be an issue if dying wasn’t such a common occurrence with Scott Pilgrim. Starting at level one, players will begin the game with three lives and one hundred hit points. However, combining enemies attacking players with off-screen assaults or simply having upwards of six opponents gang up on Scott in tight areas and getting hit is inevitable, leading to constant deaths and game overs. This causes the player to need to restart the entire level from the beginning, even though upon completing the stage, it’s revealed that Scott Pilgrim features check-points that can be selected. Scott Pilgrim is difficult in the same way classic NES titles were. Being difficult comes as a necessity to pad out the title’s incredibly short length.

Upon defeating enemies, they will burst into coins, which is a cute reference to the source material. These coins can be used to purchase stat upgrades or health items in shops within each map. However, not every map features a shop to buy items early on and thus, it’s a slog to survive combat encounters and reach the shop late in the level. This further compounds on the issue of forcing players to begin the level again despite featuring check-points. Scott Pilgrim does feature multi-player with the ability to play with up to four players. While two players are on the screen, this works out fine, but all four characters on screen causes things to become far too hectic.

Throw-down in Toronto

Downtown Toronto

Video games can motivate us in two major ways, intrinsically and extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation is all about our own desire to get better at something. Take the action game Devil May Cry as an example. The enjoyment in games like these is developing the skills to master the many moves and abilities we’re given, making them our own and including them in combos. Nothing about the game has changed to make it easier but, our skills have gotten better. Extrinsic motivation is about rewarding the player for small actions to keep them going. Examples of this are the items players would receive for completing random encounters in titles such as Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Chronicles. One’s character hasn’t grown much after one encounter but, the small incentive keeps the player motivated to get stronger. Now Scott Pilgrim attempts to motivate players with both methods but succeeds at neither.

Scott Pilgrim is a beat ‘em title with a level up system, featuring stats for the characters as well as new moves learned upon reaching the next level. All of this would be fine if both systems weren’t flawed. Characters in Scott Pilgrim have incredibly small move sets when starting at level one meaning they’re missing some basic abilities characters should have by the start of any beat ‘em up game. As an example, when knocking an enemy to the floor, there isn’t anything a player can do to capitalize on their vulnerable state due to not having a low attacking option. Characters start out with the abilities to perform high attacks but lack low attacks until level five. Meaning that for the first few stages, combat encounters take far longer than they should.

Leveling up doesn’t grant any of the character unique or interesting moves but, instead just abilities the player should have had from the start. All of this is already enough to damage one’s desire to get better at Scott Pilgrim but, the title goes a few more misplaced steps forward by having very few of the characters attacks be able to combo into each other. Mashing the light attack is as close as this game gets to true combos. With no combos or exciting moves to learn, what exactly is motivating a player to continue with Scott Pilgrim? The stat increases that leveling up grants the characters would seem to be the answer however, it isn’t that simple. While stats are ultimately what matters in this title, leveling up increases players stats by so little that it isn’t noticeable most of the time.

The nail in the coffin for Scott Pilgrim’s combat however is that none of it matters. Once the player gains the ability to pick up weapons such as baseball bats and swords, every combat encounter becomes mashing the weapon attack to win. This is a technique that works on both low-level enemies and even the numerous bosses. This one strategy fundamentally kills any desire a player would have to become good at Scott Pilgrim, leaving nothing to motivate someone to continue the game.

The Seven Ex-Boyfriends 

Fighting an evil ex-boyfriend

The seven-evil ex-boyfriends serve as the game’s different boss battles. Each ex-boyfriend sports unique abilities from one another, making each fight memorable. However, some of Scott Pilgrim’s past problems come back to haunt this aspect of the game as well. For example, the issue of attacks that players can’t see coming is on full display, as the ex-boyfriends don’t telegraph most of their moves. These surprise attacks also cannot be blocked which makes preparing for them a real struggle.

As mentioned earlier, the bosses can also be trivialized by picking up or bringing a weapon into the encounter which seems like a major oversight, turning what are supposed to be epic fights into quite underwhelming boss battles. One issue that also affects the boss fights is their lack of phases.

Most bosses in video games feature phases to the fight where they bring out new techniques to keep the player on their toes. The first boss does this quite well as you start by fighting him, then his group of hipster girls and then both at once. This causes the player to need to formulate a new approach. However, every other boss in Scott Pilgrim doesn’t do this. They move faster but add very little or no new dynamics to the fight, leaving them about as tasteless as the mobs.

The Quest for Ramona

Scott and Ramona

The Beat ‘em up genre isn’t exactly known for their deep narratives. This is an adaptation of a graphic novel series however and thus, grants the game an already crafted story to work with. Which makes it all the more baffling that Scott Pilgrim does hardly anything to portray its story to newcomers outside of the opening scene.

Any plot or dialogue that could have helped to express the story this game is attempting to adapt isn’t here and instead, players just travel between each area on the map beating up Ramona’s ex-boyfriends before moving on. Now minimal storytelling is perfectly fine but, with such an enjoyable and hilarious plot at their fingertips, it’s a huge shame that Ubisoft Montréal and Chengdu didn’t attempt to try.

Playing different characters doesn’t grant any variety to a play through beyond the ending audiences experience which is a missed opportunity. Seeing these various characters interact with the personality of the evil ex-boyfriends would have made for some amusing moments. The seven ex-boyfriends themselves are hardly characters, with very few interactions with our protagonist or any appearances in the stages.

Style and Sounds

Ramona in combat

If there is one area that Scott Pilgrim hits it out of the park, it’d be in the presentation. There is an abundance of personality in everything each character does. From Scott’s cheesy grin when giving a flaming upper-cut to Kim’s ever sour expression in all battles. Every moment of this game is bursting with life. This is achieved thanks to Scott Pilgrim’s incredible art design. Ubisoft Montreal and Chengdu nailed the aesthetic of the graphic novels and it makes for a visually pleasing title. Every stage is filled with detail and colour that looks beautiful and crisp on the Nintendo Switch.

The soundtrack is an absolute joy to listen to with chip-tuned inspired tracks that feel right at home in this video game inspired world. Every stage has a song that fits the atmosphere well while getting players in the mood to beat up some crazy Torontonians. The sound design is incredible with each hit sounding quite satisfying. With a harsh sound to sell how much damage the characters are dealing. There is a particular moment when running out on the balcony of a house while a party happens inside. Running past broken windows will actually cause the music to become briefly louder since the glass is no longer muting it. This is an appreciated attention to detail

Overall, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is an unpolished game with core mechanics that are at odds with each other, archaic game design and frustrating combat; all wrapped up in an extremely beautiful package. That’s it for this review, thank you for reading and until next time…

If you’re looking for more reviews on Nintendo Switch, check out our coverage of Immortals Fenyx Rising