Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Before I begin on the game, I must inform you, mortal readers, of the experiences of Viking movie theatres.

It is common knowledge and absolute fact that a Viking is one half monstrous looting killer, and one half hat. So it is on the very rare occassions of funerals and showers (and thats only a slight possibility) will we take off our hats.

Viking cinemas have an unfortunate design which does not account for this. For me, the Viking Gamer, this is alright, because even among Vikings I am considered a giant. An irresistably handsome giant. So, ipso facto, I can see over all of my seated brethren at any given time.

For those who are less fortunate than me in both height and looks, this means a lot of staring at a screen through a sea of horns.

The bests seats in the house, then, are those right in front of the screen, and since these are also simultaneously the worst seats in the house, the whole experience is one of frustration, anger and eventual duels to the death outside the cinema complex where ironically, we will take off our hats at the service.

The most important thing is that I managed to see over the horns, and had a great time watching the movie.

So what does this have to do with the game? Nothing and everything.

When was the last time you played a movie-game? Iron Man 2? And how was that? HUH!? Pretty damn horrible. I have no doubt if you did play Iron Man 2 then right now you're curled up in a little ball, hoping that cats will come and urinate on you so you can scream 'clean! CLEAN!'

If you haven't played Iron Man 2, I will impress upon you how bad the game was.

Moving on, movie-game tie-ins are normally much worse than a surprise castration. So when I downloaded Scott Pilgrim vs The World I wasn't too certain of what to expect.

I was pleasantly surprised but not so overenthused that I ripped my shirt off and murdered the neighboring town (again).

Scott Pilgrim vs The World is a sidescroller fighter in which you play as either Scott Pilgrim, Kim, Stills or Ramona Flowers. One of the first things you'll notice is that the game seems to be based around youth violence. You can pick up just about everything and use it as a weapon, which is some cases funny (when you're picking up your enemy and using him/her to beat down other enemies) or things which seem less than humorous (bottles, baseball bats). Remembering it's just a game, and that games have had no scientific behavioural links to youth violence, and thus cannot affect gamers into hitting random pedestrians with stop signs, you play on.

Above: Nothing says Canadian love story like throwing a Katana into a Ninjas face.

The first time round in single player it's more than likely that you'll primarily use Scott. He's an indie, bassist and slacker, and in love with Ramona Flowers, a chick with wierd goggles on her head. The first thing you'll notice about the game are its graphics. Purposefully retro, but in no way 'bad'.

I find this charming. Scott Pilgrim in the graphic novels and movie both represent a love of gaming, not so much a love of retro gaming, but just the ideals of what gaming is. Defeating different varieties of enemies and bosses with their own set of skills and tactics, earning points and coins that allow the player to either feel a sense of achievement or actually try and reach a new high score...

In any other scenario, it would be construed that the developers were simply trying to create a game that was 'indie' and thus put all the ingredients together that would make a 'definably' indie game.

But the game plays and feels like something you may have wanted to play with your friends on your Nintendo years ago.

BUT...

Where this game lacks is where its strong points should be.

If you can remember your usual sidescroller, there was a point at the beginning when you started the game that had a really bad fmv (in-game movie) that basically said who the villain was and whose arse you were going to kick.

As you proceeded in the game, after defeating bosses you would get more 'storyline' or what effects you were having on the enemies as a whole. While the first FMV (which didn't even have the decency of style to be in-game) did go over the bare facts that Scott loved Ramona and had to defeat her evil exes, that's where it ends.

Scott Pilgrims brilliance lays in that it has a mix of trivial reality (youth relationships and cheating and all that bullshit {nobody mention Twilight}) and the exaggerated violence and showmanship of a hardcore sidescrolling fighter game.

YET, whenever I defeat a boss all I get is Scott and Ramona making out in a different scenario.

WHAT THE HELL!?

I wanted to experience Scott Pilgrim and all I got was this lousy game.

Leaving this aside, the gameplay itself is, at best, fairly average.

While the enemies are highly entertaining and have their own purposes and styles and agendas,

versing them doesn't have the same fun flair to it as Golden Axe or Ninja Turtles did. The more entertaining things like using and throwing objects and weapons becomes a little tedious, and even the continual beating in of a face can become tiring rather than invigorating.

Throwing a fatty...


...and then punching her in the face while she's down.

Each character is basic essence the same, with the same moves executed in slightly different but un-meaningful ways.

Before all of you trolls start complaining that EVERY sidescroller is like that, look back to my examples. Golden Axe characters had different range and attack damage, as well as different spells that did different things. Ninja Turtles was much the same, with different special moves, range and damage.

In your favourite sidescrollers, especially the ones you could play on multiplayer, working as a team was fun because of the different combos you could come up with and being an individual character made you separate but so much more in sync.

A Viking raiding party is much the same way. We're not an army, so our victims can enjoy thinking about the numerous ways in which they may be slaughtered. My victims have the pleasure of the Gentle Beauty, and can happily spend their last few seconds wondering why their legs and torso are three metres away from them. If they encounter my bi-polar beserker cousin they can die in wonderous fascination, thinking, 'I didn't know you could do that to a person with a chipped mug!'

The last thing the game lacks is any meaningful upgrades. There are certain points in which you can stock back up on hit points and 'gut points' (gut points give you the opportunity to do an attack which does damage in a wider area, which remains fairly unused in my gameplay), and in the first of these places you can buy a 'bionic arm' which gives you a huge boost in strength. After obtaining it, the enemies become fairly easy, and if difficulty was an appeal, that's gone too.

BUT...

Despite everything, the game is still fairly fun to play. I think I'll finish it with every character once and never touch it again, but despite that, it will have been worth the 20 or so bucks I paid for it.

I give this game 3.5 out of 5 badly beaten youths.

Til next time, the gamer with horns on his hat.