He’s in “lesbians” with Ramona Flowers, but does Scott Pilgrim have the moves to match his ego?
Format: PS3 (version played), Xbox 360 Dev: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Chengdu
Pub: Ubisoft Out: 11/08/10 Players: 1-4
Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley must have had the biggest grin ever when he saw homages to many of his favourite 8-bit classics in the final version of the game based on his graphic novel series. The world map is straight out of Super Mario World. The visuals, a quirky throwback to gaming’s pixelated birth. And the audio is a rapturous combo of chiptune beats and percussion. Pilgrim aims to score with Ramona, and this 2D title aims to hi-score with the arcade generation.
In many ways, Scott Pilgrim is the most subjective game you will play this year – with the possible exception of Kojima’s idiosyncrasies in Peace Walker. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact, the game owes its very style and purpose to O’Malley’s fondness for the retro age. What does become a problem is when it sacrifices satisfying gameplay and difficulty for archaic authenticity.
It’s a side-scrolling beat-em-up in much the same vein as Streets of Rage or River City Ransom. Well, I say ‘much the same’, but, yeah, it pretty much rips them off with a knowing wink. Your choice of four characters – Scott, Ramona, Kim or Stephen – gives you a marginally different experience as you play through the game’s seven levels. Pummelling hipsters and suspiciously identical looking sprites on your quest to defeat Ramona’s evil exes can be such fun for restless thumbs. In the beginning, however, it’s more of a chore than anything else, and time and again you’ll likely find yourself stunned on the ground.
This is partly down to the game’s RPG element, something that seems like a perfectly reasonable Final Fantasy-inspired inclusion given the circumstances. What soon becomes agonizingly obvious is having RPG elements that lock you out of moves and combos as fundamental as a low kick or counter, in game that has a clearly defined end point, is remarkably silly. To its credit, though, the game’s item shops are especially cool, with upbeat chiptune melodies and products, like snacks and clothing, that restore health and add to your character’s stats.
Fighting gets super frenetic when 15 or more enemies start to pile on-screen at once, so not having the means to fight back with an effective move set will leave a bitter taste. With other dudes and dudettes, there’s much more opportunity to own the field thanks to revivals. Played solo, this beast is way too hard. Making it all the way to the boss battles only to fail and have to retry the entire level has never been particularly fun. Here it smacks of overbearing retro design.
Edgar Wright’s film translation of the series was brimming with little touches at only the truly dedicated could understand. Here the offering is much more direct. Yet in the same way some viewers misinterpreted the film as another unchallenging Michael Cera boy-meets-girl flick, the game takes the best and the worst of the retro era by being uncompromisingly difficult. But, hey, it’s no biggie. Seven out of 10, right?
Aaron Lee
Tags: action, beat-em-up, comics, scott pilgrim, ubisoft
