Nukezilla Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (PSN)

Earlier this year, I didn’t even know who the hell Scott Pilgrim was. I checked Twitter one day, and saw everyone talking about this amazing movie trailer about a guy who has to defeat his dream girl’s seven evil exes. “Sounds pretty cool, would make a good premise for a game,” I thought, mildly foreshadowing my future obsession.

Here we are, at the end of 2010, and I’ve read and own all six volumes of the Scott Pilgrim saga in graphic novel form, I’ve seen the movie half a dozen times (four times in theaters), and I’ve finished the tie-in game with all five baked-in characters. I even dressed as the guy for Halloween! This doesn’t take into account all the vigilante promotion I’ve done for the franchise on Twitter, Facebook, and in person to all my (now probably quite annoyed with me) friends.

To say that this character spoke to me would be putting it a bit lightly. What a fun idea! But can this novel, game-like premise translate to an actual, downloadable title that is fun to play through with all the different available characters?

In a word: Yes. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is the most appropriate, detail-oriented adaptation of another form of media I have ever seen in a videogame. From Anamanaguchi’s soundtrack to Paul Robertson’s artwork, this game completely nails the atmosphere of the Scott Pilgrim universe.

The gameplay is solid, too — SPvTW:TG is basically an old-school side-scrolling brawler (a la Double Dragon or River City Ransom) made more modern by adding power-up items and experience points. This setup worked for Castle Crashers a couple years ago, and it still works now. This is the best way this game could have been handled. As your characters level up, they learn new moves, and become faster and stronger.

There is a way to exploit the leveling system, though. By using a trick that essentially gives you infinite money, you can buy items that increase your stats and give you experience points right at the beginning of the game. On my last couple play-throughs I took advantage of this and it made the game incredibly easy.

The music is top-notch. Anamanaguchi put together the soundtrack, and it’s what they were born for. If you enjoy chiptune music, I’d recommend buying SPvTW:TG‘s soundtrack, whether you’ve played the game or not.

Paul Robertson did a great job with the art in the game, too. He posts things he’s currently working on at his LiveJournal, but don’t click around too much if you’re not ready for some NSFW sprite action. His website is also interesting (and NSFW). It’s easy to see why he was the guy put in charge of the art for this game.

With all these amazing ingredients put together, it’s a bit of a shame that SPvTW:TG launched with so many bugs left unsquashed. In a single play-through I experienced things like game freezes, enemies not appearing on screen (which prevented me from progressing), and trophies not unlocking when they should, not to mention the ability to effectively max out your character at the beginning of the game, which I mentioned above. These bugs don’t have a huge impact on how fun the game is, but they’re definitely significant.

Despite the glitches and bugs present in the game (which have allegedly been fixed by a recent patch), Scott Pilgrim still makes for an immensely fun game. It would have been nice to see some more unlockable characters, and less bugs when the game came out (and people were still excited about it), but I’d still place it as one of the best games to come out this year.

This review is Day 30 of the December Review Nukestravaganza.