Timed coincidently with the DVD release of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the price of the downloadable game was slashed by 50% on XBOX Live. By the time you’re reading this, you’re too late to take advantage of the deal, but I was quick enough to snag it.
Whether you pick it up for 400 or 800 Microsoft points, you’re getting a pretty good beat ’em up. That is, if you’re still looking to play this style of game (and are willing to put up with some annoying quirks).
I’m not that well versed in the Scott Pilgrim universe, but I know enough to recognize that the graphics (and most of the game’s story) is based around the graphic novels rather than the movie. The retro-inspired graphics look great and stay fairly true to the source material. The music also draws heavily from the early days of chip-tune music with varying results. At it’s best it’s good, but the quality isn’t even. Some of the Asian-inspired tracks towards the middle of the game in particular didn’t rub me the right way.
The core beat ’em up mechanics behind Scott Pilgrim are really well done. Walking to the right (or gasp, left) and beating enemies up is a lot of fun. There’s more to the fighting than mindlessly mashing the attack button. You have a light attack, a heavy attack, the ability to block, and the ability to do unique moves through simple button combos.
There are four different characters to choose from, who each have unique skill sets. Character development is a big part of the game as well, because the game has a level-up system that grants you new moves. You also have the ability to go into shops and buy products that will improve your strength, health and more. This element of the game is clearly inspired by River City Ransom, a title that more games should draw inspiration from.
The game supports up to 4-player co-op locally. Having that option is awesome, but not having the option to play this game online with others flat-out sucks. This game would work perfect online, but it doesn’t support online play whatsoever. My brother played through it together and it was still fun. Where this game is going to stumble for you is if you don’t have anyone else to play with locally.
There’s a number of reasons for this. For one, it’s hard. You will regularly run into situations where your character isn’t quite leveled-up enough to handle the competition and you’ll die. When you build up enough experience and upgrades, you’ll be able to get through on another play-through, but getting through this game unscathed is downright impossible. To make things more difficult for a solo adventurer, you don’t have a second player there to revive you when you run out of health. It’s probably for the best that you find a few friends to play this with.
There is one frustrating aspect of the game that having multiple friends will not save you from. The pacing of this game is really weird and actually works against your enjoyment of the game. There are seven levels in the game, all of which feel excessively long. Assuming you don’t die, each level is going to take at least 20 minutes to get through. For a beat ’em up, that’s crazy long.
The biggest stumbling block is that the game has no checkpoints whatsoever. If you die at a boss, you need to play through the entire level again. What’s even more frustrating is that you’ll likely end up in a situation where you’ll know you don’t have enough lives to get through a level. Instead of valiantly fighting to the end, it’s usually in your best interest to just let the computer kill you at the start of a level so that you can start with full health and a full set of lives.
Weird pacing issues and lack of online play aside, I think this game is at least worth powering through one afternoon with your buddies when they come over. At 400 Microsoft points, I feel like I got my money’s worth. Your enjoyment at whatever price you pay for it will ultimately depend on your interest in beat ’em ups and your ability to get people to play with you on the couch.
In Third Person 