Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game

Be it from the kneecap of the ultimate 'Street Fighter' or screamed from the mouths of the worlds' most loveable loser, there's something undeniably satisfying about hearing the letters 'K!' and 'O!' declared in quick succession. It's clear in Edgar Wright's new visionary spectacular Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World that the token letters of victory in the glory days of gaming put his hairs on edge, and a feature that has been suitably exaggerated for the game of the same name...albeit with The Game added on.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game is the game based on the film based on the books based on games following the exploits of the jobless, ambitionless, senseless bassist of the same name. When the girl of his dreams Ramona Flowers suddenly becomes a reality, all of his non-existent hopes and ambitions have to wait even longer to come into fruition when 'love' takes over...at a price. In order to earn Ramona's heart, he must defeat her seven evil-exes in ecstasy fuelled, pop-culture driven fights to the death.

Everything to do with mise-en-scene, emotional trauma and well written dialogue built for the upcoming film takes a back seat and rests upon the simple back-story. Everything from the narrative to the 16-bit pixelated graphics and bleeping soundtrack is taken back to basics, yet with a dense dollop of charismatic charm.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game mixes Streets Of Rage with Saturday morning telly to offer a side-scrolling beat-'em-up that could rival the infamous Castle Crashers. Thwacking away at hoards of enemies with nothing but two buttons and a specially designed super attack for each character is fun even on the 1000th smack.

Though it's so characteristically retro it is in danger of being repetitive from the off, there's enough graphical charm, cutesy humour and games/anime references to make it a joyride on a spray can jet pack. Though the hand of the feature film's director can be seen through the games' production with a fair amount of nods to the movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game actually bears a closer resemblance to the graphic novels that spawned it all. Even with the blockbuster generating the title itself, there are more references to events and characters in the books that the film itself, making it a nice piece for those who have followed the series from the beginning, yet doesn't alienate those who haven't.

There's enough graphical charm, cutesy humour and games/anime references to make it a joyride

The more a player gets addicted to beating up goons, the more they get to level up. Levelling up always guarantees a character a new move, and is used to spice things up a little from the typical light attack to heavy attack. With over 15 moves to learn and all simple to master due to the basic control format, characters can stream together flying kicks, dashing punches and fireballs in the air to make themselves an invulnerable wrecking machine.

Though levels affect moves, they alas don't affect stats that apply to fighting. Defeating an enemy forces them to turn into spare change a la River City Ransom, and this pick-pocket money can be spent on food, books or CDs to increase a characters' base stats. Unfortunately, when the game starts, progression through a level feels about as well-paced and fluid and running through 50 walls of quicksand in succession, followed by a boss fight. It's only when players have grinded a fair amount that the difficulty curve begins to make much sense, and even though a character with full stats may have some troubles getting past the final evil ex, it seems bizarre that they should find the first level a slog worth bruise-'em-up.

Of course, this problem can easily be solved by getting a pal of three to form a posse of comic warriors to beat the living daylights out of the world. The fun you can have with Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World immeadtly heightens with more players, yet things can get ridiculously frantic when heading up against large amounts of enemies. Whatsmore, those who wish to play with friends will have to do it the old fashioned way and invite them around like they're just home from school due to a strange lack of online functions.

Unusual niggles they may be, they're just small itches of doubt. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game hits dangerous ground where it could be declared repetitive, dull and nothing new. Yet it's an undeniable comic charm and satisfying levelling up system which manages to keep its players hooked. Though it may be easy to face defeat to begin with, the game is appealing enough to warrant more and more attempts, virtually begging for the possibilities to improve your character. Though only seven levels in length, it has plenty of replay value to almost be declared a fantastic valued package, if you didn't have to shell out on more controllers for friends.

Review by Phoenix Trigger

Keywords: world, scott, pilgrim, letters