Scott Pilgrim EX Review – Rock On
Scott Pilgrim is a franchise that just keeps on going across different media. Starting as a graphic novel, the series spawned a cult-classic movie, a well-received video game that was once delisted and later revived in a remaster, and an animated reimagining titled Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. While that latter series has seemingly been canceled,
Tribute Games has worked on a brand new game with a completely original story set in that universe with Scott Pilgrim EX.
Get the Band Back Together
Rather than be another adaptation of the source material that we had in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, this game instead is a whole new adventure that is not based on any prior material other than involving the characters. It’s not a reimagining either, as it seems to basically be taking place at some point after some amalgamation of the events of the main story that people know from the graphic novels, movies, and the first game, where Scott had defeated all of Ramona’s evil exes and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
From the start, you can tell just how beautiful Scott Pilgrim EX is, which is no surprise at all considering the pedigree of the game’s developers. Besides the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion that looks gorgeous, the developer is made up of people who worked at Ubisoft on the original Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, which created the look of the graphic novels in game form already and perfected it even further here.
In fact, the game draws one of its many inspirations from series like Mega Man, here by setting it in Toronto in the year 20XX. To start the game, Scott and his band Sex-Bob-Omb are rocking out at band member Stephen Stills’ house when all of a sudden a series of attacks happen and all of the members of the crew, sans Scott, are kidnapped, followed up by a mysterious villain named Mecha Scott showing up. At this point, we don’t even know the connection between these events, as a lot is going on in Toronto at the time too.
This leads Scott into a special basement area seemingly created by Scott’s roommate, Wallace, who was not present when everyone was kidnapped. While he isn’t around himself, an AI version of Wallace has been created that will help you in your journey, including a series of what he calls “tutorials” during the game that essentially lead to fights with Mecha Scott most of the time.
From there, you must go out to try and rescue your friends that have been trapped in various places, including within Riff Rifts that spawn time and space. Not only do you have to rescue your friends, but you must also rescue all of their instruments to use as a way to advance in the game and eventually play a concert at the end.
In a sense, the instruments work as the MacGuffins of Scott Pilgrim EX, where you will be instructed on the map on where to go after each, which you must find and pair with a unique riff that must be played to open the Riff Rifts across Toronto. I really did appreciate how you had to collect the different riff sounds and actually input them yourselves when you learn them and when you use them, as it made me feel nostalgic for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which I have no doubt they were at least somewhat trying to reference by doing so.
Face Your Enemies
Not only do you have to worry about saving your friends, but three enemy factions have popped up around Toronto and are trying to take over: the Robots, the Demons, and the Vegans. All of this seems to be happening as a result of the mysterious G Corp, which has started stirring up trouble, so Scott has a lot of work to do.
By having the three enemy factions in the game, I greatly appreciated just how varied a lot of the enemy designs were, even if there were still some that were just recolored versions of others already in the game. The Robots have some unique looks, with some more standard-looking robots, one that looks like it’s wearing an orange Goku gi, and even a few that look like they were ripped straight out of Mega Man. Then you have the Demons, which feature a unique array of different enemy designs that were some of the most difficult to fight at times as well. Lastly, the Vegans are the only human-based enemy faction in the game and they felt like they were taking direct inspiration from series like Streets of Rage and River City Ransom with their designs. I love how the various enemies definitely were inspired by other series at times, but still felt like their own things here in the game, with the colorful designs and attack patterns.
The different enemies in the game also pair well with the game’s story that has some unknown villains that I’ll keep quiet so you can experience them for yourselves, with a really fun final boss fight that is made up of two parts. We even get a cliffhanger at the end that really has me waiting to learn more, whether that’s in future DLC or even a sequel eventually.
Scott Pilgrim EX’s map is pretty simple to navigate, with it branching off in deeper paths for certain areas. The only time it can really get confusing is when you need to access somewhere within a place where the map icon may be less precise. For instance, there is a point where you have to go to a school to get a new riff to play, but the icon on the map will not have the school in the area. You will have to remember that you accessed the school in that area through a portal found in a magazine inside a shop, so it takes a little bit of thinking.
With the way you are consistently going to find new instruments and riffs to open the Riff Rifts in the game, some parts of the game feel like a Metroidvania, with how you will go back to areas you have already visited to unlock new areas to dive deeper into one section of town that was previously unreachable. The map even lets you know where you need to go next too, which was a big help to make the game not feel bogged down with too much unnecessary traversal.
The combat in Scott Pilgrim EX is similar to what we saw in the past, but it feels more fluid than ever here. You have a fast or strong attack at your disposal, as well as the ability to grab and potentially throw an enemy. From there, you can hold the strong attack button and the throw button to unleash a super attack, which does use of what is known as GP. The GP meter is found just beneath the HP meter in the game, so always keep an eye on that. You can also pull off a fast or strong finisher that expends GP. It’s wise not to use all of your GP up, though, because it has a very useful reason that we’ll discuss a bit later. There are also other more intricate moves within the combat that you can play around with and get the hang of in no time.
As you play through Scott Pilgrim EX, you will work to save your bandmates by completing each of the 12 story quests. These generally consist of a series of smaller fights against hordes or enemies and then culminate with a boss fight. The boss fights are some of the best parts of this game, as there is not a single one that is like the others besides maybe repeat fights against Mecha Scott, but even those change things up as well. These fights can be a grind too, as the enemies before can really whittle down your health and have you in trouble by the time the boss comes across. This often led me to better prepare by making sure I had full health going into the area and having the one usable item you can use to replenish health when you die.
Level Up
If you are finding the game too hard, especially with the waves of enemies and boss fights, Scott Pilgrim EX lets you work towards building up your character to make things a little easier. Not only does the game offer multiple difficulty options to choose from, but you can level up your character in a number of ways. This includes permanent stat boosts that you can get from defeating bosses, random drops in battle, or even as purchases in stores. There are also badges and accessories you can equip to your character after purchasing them in stores, which can be a major help. You are limited in the number of these you can have equipped at a time, so a lot of strategy comes into play with how you want to pick which to use.
Scott Pilgrim EX features seven total characters that you can play as, including the titular Scott, Ramona, and even a number of her exes like Matthew Patel, Lucas Lee, Roxie Richter, and even Robot-01. There is also another character, but you’ll have to play to find out who that one is. Each character has their own stats that you must level up too, so make sure to start with the character you likely plan on doing the entire playthrough with so they will be as leveled up as possible. A good example of this is that my Scott was level 242 by the time I finished my first playthrough, while the rest of the characters were only level 16 by default.
Not only do you have multiple playable characters, but the game also provides you with even more characters as assists in the game. These can be activated in battle by expending GP, with the amount depending on which assist you have equipped. Starting the game, you already have a few assists to choose from, but you will unlock many more as you play through the game and save your friends or defeat certain bosses. Two of the most useful I found were Young Neil’s assist, where he causes a stampede of Sex Bob-omb’s fans that trample the enemies on the screen, and Stephen Stills’ where he will make you invincible for a period of time. Pairing an assist like the latter with the badge Wallace Plush, which drains GP from enemies with each attack, can be really deadly.
Coming up with some helpful combos like this is especially helpful, too, because of the game’s checkpoint placement, which I was not very fond of at times. You’ll see the checkpoint markers while you walk around on the map and all, but there are some of the boss fights that not only have you going back to the beginning of the boss sequence, but also going back a good ways forcing you to backtrack more than you should be in that case just if you happened to lose way into a boss fight sequence.
The game has so many little easter eggs that are nods to things in Scott Pilgrim or just the world in general, as briefly mentioned prior. This is especially evident with the abundance of shops you can visit, including Cold Topic, which specializes in alternate character palettes. One of my favorite references was when Scott’s parents show up randomly in town and mention they just got back from vacation visiting areas with a bunch of zones like Emerald Hill Zone and Casino Night Zone, obvious references to Sonic the Hedgehog.
Music always plays a key part in anything Scott Pilgrim, and the soundtrack in this game is very good. It keep an upbeat tempo throughout the different locales that keep your heart pumping as you are fighting an array of different baddies. There are also some little references in there as well, including one I noticed where the Vegan Police Station’s tune was very reminiscent of the F-Zero theme. Maintaining the classic 16-bit sounding soundtrack was a wise decision here without a doubt.
Scott Pilgrim EX runs very well from my time playing through the game. There was only one point in the game where it glitched out on me and required a restart to return to the last checkpoint. This happened during a section where one of the phases of enemies spawning during a boss area did not continue as it should and instead got stuck between the two phases. Thankfully, this was a one-time occurrence and didn’t cause too many issues.
Verdict
Scott Pilgrim is a property built perfectly for gaming, with its reverence for games throughout. We already saw this before in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, and now Scott Pilgrim EX exemplifies this idea even further. Even though the overall experience is pretty short at only three to four hours, everything packed into Scott Pilgrim EX is a pure joy to play and can be enhanced even further in multiplayer both locally or online.
Pros
- Fluid gameplay with lots of layers
- Exceptional boss fights
- Strategy with pairing of badges, accessories, and assists
- Vibrant colors look like the graphic novel leapt off the page
- Fun playable characters and leveling system
Cons
- Fairly short experience
- Checkpoint system can be a little frustrating at times
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