lost
08-24-2010, 12:30 PM
Title: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The
Platform: XBLA/PSN
Platform Reviewed: XBLA
Developer: Ubisoft (http://www.ubisoft.com/)
Publisher: Ubisoft (”http://www.ubisoft.com”)
MSRP: 800 points / $9.99
Writer: Martin 'lost' Perry
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Review
Beep boop beep. Bet you don’t know what that means do you?
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is one of the last big summer movies for me, its release being slightly delayed on my side of the pond. Reviews have been pretty good, and despite Mr. Evil Avatar’s trollin’ I’m really looking forward to it. After those first trailers at E3, I was really looking forward to this XBLA/PSN tie-in release too, brought to us by Ubisoft, and I’m happy to say that it confidently delivers a quirky, unique take on a classic gameplay formula – but with a couple of black marks against its record.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/scottpilgrim_1.jpg
First off, we’ll address the visual style. Using 16-bit style graphics, the game recreates a Genesis/SNES era beat-em-up, like a Double Dragon or a Streets of Rage. Of course, the teenage protagonist and the three friends you can also play as, aren’t quite as muscley as the likes of Axel and Blaze, and the game takes on a more cartoon-ish style that closely mirrors the artwork of the books. The opening level is a standard city street, with very little out-of-the-ordinary or exciting. Moving on from the first stage you’ll journey to film sets, face-off against giant robots on rooftops and explore some rather bizarre bonus back-doors through levels.
Each of these stages, in their pixel-covered goodness, ends with you facing off against one of the ‘7 Evil Exes’ that make up the storyline of the movie, and the game. Each has their own style and power, from gothic magic wielders to mutant muscle-men, and brings the tricks of the trade to the final battles. Failure or success in these scenarios is usually going to be determined by the stats of your character. Defeating the more standard enemies, even if they range from ninjas to robot-men, releases coinage onto the floor around you; coinage that you’ll want to gather up quickly if you fancy your chances of getting through the seven stages the game offers.
Shops are scattered around each stage, although you’ll find yourself returning to the first, and most clearly marked one most often I imagine, and entering into to them serves up an eclectic mix of books, snacks or oddities. Their vague descriptions should hopefully guide you towards increasing your damage resistance, speed, damage dealt or power-move ability. After having my ass kicked, several times, by the first ‘evil ex’ I quickly decided to put all of my eggs in the strength basket, leaving the rest till later, allowing me to dispatch him with a bit more ease.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/scottpilgrim_2.jpg
This upgrade system is really the only meat spread around the basic beat-em-up bones and may or may not fall apart depending on how you want to play the game. On the second night of playing, I sat in the Evil Avatar IRC and grinded the first level repeatedly, maxing out most of the four categories and making myself something of a titan. I didn’t mind, the charming visuals and pleasing combat mechanics masking the repetition, but I began to wonder if my behaviour would actually be a necessity rather than a preference. Were you to slowly progress, gradually upgrade as you struggle through the levels, the difficulty level may well crush your desire to enjoy all of those exciting levels ahead of you.
The final piece of the upgrade puzzle is the level-up system. Upon defeating your enemy you are, in classic style, awarded experience points which eventually boost you to the next level. While not increasing your stats, this serves to unlock additional moves to add to your limited arsenal of quick and strong punches and kicks. Eventually you’ll be able to cancel falls, headbutt and throw opponents before eventually unlocking a firey uppercut as you reach the level cap. This feels infinitely more rewarding than the shop/reward scheme and, if my concerns of monotony or players being able to break the difficult actually hold true, may well have avoided those problems.
Truth be told, whether I have these concerns or not, you’re unlikely to hear about any of it from your other online friends. Despite the game being completely geared towards co-operative play, battling through with your pixelated friends, the developers have omitted online multiplayer. This feels like a massive hole in the game’s feature set, and everybody you tell will problem cry out in anger. I got really into the single-player experience, enjoying the grinding and the gradually more varied combat system, but I’d imagine that plenty of players would walk straight into this title wanting, nay expecting, to be able to play with your friends over the interwebs. You can’t. Remember it.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/scottpilgrim_3.jpg
I’m not entirely sure I’ve really captured how fun this game is within the content of this review. I want to re-iterate it to be really sure – Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an extremely fun game. The quirky design, graphics and the endless chip music brings back memories of a better time while still offering something contemporary and cool by modern standards. The simplicity and speed of the combat system, and being able to pull off some pretty impressive move combinations, is probably key to this. It’s price is right, you’ve got about 4 hours of cool content, and the game will make you smile while humming along to the excellent music. I’m not sure I can ask an awful lot more of an ‘Arcade’ title.
Score: 4 out of 5
http://evavhost.com/public/4.gif
The Good Great visuals, great music, and overall level of style that you rarely see in gaming. A quality combat system with pace and excitement in equal volume. Quirky, interesting and surprisingly varied levels.
The Bad The upgrade system is useful and adds depth but could be abused. Grinding breaks the difficulty level, even up to the last level.
The Ugly No online multiplayer. Bad.
Platform: XBLA/PSN
Platform Reviewed: XBLA
Developer: Ubisoft (http://www.ubisoft.com/)
Publisher: Ubisoft (”http://www.ubisoft.com”)
MSRP: 800 points / $9.99
Writer: Martin 'lost' Perry
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Review
Beep boop beep. Bet you don’t know what that means do you?
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is one of the last big summer movies for me, its release being slightly delayed on my side of the pond. Reviews have been pretty good, and despite Mr. Evil Avatar’s trollin’ I’m really looking forward to it. After those first trailers at E3, I was really looking forward to this XBLA/PSN tie-in release too, brought to us by Ubisoft, and I’m happy to say that it confidently delivers a quirky, unique take on a classic gameplay formula – but with a couple of black marks against its record.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/scottpilgrim_1.jpg
First off, we’ll address the visual style. Using 16-bit style graphics, the game recreates a Genesis/SNES era beat-em-up, like a Double Dragon or a Streets of Rage. Of course, the teenage protagonist and the three friends you can also play as, aren’t quite as muscley as the likes of Axel and Blaze, and the game takes on a more cartoon-ish style that closely mirrors the artwork of the books. The opening level is a standard city street, with very little out-of-the-ordinary or exciting. Moving on from the first stage you’ll journey to film sets, face-off against giant robots on rooftops and explore some rather bizarre bonus back-doors through levels.
Each of these stages, in their pixel-covered goodness, ends with you facing off against one of the ‘7 Evil Exes’ that make up the storyline of the movie, and the game. Each has their own style and power, from gothic magic wielders to mutant muscle-men, and brings the tricks of the trade to the final battles. Failure or success in these scenarios is usually going to be determined by the stats of your character. Defeating the more standard enemies, even if they range from ninjas to robot-men, releases coinage onto the floor around you; coinage that you’ll want to gather up quickly if you fancy your chances of getting through the seven stages the game offers.
Shops are scattered around each stage, although you’ll find yourself returning to the first, and most clearly marked one most often I imagine, and entering into to them serves up an eclectic mix of books, snacks or oddities. Their vague descriptions should hopefully guide you towards increasing your damage resistance, speed, damage dealt or power-move ability. After having my ass kicked, several times, by the first ‘evil ex’ I quickly decided to put all of my eggs in the strength basket, leaving the rest till later, allowing me to dispatch him with a bit more ease.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/scottpilgrim_2.jpg
This upgrade system is really the only meat spread around the basic beat-em-up bones and may or may not fall apart depending on how you want to play the game. On the second night of playing, I sat in the Evil Avatar IRC and grinded the first level repeatedly, maxing out most of the four categories and making myself something of a titan. I didn’t mind, the charming visuals and pleasing combat mechanics masking the repetition, but I began to wonder if my behaviour would actually be a necessity rather than a preference. Were you to slowly progress, gradually upgrade as you struggle through the levels, the difficulty level may well crush your desire to enjoy all of those exciting levels ahead of you.
The final piece of the upgrade puzzle is the level-up system. Upon defeating your enemy you are, in classic style, awarded experience points which eventually boost you to the next level. While not increasing your stats, this serves to unlock additional moves to add to your limited arsenal of quick and strong punches and kicks. Eventually you’ll be able to cancel falls, headbutt and throw opponents before eventually unlocking a firey uppercut as you reach the level cap. This feels infinitely more rewarding than the shop/reward scheme and, if my concerns of monotony or players being able to break the difficult actually hold true, may well have avoided those problems.
Truth be told, whether I have these concerns or not, you’re unlikely to hear about any of it from your other online friends. Despite the game being completely geared towards co-operative play, battling through with your pixelated friends, the developers have omitted online multiplayer. This feels like a massive hole in the game’s feature set, and everybody you tell will problem cry out in anger. I got really into the single-player experience, enjoying the grinding and the gradually more varied combat system, but I’d imagine that plenty of players would walk straight into this title wanting, nay expecting, to be able to play with your friends over the interwebs. You can’t. Remember it.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/scottpilgrim_3.jpg
I’m not entirely sure I’ve really captured how fun this game is within the content of this review. I want to re-iterate it to be really sure – Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an extremely fun game. The quirky design, graphics and the endless chip music brings back memories of a better time while still offering something contemporary and cool by modern standards. The simplicity and speed of the combat system, and being able to pull off some pretty impressive move combinations, is probably key to this. It’s price is right, you’ve got about 4 hours of cool content, and the game will make you smile while humming along to the excellent music. I’m not sure I can ask an awful lot more of an ‘Arcade’ title.
Score: 4 out of 5
http://evavhost.com/public/4.gif
The Good Great visuals, great music, and overall level of style that you rarely see in gaming. A quality combat system with pace and excitement in equal volume. Quirky, interesting and surprisingly varied levels.
The Bad The upgrade system is useful and adds depth but could be abused. Grinding breaks the difficulty level, even up to the last level.
The Ugly No online multiplayer. Bad.