Scott Pilgrim vs The World has just turned 10 years old and Ubisoft is celebrating its anniversary with a Complete Edition for PC and consoles. The game, which was abruptly taken off online stores, giving a sad ending to an amazing title. Now, we are back into its retro awesomeness with a revamped edition that will reignite the fire of retro brawlers.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World is developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Chengdu and Pune and published by Ubisoft and is available right now on PC and consoles, including Nintendo Switch and Google Stadia. Sadly, you won’t be able to get it for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series consoles. Back when the original game was released, it was highly praised for its homage to the graphic novel and the movie. We’ve played Scott Pilgrim vs the World: Complete Edition on PC and this is our review.
Story
The story of Ubisoft’s new-ish side-scroller follows the original movie story. Scott has to defeat the seven evil exes of Ramona in order to achieve real love. This doesn’t even begin to explain how random the settings in the game are. You get stages where you have to beat robots or dinosaurs or burning monsters and even paparazzi. Scott Pilgrim is plain in terms of story but we can’t even begin to explain how much gameplay it has packed in its “white shell”.
There’s no need to go into details about the story of Scott Pilgrim too much cause it’s fairly straight-forward. What makes it unique though is the fact that it takes the daily love struggles of a basic teenager and wraps it up with fantasy themes and sci-fi elements along with humor and makes the perfect blend.
Gameplay
As someone who hasn’t played the original game, I first got into it thinking it will be similar to Streets of Rage. However, this doesn’t even come close to what Scott Pilgrim vs The World really is. The game has 7 stages in total, each with its own unique theme and enemies, and hidden areas that you can access and interact with by playing mini-games or purchasing powerups.
Speaking of powerups, you will be amazed to find out that Scott Pilgrim has different playable characters with their own abilities and they level up and get new abilities throughout your playthrough. Yes, Scott Pilgrim has RPG elements you wouldn’t expect they are there.
I’ve played the game solo, which comes as a contradiction to its original couch co-op character and as a result, I struggled to complete the first couple of stages. However, as soon as you get enough coins by defeating enemies and do some leveling up you can easily destroy any upcoming enemy with fun combos.
The same goes for bosses. They might look intimidating at first but the more you level up and progress the easier they become. For what it’s worth, they all have unique designs and are a blast to play against. Who would have thought that a brawler could be so much fun in 2021?
Apart from making the game easier, the RPG elements add replayability to the title and that doesn’t stop there. Apart from the classic story mode, Scott Pilgrim vs The World: Complete Edition comes with a variety of side modes.
This includes a classic online game, a Boss Rush mode, a Survival Horror where you go against enemies until you die, a Battle Royale mode which is available in co-op, and Dodgeball which is a Scott Pilgrim classic. Given the fact that I played the game solo, I wasn’t able to enjoy the extra modes as much as I wanted but with the right teammates, it can turn into a perfect party game.
Scott Pilgrim isn’t only a brawler and RPG though. It also incorporates a few elements of platforming that can either be your most fun or your nightmare. It comes in the form of spikes or huge holes on the ground or huge balls that slide sideways which you must avoid. Personally, I fell into the trap a couple of times but the more you play the easier it becomes to spot them.
Amidst the good though there are some bad elements that are worth mentioning. For starters, I hated the long time it needed for my character to stand up after being knocked down. Having 2 seconds to stand up is too much in my opinion. The same goes for the enemies whenever you knock them down. However, there is a new skill that gives you the ability to continue hitting them while on the ground, so there’s that. Also, I found it hard to navigate the shops whenever I needed to buy something because I could only see their descriptions after I purchase them.
The Scott Pilgrim vs The World: Complete Edition includes all DLC from the original game which includes 2 additional characters and new modes. This adds at least two more playthroughs if you just take the main story into account. If you decide to go co-op, the possibilities are way more.
Audio
One area in which Scott Pilgrim vs The Worlds exceeds is its soundtrack. Even non-retro players will be able to appreciate the amount of work put into its audio background. Each track fits the stage perfectly in its own unique way. I wouldn’t say that it’s one of those playlists that I would listen to even after finishing the game but it got stuck in my brain so hard that I would sing some of its songs all day.
Conclusion
Overall, Scott Pilgrim vs The World Complete edition is everything you should expect from a retro brawler and more. Its gameplay mechanics are easy and fast, its RPG elements are the salt and pepper into the mix and the soundtrack is putting everything together in a perfect way.
I would definitely go back to replay the story with another character given its short playtime and I would recommend it to any retro lover out there. Also, if you haven’t read the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel or seen the movie, you don’t know what you are missing.
