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This review was submitted by Ben Carey. If you’ve played Scott Pilgrim, or just want to ask Ben more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (PSN)
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is a videogame, based off a film, based off a comic, based off videogames. (Did someone say Inception?) If that doesn’t confuse the hell out of you and, in turn, make you want to play this gem of a game, I don’t know what will! Actually, that’s a lie; just see the film and you’ll know what the fuss is about.
Loved
Retro Style Graphics: The sad truth is that nowadays almost everything is about graphics. Developers are obsessed with making water look more realistic, making grass react properly to gusts of wind, and making Lara Croft’s butt look more appealing by adding yet another million polygons to the model. It’s refreshing to play a game where the visuals are used solely because they are right for the game, as opposed to many 3D games which use hyper-realistic graphics just because they can. The 8-bit sprites are super awesome; the colour palette is perfect; and the animations are right on money.
Combat: The combat is excitingly reminiscent of old arcade games. It’s extremely fun to play, especially when you’re ‘in the zone’ racking up 65-hit combos. You can play by yourself or you can get three of your friends round and get some serious 8-bit carnage going on.
Value: The game is small (it took me about six hours to complete), but it has a lot of replay value. There are four different characters to play as, each with their own attacks, and three difficulties to complete the game on. There are also two bonus modes: Survival Horror/Zombie Mode, where you must survive as long as you can against hordes of Zombies, and Boss Mode, where you have to defeat the bosses one after another as quick as possible.
References: I am a big fan of references, but most of the time you don’t see them in video games; they are usually reserved for films. Games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, and Alex the Kidd have been referenced within the gameplay, much to my excitement. The reason I have only mentioned Mega Drive related games is because I was a Sega kid, but I’m sure there’s a bunch of Nintendo and maybe even Atari references in there which I didn’t pick upon.
Hated
Tough Learning Curve: I felt like the learning curve was a bit steep. Granted, the first levels are probably a lot easier than they could be, but I still felt like maybe they could have thrown in a level or two where you just comprehensively kick arse for a while, until you know the ropes. It does get easier as you level your characters up, but just to start with I found it a little tricky.
Lack of Online Gameplay: It doesn’t bother me as much as it does some people, but it would have been a nice feature to have included.
In summary: read the comic, see the film, play the game, become legend.
Reviewed by: Ben Carey
You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 500 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.
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