Scott Pilgrim vs the World review

If you liked Castle Crashers, you will probably love Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Here is a random screen shot of the game I found on Flickr.  Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a side scoller arcade style beat'em up game

In a previous post I made, I started playing through Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and already beat the game at least once (with my first character of choice being Scott, after all he is the main protaganist), and would be happy to share with you what I know about the game.

Story:

The game is based on the movie/book where Scott develops a crush on a girl he meets named, Ramona, and he decides to start dating her (ending a former relationship he had with Knives).   However, Ramona's 7 evil ex boyfriends don't like the relationship between her and Scott, and it is up to Scott, along with his sidekicks, Kim Pine, Stephen Stills, Knives Chau, and even Ramona her self to battle through 7 unique levels and defeat all 7 of Ramona's evil ex boyfriends (which make up the official boss fights for this game, with Gideon being the final boss of the game) along with the hordes of interesting cronies they send after the protaganists.  There are plenty of pixelated clipscenes too, usually with Scott making love with Ramona between levels, as well as other events that take place.  Note: I haven't seen the movie nor read the book yet, so I wouldn't know much about the movie version of this game, so I wouldn't be able to make any comparisons between the game and the movie version.

Things I liked about Scott Pilgrim vs the World:

• I liked the arcade style game play (similar to games like X-men, Castle Crashers, Ninja Turtles, etc)
• Lots of special moves you can acquire
• The leveling up system is great.  Allows your character to get stronger and stronger, which is pretty useful to have as you play through the game as the levels do get progressively harder as you play through the game. 
• Lots of colorful levels.  The first level has you playing in suburban landscape of Toronto, Ontario (I've never been to Toronto myself, so I wouldn't know how accurate the picture is from the game).  I've doing a replay through the game, this time playing through the game as Kim (yes, I am playing through the game in order, starting with Scott, and ending with Ramona, and Kim is the second player I decided to play as).
• High replay value, especially if you want to play the game as the other characters as well, though the story doesn't seem to change too much on the other characters.
• Epic boss battles.  Yes you will face a good number of boss fights through the game, mostly in the form of the 7 ex boyfriends that Scott and his comrades are up against, each with their own unique characters, strenghs and weakenesses.  By the way, the bosses don't have health bars as you would find in Castle Crashers, the bosses do start flashing (similar to the ones in X-men and Ninja Turtles) when their health meter runs low.  By the way, the higher your level is, the easier it will be to take them out.
• Like Castle Crashers, you can either go solo or play with up to 4 of your buddies.  I've been going solo myself, but it seems to be fun on 4 player too.  By the way, if you think the game is too easy, you can always crank up the difficulty level to the game more challenging. 

Things I didn't like about Scott Pilgrim vs the World:

• The game is a bit short.  The game is only 8 levels long, and you could proably beat the game within a few sittings (you probably won't be able to beat the whole game in one shot since the levels are usually long, but you could probably beat the game within a few days).  On the positive note, you will probably want to play through the game several times as the other characters as well.
• Some of the moves can be tricky to master.  For example, when you use the "counter" move that you can acquire as you level up, the timing can be pretty tricky.  It is a powerful move of course as you can easily devastate enemies and bosses that way when performed correctly, but you are bound to miss a bunch of times and take a good beating when you do miss. 
• Some of the enemies do get repetitive as you will find yourself facing hordes of look alike enemies in the levels.
• Some of the special attacks could be more useful.  For example, if you play as Kim, her special "attack" is to summon some girl (probably Knives), kiss her and gain 15 health points (similar to the King's heal move in Castle Crashers).  In Scott's mode, sometimes you can get more powerful special attacks, but they happen at random.  The best special attack I found is the one when you press the RB button and your guy does a radial attack (such as Kim's spin kick attack). 

Anyways, despide the short comings, Scott Pilgrim vs the world is a pretty fun arcade style game, and this game is bound to be popular among people who liked Castle Crashers as it does have a similar feel to it. 

Fun things you can do in Scott Pilgrim:
- Some levels have special stages you can visit and earn easy coins and power ups.  Sometimes they allow you to skip difficult parts of a level (for example, in level 1, you will be able to bypass the "snowball" fight section if you take the first special stage that you can enter through a hidden doorway).
- Playing the game "Battletoads Style".  One thing you can do on multiplayer mode is to turn on the "friendly fire mode" and if you get tired of fighting bad guys and want to mess around, you can always turn on each other and beat up your buddies.  By the way, if you play as a high level character and your buddy plays as a low level character (for example, I play as Scott at level 16, and you play as Stephen at level 1), your high level character will have an unfair advantage over the other and can easily take out the lower level players.  Did that once myself, playing as Scott (level 16) and having another player play as Kim (level 1) and even one hit on her is brutal on her health.  Even a counter attack proved to be instant death for her too as I found out.  Anyways, it does make the game funner.  Note: if you are trying to beat the game, I recommend you leave "friendly fire" mode off, otherwises if your buddy gets in your way as you beat up bad guys, he or she may take the brunt of the attack as well. 
- Revisiting previous levels.  In Scott Pilgrim vs the World, if you want, you can always revisit levels you were at previously and not only level up more, but do things you couldn't do the first time.  I find playing through level one more than once pretty fun to do.  By the way, as your character makes more money, he/she can buy more expensive items, such as paying "Scott's Late fees" and unlocking some hidden powerups (such as extra lives) that you can buy later.  Also, early level bosses get progressively easier to take out on replays too, usually taking less hits to defeat than they did when you faced them the first time.

Tips and tricks for playing Scott Pilgrim:
- be sure to save up money your character earns as he/she can use it to buy food (replinishes your health, gut points, etc), powerups (such as items that raise your defenses, level, etc), as well as other useful items.
- Be sure to take advantage of moves you unlock as you level up, as the make fighting foes much easier.
- Try to master the art of "countering", especially when facing tough enemies.  If you get their pattern down, you can block their attacks more easily and unleash devestating attacks on them.
- It is helpful to have lots of lives on hand when facing tough boss fights and long levels (especially when you face Gideon, which comes in the form of 3 different boss fights as well as areas that seprate the 3 boss fights).
-  If it is your first time playing through the game, or find the game to be too difficult, I recommend you play the game on the "Average Joe mode" (the easiest mode in the game).  Playing on the harder modes is recommended for more experienced players unless if you want an extra challenge when playing the game.
- Take advantage of items you can use as weapons, such as brooms, swords, etc as they are pretty useful when it comes to tougher enemies, as well when faced with hordes.
- Don't be afraid to use the special attacks when needed, such as the radial attack move your guy has when surrounded by enemies.
- Some levels are much easier played on 2+ player mode (such as the Bus/Japanese garden level). 
- Be sure to buy items like CD's, books, wristbands, etc if you can afford them as they help your character's stats greatly, and can also help you to level up more.
- Most bosses have patterns to them, and can be easy to master (similar to boss fights in most Mega Man games).

Thinking about getting Scott Pilgrim vs the World?  You can buy and download it on Xbox Live.  If you don't have Xbox Live Points, you can always either buy them on Xbox live or get the game cards you can find either online or in stores.

By the way, need Xbox live points, here is a 4000 point card I found at Amazon you might like: