Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Post-Script.

300 posts in. Where does the time go?

Well, for the last two days, it's been pure XBLA obsession.

The short of it? If you love video games, even just a little bit, by all that is good and holy, get this game.

The long of it.... There are certain games that just get that "tingle" out of you when you power it up for the first time. That little bit of excitement that sets your arm hairs on end, or makes you reminisce about the good old days. For me, it was the arcade at Movieland, our video rental store. I'd go there during middle school and high school to play a lot of fighters, from Street Fighter II to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Sure, we also had Aladdin's Castle and Superfun for a while (remember those?), but that video rental store ate hours of my life.

I reviewed the movie a few posts back due to its heavy referencing of video games. If you read that post, you'll get a sampling of the games mentioned here. From Pac-Man to Mortal Kombat to... they even put in a Guitar Hero moment. The game nods to almost every single classic fighter, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to Golden Axe, to Streets of Rage to River City Ransom to Double Dragon. If you love any of those games, you will absolutely adore this.

This is one of the best brawlers Ubisoft has ever put out. Period. If you ever had the good fortune of playing TMNT for the Game Boy Advance, it's even more competent a brawler than that hidden gem.

The game plays incredibly well. Moves are easy to pull off. The graphics are an odd hybrid between 8 and 16-bit, again heavily harkening to those old arcade glory days. The music (from Anamanaguchi) is utterly incredible. I usually don't really remember a lot of modern gaming music these days, as nothing stands out like say, the Mario theme, or Zelda's Overworld tune. But this... Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has got awesome music.

There's a lot of positives that come with this game, heavily referencing a lot of old-school tropes. I can't remember the last time that I've actually had to input codes with my controller (the Playstation One era, maybe?), and even some boss fights that remind me of Sega's 16-bit Ghostbusters. This game knows its gaming. Amazing that a ton of modes are hidden in the game without having to purchase DLC.

In some ways, it may be a little too old-school. There's no online co-op (in this day and age?), which is unfortunate, but really, it's a minor infraction for all that it offers.

Also, with all of the NES and Nintendo based references, how could this not be released for WiiWare? Seriously? The Wii is more than capable of handling a title like this, and frankly needs this type of game.

I have been completely taken in by this game. It's pure, straight-up awesome wrapped up in a digital download. It's one of those games where the developer "gets it". This doesn't feel like some lazy side marketing project, or a cheap cash-in. This is made by someone who played a ton of games growing up, and they got to fit in all of their favorite moments into one game. This is a perfect brawler.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has made me a happy gamer. Almost as happy as this tasty Sonic the Hedgehog popsicle I got today.

Source: http://thedreadpirateguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/scott-pilgrim-vs-world-post-script.html