Hello friends. Dan Ryan here, you… there. Thank you so much for checking in and if you like what you see please comment and share. A bit of a cheat this month for the 8-Bit Blockbusters post as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game didn't come out in September, it was actually August of 2010. And look, I know you're disappointed at the lack of journalistic integrity on display here which is warranted but honestly, well... two things. One, there aren't any movies with anniversaries in September this year with game counterparts and two, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is just flat-out awesome and deserves to be talked about. So with that out of the way, submitted for your approval this is 8-Bit Blockbusters: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game.

Originally released between August 2004 and July 2010 Scott Pilgrim is a series of six black and white graphic novels by Canadian comic book creator Bryan Lee O'Malley. The story centers around the titular Scott Pilgrim who is dating a high schooler… at the beginning anyway. Scott is an everyman going through a bad break up, meandering through life and relationships until he meets the newly transplanted Ramona Flowers, an American delivery girl living in Toronto who just so happens to have super powers and seven evil exes. Scott falls hard for Ramona and gets into absolutely epic fights with her exes in an effort to be the hero we all want to be for someone else. It’s a brilliant series chockablock with references to movies, television, video games, comics, and just about anything else someone reading this post could want. I absolutely adored this series as it was coming out. It was one of those pieces of pop culture that I put into as many hands as I could. If you’ve never read the source material and are only familiar with the movie and/or game that is 100% a problem you should remedy immediately if not sooner.

The film adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim series, titled Scott Pilgrim vs. The World after the second of the six volumes, hit theaters on August 13th, 2010. Featuring an all star cast of Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman, and THE Aubrey Plaza and being written and directed by Edgar Wright there was no way this movie could flop. Except, it flopped, hard. The movie made a total of $51.7 million at the box office compared to its budget of $85 million, a veritable disaster. And honestly, I cannot for the life of me understand why. Here you have a film starring Michael Cera, not my favorite actor ever but someone who had been in hits like Superbad, Winstead who had also been in some big time flicks, and Edgar Wright fresh off Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This should have been a massive hit but for whatever reason it just never caught on. It is an incredibly faithful, comic book movie. There are scenes ripped right from the pages of the book they are based on. The characters could not be more perfectly cast. It is funny, charming, heartbreaking, and hopeful. The direction is amazing with action set pieces that rival any action movie you compare them to. It’s a visual treat, a phrase I don’t like typing because it feels contrived but is more than applicable in this case. I love this movie. It is for us, the kids who grew up playing video games and reading comic books and chasing dreams. It is a damn near perfect adaptation, something not easily achievable especially when looking at this particular source material. Hell, Superman, Captain Marvel, and Captain America are in the freaking cast! And yet, crickets. If you have never seen this movie I implore you to give it a watch right now. Stop reading, watch the movie, come back and read about the game tie-in, then order something from the site. Something like that handy link below…

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Originally released digitally for the PS3 and Xbox 360 at the same time as the movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. (though we won’t hold that against it) It was delisted from online store fronts in December of 2014 and was unavailable until January 2021 when it was re-released in a complete edition for Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia where it is still available, at the time of this writing anyway. A physical edition was released by Limited Run Games but is now out of production. The game loosely follows the story of the graphic novels. Players could control up to four players locally to fight through the game's seven stages in classic beat ‘em up style. Each character had a unique moveset and various team up moves were available. What really tanked reviews early on however was the somewhat unbelievable lack of online multiplayer or drop-in/drop-out local multiplayer. While online was added in a later DLC, it really skewed initial impressions of the game. Which, like the movie above, is a damn shame. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is not the best beat ‘em up you are ever going to play. It’s a bit short, a bit shallow, and a bit stiff in my opinion. It is not the easiest game ever made and there is a strange amount of grinding required. But, most importantly, it is super fun with multiple people, especially those with a love for the source material and games in general. Like the series and movie, this game is full of references to pop culture in general and video games in particular. You’ll catch references to Mega Man, River City Ransom, and Kirby among others. It’s obvious this game was made with love. You can see it on every screen. The graphics are gorgeous with each sprite animating beautifully. The level design is a spot on representation of the books and looks outstanding in full color. (full color versions of the original graphic novels were not released until 2012) The soundtrack by Anamanguchi is one of the best game soundtracks ever. Simply put, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is a damn good time to kill a few hours with friends. It makes for an interesting double feature with the film and hopefully stays around a lot longer this time around. (a good bet with the new game Scott Pilgrim EX announced)

But I want to know what you think. Join the Stone Age Gamer discord, or you can find me on Bluesky to let me know your thoughts. In the immortal words of Billy Joel, “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.” See you soon.