Scott Pilgrim EX

...Quite a short game. My playthrough was a little over 3 hours, and for the price of slightly over 20 bucks I paid for it via discount, I felt I did not get my moneys worth. The combat is okay, nothing spectacular for a beat-em-up. The levels are small and, well, don't contain much. They were actually quite boring tbh. Compared to the previous Scott Pilgrim game, this one let me down. I can't recommend this even with friends, because there really is not much content to play with.

This review is solely based on a single player playthrough as just Scott. The game is similar and different from the original Vs. The World game. I don't know my beat-em-ups fyi. Game has vs.theworldcharacter building/rpg mechanics, but instead of a typical scroll right gameplay loop, it's a map with smaller arenas you fight in. Apparently this is more like Kunio-kun. and in this way, the stat-based gameplay is more fun. But this game is a little bit more easier than vstheworld in some ways. vs.theworld was about recognizing each enemy type's attack patterns. EX has this with the smaller enemies, I was just able to decimate them before they could pull off their attacks lmao. Bosses are fun, I guess better than vstheworld. Story is fun. It's a bit "random" with it, and I wouldn't say it's "laugh out loud" funny like the books or movie or show, but like vstheworldthegame, it's more about references to other games and Scott Pilgrim the Franchise in general. (Sadly, Scott doesn't have a Ranceian ending like vstheworldthegame). Cutscenes are cute for sure. But, the presentation of them do kinda feel budget-title-y. The textbox "portraits" are just the player sprite heads, which feels like a missed opportunity. The game world is so vibrant and moving and bouncy, which makes the static enemy art feel out of place. But that's all minor gripes. All I really want to say is that you might not be "wowed" by the story or cutscenes. Mileage my vary. What I DO dislike is cutscenes being unskippable. The game can be HARD, sometimes in an unfair way depending on your control of the characters (skill issue). So clicking through a 2-minute cutscene 5 times over can really suck. The save system, where you might have to trek back through 5 minutes of gameplay to get back to where you were when you died is totally fine imo, but unskippable cutscenes irked me as I learned the bosses and battles. Art and music is outstanding. Might be a main draw for a lot of people, especially fans of vstheworldthegame, or of just probertson and anamanaguchi in general. It's just nice that this game exists, and I know we probably can't expect a sequel, but I'd really like more of this beyond playthroughs with other characters and multiplayer (I'm excited to try!)