It has been a while, but Scott Pilgrim, the dude who doesn’t want to grow up, is back for his first videogame adventure since Scott Pilgrim vs The World: the Game a whopping 16 years ago. This time it’s Tribute helming the project, the same team that gave us the amazing Marvel’s Cosmic Invasion just a few months ago and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge in 2022. In other words, Scott Pilgrim EX isn’t just a tribute, it’s a banger.

Available On: Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Switch
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: Tribute Games
Published By: Tribute Games

In terms of the overall Scott Pilgrim universe, this game is a sequel to the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Netflix series, which itself is a spin-off of the original graphic novel. It also doesn’t have any connection to the movie, which was based on the graphic novel. It’s a little confusing where it fits in the timeline since it ignores the graphic novel but also kind of doesn’t, but to be honest, it doesn’t matter – you’ll be fine even if you aren’t all that knowledgable about Scott and Ramona.

And then there’s the older game, Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game, which was made and published by Ubisoft. Technically, this newer title has absolutely nothing to do with it, but as soon as you pick up the controller it feels incredibly familiar – stat upgrades, buying food and videotapes, the visuals, bits of the combat system. And that’s because Jonathan Lavigne, Jean-François Major, and Justin Cyr, who worked on the original Scott Pilgrim game at Ubisoft Montreal and Chengdu, went on to found Tribute Games.

The result is that Scott Pilgrim EX is a better version of Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game. If you liked the original, you’re most likely going to enjoy the spiritual follow-up. And there ends the review.

Wait. Sorry, no. There’s more.

Basically somebody has been screwing around with time, and the resulting mess means there’s time-travellers floating around and weird alternate dimension rifts, so now demons and other nonsense are walking around town like baffled tourists. Scott and the gang have to fix this by locating the lost members of Scott’s band and their instruments, as well as finding riffs to use to unlock new areas. Oh, and there’s a load of bosses to kick the crap out of, too. Like Miss Casa Vania.

Really, that’s it for story and that’s fine. As a side-scrolling brawler, I’m not here for narrative depth. I just want a basic plot sketched out in crayon, and a bunch of things to punch. Scott Pilgrim EX delivers on both.

The game’s roster spans a total of 7 characters: Scott Pilgrim and his girlfriend Ramona Flowers, Roxie, Gideon, Lucas Lee, Robot-01 and Mathew Pattel. While you can’t hot-swap between them on the fly, you can head back to the gang’s house at almost any time and switch to someone else if you fancy a change. And up to three other people can hop in for some local and online co-op brawling action.

The game does a good job at making each character feel different in terms of moveset, so you’ll quickly pick out a favourite. I normally veer away from the big, hulking brute, but found myself gravitating toward Lucas Lee and his love of hitting people in the face with a skateboard.

But let’s talk brawling, because this is a straight retro modern brawler, another entry in the mega-resurgence that just keeps on delivering banger after banger.

If you leave the difficulty dialled down you can merrily button-mash your way through the hundreds of chumps, robots and vegan chumps lining the streets. Yes, you read that right: robots, vegans and demons are your main foes. A simple light attack is mixed in with a sort of heavy attack that can modified based on the direction you’re holding, then you have a grab button in case you want to toss some fools. Each character also has a special move that’s good for dealing with crowds of enemies.

As you ramp up the difficulty, the more advanced systems start to come into play. Each character has a couple of different tech attacks and moves based combining a direction input with the correct button, plus strong and fast finishers. There’s an interesting hop attack that fires up with some invicibility frames, basically letting you ignore an enemy attack and give ’em a quick smack in the face. On top of that, there’s charged attacks, weapons to pick up, blocking, wake-up moves, parrying and more.

Oh, and there’s an assist if you fancy calling in someone to help out. These can range from bringing in Lucas Lee’s stunt team to stun everyone to Gideon the Cat going tearing across the screen.

It’s not the deepest combat system despite what it might seem like when reading the description. However, it strikes a good balance between being a button-mashing good time, and still having depth for people who want to ramp up the difficulty and show off a little.

Speaking of the difficulty, though, I did find the game’s balancing to be a little off. As you play, you level up which in turn bumps up stats, plus you can purchase a bunch of stuff that gives you temporary and even permanent buffs. The way this is balanced means when you first fire up the game, it’s actually got a decent challenge, but it doesn’t take long before your power level ramps up and toward the end you’ll be smashing through everything like you’ve been hitting the steroids. It gets more insane because New Game+ keeps all your money, so you can hop over to a new character and spend a load to superpower their stats.

Structurally, this game ditches the linear format we often see and instead Tribute has given us an interconnected world filled with quests. You run back and forth between areas depending on where the story needs you to be, occasionally finding shortcuts and opening up new sections.

Since you spend so much time jogging back and forth the map, frequenly revisiting areas you’ve been to, you become intimately familiar with Toronto, whether it’s the sunny beach hiding a miniature ice age or the shopping district which you’ll frequently stop by to purchase healing or permanent stat increases.

On the other hand, the backtracking and the fairly button-bashing combat style does leave the game suffering from a serious sense of repetition. That’s doubled when you consider that this style of game is really meant to be replayed with different characters. If you enjoy speedrunning, it’s a good setup as each run will probably take 1-2 hours, with a Trophy/Achievement available for doing it in 90-minutes.

In the end, on repeat playthroughtsI found myself sprinting through most areas, ignoring the enemies so I could just get to the next major fight rather than spending all my time dealing with minions. And in fairness, the game is clearly designed with this in mind because certain areas and events lock you into the scene until everybody is beaten up or the objective is achieved, whereas when you’re just in the world, you can ignore enemies unless you want to farm cash.

But while things can be a little repetitive, the presentation never stops being awesome. Whether it be eyeballs or earholes, both will be pleased by what Scott Pilgrim EX is putting out. Paul Robertson, lead artist and animator for the original game, returned for EX, as did Anamanaguchi for the soundtrack. Both deliver on every level. The game looks freaking amazing, capturing the 16-bit vibe, the original game and the newer Netflix show. And that soundtrack? I’m in lesbians with it, and yes, that’s a Scott Pilgrim vs The World movie reference, so stop writing that angry comment.

Scott Pilgrim EX is exactly what it looks like: a loving throwback to the original game, but polished, expanded and given a few modern touches. The combat is satisfying, the roster is fun to experiment with and the pixel art and music are an absolute knockout.

Sure, the balancing gets a little wonky once your stats start climbing, and the backtracking can make things feel repetitive on longer sessions. But when you’ve got a few friends on the couch or online and you’re beating the stuffing out of vegan henchmen while Anamanaguchi blasts away in the background, it’s hard to complain too much.

If you loved Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game, then Scott Pilgrim EX is basically the sequel you’ve been waiting fifteen years for. I don’ think it quite stands at the top of the modern retro brawler renaissance, but it’s pretty damn close.