Scott Pilgrim EX review: "Fantastically crunchy pixel combat is let down by an obsession with repetitive backtracking"

It's fair to say 2010's Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World The Game was the game to spark the beat 'em up revival that led to all-time greats like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. So I was pretty excited to see the game would be getting a sequel with a completely original story and a cast of characters that is way more varied. But despite its great combat, Scott Pilgrim EX sadly feels like it's fallen behind the very renaissance it created.

This time around the members of Toronto's greatest band, Sex Bob-Omb, have been kidnapped by the not-at-all-inspired-by-Sonic-CD Metal Scott, and with three of the playable cast members of the previous game in captivity, Ramona Flowers calls in some favors, with 4 evil exes – and one evil ex's robot – joining forces with Scott and Ramona to save the band.

The EX factor

Scott Pilgrim EX isn't a game too focused on telling you a story, and while it has dialogue written by series author Bryan Lee O'Malley that's as charming, awkward, and funny as you'd expect as a fan of the comic series, but the actual plot is a bit thin, so don't go in expecting major new additions to the lore like with the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off series. Likewise, with gorgeous pixel artwork and animation and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World The Game composers Anamanaguchi returning to do the soundtrack and you have the recipe for something great, but Scott Pilgrim EX is a bit less than the sum of its parts.

The biggest change from the original comes with the cast. While the previous entry had seven characters – just like this one – their differences were somewhat subtle. This time around you have seven unique fighters who feel ripped right out of fighting games which adds a good amount of variety and better represents the personalities of the iconic characters they're attached to.

Scott Pilgrim himself is predictably the game's Ryu (with some moves literally ripped from the Street Fighter legend as a nod) as a nice all rounder, while Matthew Patel focuses on summoning his allies for attacks, and Robot-01 focuses on long-range barrages. I've spent time with all seven, and they all feel great to play, with nice combo potential and satisfying special attacks.

Being a grappler diehard when it comes to fighting games, for my main playthrough I picked Hollywood superstar Lucas Lee, best known for his role as Chris Evans in the film Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Lee hits hard, moves like a tank and can manhandle enemies like nobody's business, mixing in some skateboard-based offense for the love of the game. There's also a good amount of Marvel Vs Capcom-like assists that allow you to utilize a number of special effects from buffing yourself to dealing massive damage to enemies.

One thing I love from brawlers is a good sense of character progression. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and Tribute Games' Shredder's Revenge both did this well, with the ability to level up your characters, which would in turn unlock new moves and keep things fresh throughout the campaign. But, like Marvel Cosmic Invasion last year, Scott Pilgrim EX's progression simply amounts to your stats going up by hoovering up items.

Runnin' through the 6 with my woes

It's a shame that great brawling feels wasted on what amounts to a poor open world and generic mission design. Open worlds can work in beat 'em ups – River City Girls being a great example – so I was keen for Scott Pilgrim EX's take on it, but Toronto is effectively a straight line with a handful of side areas you can go into. While some of them feel like actual beat 'em up levels, others are literally one room you go into to have a scrap and then never again.

Objective design sadly just amounts to fetch quests for the majority of the game. Your first mission tasks you to travel around the map to find a bomb, and most missions after include you either going somewhere to unlock a song, or to find an item and bring it back to where you need to go. I was so tired of the overabundance of backtracking that when reaching the final boss area only to be told I need to explore the map for three more items, it felt almost comedic.

This is compounded with frustrating checkpoints. You can fail a boss fight, and it'll pop you back out at the area before it in the state you entered in. You'll then have to do all of the preceding fights before the boss (with one having a train racing minigame that was fun the first time but too long every other). Plus, if you die out in the world after entering a screen with low health, you'll respawn with the same miniscule health, and any coins you save for items will be lost.

There's also just some missed opportunities. With the time travel plot, you'll run into variants of the main cast, with the likes of Roxy Richter, Lucas Lee, and Matthew Patel having memorable encounters. But when I reached the battle with a different era's Lucas Lee, I was excited to see the two exchange words… except they didn't. In fact, the only acknowledgment that I was facing off against myself came after the fact when talking to who I just rescued.

I really wanted to like Scott Pilgrim EX more. Tribute Games is one of my favorite studios, the franchise means a lot to me, and the first game sparked my love of the genre. Despite there being the bones of an excellent brawler in there with some great dialogue, music, and art, it's absolutely let down by bland and tedious mission design that amounts to a ton of backtracking that's left me yearning for a linear, level-based brawler instead.

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