Anyone familiar with Edgar Wright's oeuvre (and especially Spaced) can't have failed to notice the director of Scott Pilgrim vs The World is a major-league video game obsessive, and the film itself rams that point home.
Happily, this is not the usual game-as-merchandising tat – indeed, it takes an approach that should be made compulsory for all games publishers looking to cash in on Hollywood's enduring mass appeal. Instead of seeking to extract more cash from you than it would take to see the film, Scott Pilgrim vs The World joins the burgeoning ranks of the retro homages found on the Xbox Live arcade and PlayStation Network, and completely nails the ethos of those download services.
Its mission alone deserves applause – to introduce a young, Twitter-fed audience to the joys of the 8-bit arcade era. Thus, it looks like Paper Boy and plays like Double Dragon (even supporting co-operative play by up to four people). In keeping with that era, its gameplay is gloriously unforgiving, eschewing checkpoints in favour of three lives which must be sustained for the duration of each of the seven levels, corresponding to Scott's inamorata Ramona's ex-boyfriends. Each level is long, relentless and utterly devoid of breathing space. Which gives you a commensurate sense of satisfaction when you progress.
The gameplay couldn't be simpler, consisting of classic side-scrolling beat-em-up action in which Scott takes on hordes of aggressive Toronto locals. He can pick up objects strewn around the streets, such as baseball bats, bottles and even snowballs, to use as weapons, punch, kick, jump and counter. At first, it seems laughably simple, but subtleties soon manifest themselves. As Scott levels up, he acquires special moves, such as shoulder-charges and low kicks. He can enter certain shops on the streets on which the action takes place, in order to replenish health and preserve life for the ex-boyfriend boss-battle at the end of each level. And you soon learn how to time attacks so they chain, letting you deal efficiently with attackers without sustaining damage. Even when you fall victim to the occasional pile-on, some judicious button-bashing under the pile of bodies can send the whole gaggle of bullies reeling.
Everyone you defeat yields coins, and there are surreal interludes in which you enter primary coloured parallel paths littered with references to games like Super Mario Bros, and in which you can shatter flying piggy-banks to stock up further on loose change – it is entirely appropriate that a game-of-a-film which, for once, represents an attractive purchase should feature flying pigs. And the boss-battles are tours de force, with each ex (often with the help of assistants) unleashing extravagant powers which must be countered using considerable tactical nous and precision. Edgar Wright would (and surely does) approve of this, and it will appeal equally to tweens and their forty-something dads on nostalgia trips back to their mis-spent youths.
