Scott Pilgrim: The Game is made to appeal to your sense of nostalgia. A beat-em-up in the vein of old 8- and 16-bit classics with a purposefully pixelated art style, your mission is simply to get from one end of the map to the other while beating the crap out of everyone who gets in your way. And, for a game that celebrates the simple pleasure of button-mashing, it’s highly effective.
The game effortlessly weaves together nerd-culture references (from Super Mario Bros. to Akira) with levels and playstyle created to remind you of games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and River City Ransom. Miniscule background animations and character details ensure that, even when you’re just wailing away on clones of enemies you’ve seen in every other level, they all look distinct. And like RCR (or more recently, Castle Crashers) you also level up your character — earning new powers, greater strength, and more incentive to keep going, the further along you go.
