The Scott Pilgrim series started as a graphic novel, written and illustrated by Bryan Lee O’Malley. These volumes follow the escapades of Scott Pilgrim, a 23 year old bass guitarist in the garage band, “Sex Bob-Omb” who falls for new to the neighborhood, Ramona Flowers. He learns that he must defeat her seven evil exes, each with supernatural abilities.
The franchise has branched out to other forms of media, such as in film, animation and of course, video games. The first video game is Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game. It is a side scrolling beat ’em up, loosely following the story of the graphic novels. The game was originally released back 2010 and received generally favorable reviews. There was a complete edition re-release later in 2021. An anime, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, was released in 2023 as both a continuation and retelling of the original story.
This is all to lead us to today’s game review: Scott Pilgrim EX, an upcoming action-adventure, side scrolling beat ’em up. Developed and published by Tribute Games Inc., Scott Pilgrim EX has an anticipated release date of March 3rd, 2026. The story takes place after the events of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and delivers the same wacky, slightly absurd tone you’d expect. Players travel through time and space to rescue the Sex Bob‑Omb band members after Metal Scott kidnaps them. The game features seven playable characters, multiplayer of up to 4 people both local and online, and melee mayhem mixed with weapons galore.
My preview of Scott Pilgrim EX was admittedly a lot of fun. I enjoyed that they took the side scrolling beat ’em up genre and filled it full of mayhem with the inclusion of multiplayer and a surplus of weaponry and combat skills. The game manages to be both linear and not, and I ended up appreciating that far more than I expected. My only gripe was more so on a personal level in that there feels like something more is missing when playing single player, but it isn’t so much so that one can not play alone. I’ll discuss all of these in the review of course, but overall I really enjoyed Scott Pilgrim EX and can happily recommend picking this one up when it comes out!
Though I myself am not too familiar with the Scott Pilgrim world, I do want to believe that this game continues the franchise in a positive way. I hope that the fans get as much enjoyment as I did, reveling in the mayhem of it all. So, get ready to steal life from your friends, because it’s time to discuss Scott Pilgrim EX!
Just a quick disclaimer: I usually feature my own screengrabs for games that I review. I find it helps makes my reviews more personal, something that I find important when I read reviews myself. However, since Scott Pilgrim EX isn’t released yet at the time of writing, I didn’t feel comfortable using my own images. Some of these images showcase two players, but please note that my experience was fully single player, which I will discuss later in this review.
A Journey Through Space, Time and Toronto
Scott Pilgrim EX takes place in Toronto, 20XX. Toronto has been taken over by three rival gangs—the Vegans, the Robots, and the Demons. One day, during Sex Bob-Omb’s practice session, Metal Scott appears and kidnaps your band members, leaving Scott beat up. Who is behind this? Why did they steal the band members? Later, when Ramona Flowers finds Scott, she calls up some allies to help. With a team of seven, it is up to players to travel through space, time and Toronto to rescue the band members and take down members of the rival gangs along the way.
The city is quite expansive. Areas lead in multiple directions for the most part, leading to a slight exploration aspect with secrets, hidden areas, and the occasional side quest. Though it might be better to follow the “Go” signs in order to know where to go next, I do think it’s worth while to explore some of what Toronto has to offer. Enemies will respawn when you re-enter areas though, so make sure you don’t travel too far if you don’t think you can run or fight your way through.
Certain sections of the map serve as shopping districts. Defeated enemies and various objects will drop coins, allowing you to make purchases at these shops. Players can purchase items such as healing items, to-go snacks that revive you, various belts and accessories to raise stats, trinkets that give you passive power-ups, and the occasional cosmetic item. Take advantage of the open-map aspect and go earn some coin from the respawning enemies and make valuable purchases.
Scattered across the map are portals. You unlock portals mostly by playing musical riffs you learn after rescuing band members. These portals are where the time and space truly come into play as they transport you to…well, different times and spaces. Many boss battles take place inside these portals, so make sure you’re prepared for whatever waits on the other side.
Seven Playable Characters to Beat ‘Em Up
Scott Pilgrim EX features seven playable characters— Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Matthew Patel, Lucas Lee, Roxie Richter, Gideon Graves, and Robot-01. Each character has different move sets and beginning stats that they start with, up to 16 points. These stats are the vitality (increases HP, overall health), willpower (increases GP, a resource for super attacks, assists and regaining health when HP is zero), strength (strengthens attacks and throws, including velocity) and agility (faster movement and critical hit chance). Players can change their character at certain areas on the map. It might be worthwhile trying different characters to see which one you like best. Personally, I wanted someone who could pack a punch, so I went with Lucas Lee, who starts full Strength with a value of 13.
There are a few different combat abilities on the table for players. The game starts you off with a brief tutorial of the basics. They do feel pretty standard for what you might expect in a side scrolling beat ’em up game. There are light attacks, heavy attacks, jump attacks, the ability to throw stuff and of course the super attacks that require GP. You can also use GP to call upon other non-playable characters to provide an assist, such as passive buffs like resistance from damage or healing. Again, it might be worthwhile trying the different characters to see what works best for your playstyle. I did think that at times the combat felt a bit clunky, but it wasn’t anything that majorly impeded on my gameplay.
Another important aspect to the combat are the various weapons that you can pick up. The game lets you use all kinds of weapons—hammers, rocks, volleyballs, bombs, and more—against foes, but they can just as easily be used against you. They certainly don’t skimp on the amount either. I know in some other side scrolling beat ’em up, there may be a weapon or two per encounter. Here, the floor can be practically littered with various weaponry to use! Things become quite chaotic as things start bumping into each other and flying everywhere. The mayhem that was promised many times on the Steam page holds up. I had a blast just trying to dodge the chaos that one thrown shell caused.
Scott Pilgrim EX has four levels of difficulty—Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard. When playing video games, I typically go with the standard experience rather than making things easier or harder. Playing on normal difficulty felt like the perfect balance of challenge for me as a player. I had an easy enough time that I never felt like I was struggling, but the game still pushed me when enemies swarmed me or during boss fights. I know this isn’t the most interesting thing to discuss, but I wanted to quickly applaud the developers for this.
Multiplayer Mayhem
Up to four players can take part in this adventure. Players can join up locally or online with easy drop-in/drop-out co-op. There is even the option to quick play, pairing you up with random players that have open sessions. I did try to join a random session through quick play and had my own open for a while. Sadly, there was no one. This was expected of course since the game hasn’t been released yet. I can only imagine that my experience would have been enhanced had it been in multiplayer.
I do wonder quite a bit about some of the multiplayer aspects. From what I can tell, the team shares money. However, I’m not sure whether purchased items are shared or if each player has to buy their own. Does the number of enemies increase as more players join the game? I’m assuming yes, but is there friendly fire? If a player dies, they come back as a ghost and siphon HP from others to revive. However, I still don’t know how much they drain or if it can actually kill someone. I wish I could have tested all of these in multiplayer, but I’ll have to wait until March 3rd.
Despite being in single player, overall I had a great time playing. However, I do think that multiplayer is more so the way to go for this game. I felt like I was missing out on something by playing single player, but couldn’t quite place my finger on what it was. Yes, there was mayhem, but there could have been so much more with three other players by my side. I could beat the boss by myself, but having teammates alongside me would have made a huge difference. To me, the game did feel a bit more inclined towards a multiplayer experience rather than single player. However, even then, this is just a personal opinion. I am sure there are plenty of players out there that will stick with single player and have just as much fun.
A Win for Scott Pilgrim Fans I Hope!
Before I wrap things up, I’d like to mention two more things I liked—the music and the references. For a game involving rescuing band members, I’d expect a decent soundtrack to go along with this premise. Thankfully, Scott Pilgrim EX delivers. I really liked the catchy beats that played throughout the areas of the map and during boss battles. If there was a version of this game available to purchase that included the soundtrack, I might actually consider it.
I also loved all the references made throughout this game. The shells and turnips looked like they were from Mario. Metal Scott is most likely referencing Metal Sonic. I don’t know whether this is standard for the series, but I still found it enjoyable.
Overall, I really enjoyed Scott Pilgrim EX and think that Tribute Games Inc. did an amazing job! It may not be the same team that developed the first game, but I hope that fans of the franchise enjoy it nonetheless. There’s mayhem, multiplayer, and a whole lot of enemies to brawl. I don’t have much to complain about, and the game genuinely surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. Typically, I don’t go for side scrolling beat ’em ups. This one takes that genre and does so much more with it. I can happily recommend picking this one up when it comes out on March 3rd! Please feel free to try out the demo available now!
Thank you for reading and have fun stealing HP from your friends as a ghost!
