Never before has so much been told in so few words.

When you pick up a title with as much hype around it as Scott Pilgrim EX, you know that it’s going to deliver on certain fronts. For example, if you were a fan of the much celebrated Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, you were probably going to buy this without hesitation. One of the most celebrated IP tie in titles of the last couple of decades, the original Scott Pilgrim game did a phenomenal job of taking what was great about the comics and the movie, marrying the two and adding a facet of its own with plenty of quirky visuals, frantic combat and pixel perfection, not to mention a phenomenal score by Anamanaguchi. It was a delight, it was a much pined for title when it became delisted, and it was celebrated once it became available for multiple platforms years after disappearing. 

So, more than a decade after the first game was released, the pressure is on for Scott Pilgrim EX to deliver on all fronts. The bones are there: we’ve got Paul Robertson back doing pixel art and animation. Anamanaguchi has returned to craft a new score and new sound effects for the game. Scott Pilgrim’s creator, Brian Lee O’Malley, is on board to write the story and give the game life, zest and canonically fit it into the existing realm . Plus, this is all crafted in the aftermath of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (the Netflix anime). The triple threat of Vegans, Robots and Demons are putting Toronto under constant pressure in the year 20XX. Amid all the gang warfare, Scott Pilgrim’s bandmates have gone missing, kidnapped by the mysterious Metal Scott. Scott will form some unlikely alliances as he travels across space and time to get Sex Bob-omb back together!

Julie remains an unmutable force, and I am here for it.

One fantastic thing we’ve seen revivals of in the last few years is the brawler side scroller. TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Absolum and more have made it cool and fun to go HAM with your friends all over the map. Rather than let Scott go off on his lonesome, Scott Pilgrim EX has you gathering a party of four either locally or online to go off and beat the hell out of anything and everything in your way. Each character has their own buildouts, and players who know the lore will get an extra kick out of it all. While Scott might be the most well rounded, the reach of Robot-01 has its advantages, Ramona’s got some serious speed, Roxie’s blade can be utterly lethal, and Matthew Patel’s mystical attacks can inflict some wild effects. Oh, and Lucas is here, if you just need a tank.

A well constructed brawler lets you enjoy it solo or in a group, and Scott Pilgrim EX nails the balancing act. For players who are interested in longform play, a single player campaign can really be quite strategic with a long tail in terms of engagement. The enemy spawn rates are quite high, but clearing a room is not impossible. With weak and heavy attacks, grappling and specialty moves, you’re naturally going to figure out a decent rhythm for cutting down hordes of mysterious demons or super buff vegans. Defeated enemies drop coins that can be used to purchase equipment and heal items, and you’ll continually level up as you get deeper into the game, adding stat points (strength, dexterity) to improve your overall damage. The RPG of it all is alive and well, and keeps the single player game from just being a button mash.

It may look like Roxie is trying to disembowel Scott here, so let’s be clear: she wants to, but she legally can’t.

But why play solo when Scott’s got companions ready to help, however reluctantly it may actually be? The group play is where Scott Pilgrim EX is going to shine time after time. There’s no direct friendly fire, but you need to be aware of thrown items and how they might smack into your teammates. You can easily gang up on an individual boss or even a random mob to help make short work of them. Stand on top of your fellow players to give yourself a boost and deliver the smackdown from on high. Combine different attacks and approaches to create something wonderful and destructive, and form assist strikes that can clear the room. It’s a world of utter havoc where you literally can’t leave and re-enter a room without being beset by foes, so it’s best not to go at it alone if you don’t have to.

If this was just a River City Ransom style title with point A to point B fighting, it would be fine, and everyone would have a grand time. Scott Pilgrim EX isn’t content in delivering straight, linear gameplay, and the exploration and map system help make it a cohesive and easy to follow game without spoonfeeding you too much. You’ll engage with various NPCs to get quests and easily see where you are, where you need to go, and how to get there. There’ll be plenty of chances along the way to branch off, explore on your own and get lost doing side quests and coin grinds, plus just beating up a bunch of stuff because it’s fun. But, when you’re ready to get back with the plot, the guesswork of how to get there is eliminated. It’s super effective in helping players who jump in and out of games.

The graphics and animation look unbelievably clean on the original Switch, which makes me super hopeful for how Scott Pilgrim EX will look on other consoles. Even when in handheld mode with two other players on the screen, the framerate never drops and the sequencing remains smooth and steady. Even though it’s pixel art, this is an elevated form compared to the original Scott Pilgrim, giving it more color, more shape and even more expressions and details from the turtle shells on the street (great for throwing) to the minor glint of the sunlight on the ocean. Tribute Games has simultaneously retained the charm of the first game while giving it its own identity and life. When I saw a boss commit double seppuku and then transform into a massive flower beast just as a midbattle attack, my jaw hit the floor.

Dinosaurs! Rock music! Bieber hair! This game has everything!

And, as expected, the soundtrack is top notch. While chiptune is far and away some of my favorite types of gaming music, it can often be overlooked as very simple or straightforward in terms of the range of musical notes and effects. Anamanaguchi again proves there’s this level of skill that comes from understanding traditional music composition, electronic scoring, and being able to borrow from all sorts of aural candy to create something memorable. It’s simple enough to hear and enjoy the upbeat notes that go along with a beach beatdown, or the ominous notes that come during a boss battle, but the music continues even when it’s not as obvious. When you step into the subspace (a sort of fast travel between areas), there’s this negative space in music and tone that’s way better than silence. It’s a level of care and craftsmanship that showcases the entire game’s personality.

My only hangup with the game overall is that Scott Pilgrim EX is that the versatility of the characters and their equipment isn’t always noticed or considered in group efforts. When you play solo, you can really take the time to choose which assist you want (Young Neil is always a great choice) as well as accessories and equipment you pick up along the way. You really feel the difference when you’re doing a single player game because all the focus is on you. However, even in a two player game, the momentum of it all really eclipses the need to lock in the finer details of the characters. The equipment doesn’t change your appearance, so it’s easy to forget if you swapped out the vegan leather boots with another character. You’re still having fun, but it makes the entire customizable system feel like a wasted effort.

But I still keep buying things because I enjoy Cold Topic’s….atmosphere.

But that’s a very minor complaint over what is ultimately a silly notion (this game is too exciting and well built for me to fuss over my minmaxing!). Scott Pilgrim EX is so smooth, so fluid, and so easy to get into that you forget about everything else the moment you and your friends are in the mix, brawling and riffing and doing everything under the sun and space together. It’s seamless in loads between areas, the cohesion is top notch for areas and monsters, the loot drops are generous so you can keep buying health and equipment and my kids, who haven’t consumed any Scott Pilgrim media, were full on board from the drop. It’s a marvelous game, it’s awesomely crafted, and it’s a rare sequel that does everything better than the original. If you’ve been waiting for another grand adventure with Scott Pilgrim, congratulations: it’s finally here.

Scott Pilgrim EX is available now on Steam, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series One X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Scott Pilgrim EX was provided by the publisher.