"You once were a ve-gone, but now you will be gone."

It’s time for a road trip (dare we say Pilgrimage?) to Toronto. I’m sure to hear about that one from my editor, but I promised no “eh” jokes, so it should be a fair trade, right? Our hero of the day is Scott Pilgrim. He is the guitarist for his Toronto-based band, and he also has a Mission. Somewhen in the 21st century, Toronto has been infested with three rival groups: the Vegans, the Robots, and the Demons. Scott’s bandmates and instruments have been taken captive, and it’s up to you to get your friends and your gear back.

This is not an immersive 3D game, but you will need to move about in three dimensions, albeit in a limited fashion. The game looks like a side-scroller, but there is some depth to the scene, and it is very important. Scott Pilgrim EX is a mix of search and rescue, combat, and adventure—and all that is just for being set in Canada. Al may have told us “break their nose and they’ll just say sorry”, but Mr. Pilgrim doesn’t seem to be of that persuasion. Our hero (seven from which to choose) means business and is ready to search everywhere and brawl with every last Vegan, Robot, and Demon to get his friends back—and you will be doing a lot of brawling. The level of kerfuffle is so great that the game includes over 100 attacks (strikes, dodges, grapples, specials, etc.). It’s almost more than any sane Canadian can take. Almost.

The visuals lean toward the pixelated side while maintaining enough definition that everything is easily identified.

The different bad guys, NPCs, and environments are diverse and interesting. You will even get to travel by “subspace” passages between areas. These are handy because you don’t face any attacks there. The soundscape is appropriate for the look and feel of the game; the music is well done, and the sound effects lead to the playful side. Overall, the audio/visuals feel like an old-school game with some modern polish to make for a good experience. (Note that although I reviewed Scott Pilgrim EX on the Nintendo Switch, a native Switch 2 version is available.)

The gameplay is relatively straightforward. Basic movement is done with the left joystick; the attacks are accomplished with the ABXY buttons. The “relatively” part comes into play with the attacks. As you may expect, there is a primary attack (weaker but faster), and a secondary attack (slower but stronger). After this, it gets a bit more complicated. There are over 100 key combinations you can use to launch a cornucopia of combat maneuvers: punches, head-buts, kicks, grabs, tosses, and triumphant swings of your mighty instrument (aka your guitar). Some moves may seem a bit strange, but in the heat of battle, when you are mashing buttons in the hope of not dying, they look pretty cool.

And, as with real-life bands, it’s more fun when you’re jamming with others; Scott Pilgrim EX includes local/online co-op for up to four players.

The game will also allow you to pick up objects and use them as weapons. You get rocks, turnips (yes, the vegetable), plumbing pipes, skateboards, boomerangs, and yo-yos, among other interesting things. Take some time to go through the tutorial and learn how to use all this stuff. It’s a lot, but it can all be handy for the combat portion of the game, which is most of it. Don’t forget to check out the shops along the way, too. There are power ups and food to keep your health up, and you will need it for the boss rounds (the boss usually has plenty of friends to help knock you out). On the plus side, you get a health status bar for the Boss so you can see how little you hurt it while it clobbers you.

Most of the “getting around” in this game is set up like a left-to-right scroll with occasional forays into the front/back of the scene. As mentioned, there are some places you can enter to travel through a subspace shortcut. The levels include areas such as the suburbs, the beach, a movie studio, and a distillery; hey, these are some things they take seriously in Canada. I know, it is usually hockey and maple syrup, but I understand adult beverages have a certain standing as well. Some locations require exploration or finding keys to access a new region. There is a map you can use to see where you are and the location of your next objective, so that’s a great help.

There is one tutorial option from which the only exit seems to be successfully executing all the attacks and moves. I would have preferred a way to back out after the first 80 or so, but there we are.

There are plenty of environments to provide some visual variety and a shakeup with the opponents you face. The different challenges posed will keep you on your toes (the bosses will keep you on the upgrade and hit points monitoring routine). The game will let you play different characters, each with a different weapon and attacks, as well as an online option so you can team up with your friends.

All in, this is a good game.