scott pilgrim game

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World video game is stacked with hilarious Toronto references

Whether right now or ten years ago, real life or in 2D, straight up accurate or riddled with pseudonyms, Toronto remains an instantly-recognizable stomping ground for anyone who's ever lived here.

The newly re-released Scott Pilgrim VS The World: The Game — Complete Edition illustrates this point perfectly, perhaps even more so now than it did when the game first came out alongside the cult classic flick starring Michael Cera in 2010.

Just like the movie, the Scott Pilgrim side-scroller is inspired by Bryan Lee O'Malley's popular, born-in-Toronto graphic novel series of the same name.

While popular upon its initial release as a digital-only game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2010, Scott Pilgrim was de-listed in 2014 due to some apparent licensing issues.

Whatever the legal beef was about, the parties involved appear to have squashed it, restoring a clutch piece of the iconic franchise into the hands of fans.

Needless to say, they're stoked.

The game is now available digitally for every major platform, while physical copies from Limited Run Games are also forthcoming and can be pre-ordered as of Friday for PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch.

A 2D Beat-em-up by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Chengdu (newly-remastered by EngineSoftware), it's fun — and challenging — to play, for sure, with hundreds of evil boyfriends to pummel against a soundtrack by Anamanaguchi.

But for Toronto nerds, it's equally as fun just to see local haunts rendered in the gritty, pixelated style that somehow perfectly captures the vibes of 2010 Toronto.

First, there's the overworld map (clearly inspired by Super Mario World 3 for NES) featuring local landmarks like the CN Tower and Skydome but also somewhere off-screen called "frozen suburbs" (hehehe.)

You can also fight jerks all over the city, from the bowels of the TTC...

...To what is obviously Lee's Palace.

You can even power up by buying nachos from a Sneaky Dee's knockoff called "Dee's Tex Mex" and fight crazy dudes on buses.

While criticized heavily as being buggy, the game has been getting rave reviews.

Maybe it's a nostalgia thing, maybe it's a Toronto thing or maybe it's just nice to play something so fun and colourful while listening to chiptune punk.

One word of caution for out-of-towners from a local via Twitter, however: "Scott Pilgrim the Video game gives an unrealistic expectation of Toronto. That it's some fun and vibrant snowscape where you can punch people and toonies will pop out and it's all backed by a soundtrack by Anamanaguchi. Only the second thing is true and that's a hate crime."

Lead photo by

Ubisoft


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