Scott Pilgrim EX Review – A Decent Beat ‘Em Up, But With So Much Going For It

It’s been fifteen years since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game released, and a cool five since I published my review of the repackaged Complete Edition. As the first proper video game sequel, Tribute Games’ Scott Pilgrim EX is in a unique position, essentially using a throwback genre to court a completely different generation into the Sex Bob-omb fold. Easy to pick up and play and packed with cool new characters, Scott Pilgrim EX’s peppy pixelated visuals and impressive hero roster should be a home run, but it lacks depth, challenge, and any significant hooks to keep playing past the short route to credits.

With TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Tribute Games – a Montreal studio founded in 2011 – has distinguished itself as an influential developer in this current beat ‘em up quasi-renaissance, especially in their franchise adaptations. The setup seems an ideal fit for Scott Pilgrim, only further bolstered with the return of both Anamanaguchi on soundtrack duties and pixel art dynamo Paul Robertson on the design team, the latter of whom has incidentally worked with Tribute before.

So far, that’s at least three creative contributors returning for this sequel… So, why does the finished product ultimately come off as lesser-than? As I explored, played, and replayed Scott Pilgrim EX, I couldn’t help but feel like something was amiss in this retro beat ‘em up action-RPG, be it the odd tone of the script, the expressive yet overly-easy combat, or the repetitive gameplay.

Scott Pilgrim EX Is A Proper River City Ransom-alike

We Get A Full Open World This Time, But There’s Not Much To Do Here

As much as I adore it, the original game was not without its faults, and they’re admittedly more noticeable when returning to it in 2026. To that end, Scott Pilgrim EX’s control feel is greatly improved and much lighter to the touch, making for reactive combat and greased-up speed that lets you blaze past screens to each objective.

Dispensing with levels outright, Scott Pilgrim EX takes place in an open-world topsy-turvy “Toronto 20XX,” corrupted now by reality-warping portals, demonkin, angry mechs, Vegan cops, and funky street gangs. The latter offers one of the game’s many allusions to NES classic River City Ransom, from which it takes its non-linear open map concept, its subtitles identifying each area’s gang in charge, its market districts and stat-boosting food for sale, its enemies exploding into jangling currency, its overpass secret shop, and so on.

And yes, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game featured some of these elements as well, but implementing an open-world design changes everything about how progress, challenge, and combat pacing play out. Most areas contain a horde of mooks to clobber, but you can also just run past them if you can’t be bothered. There’s a nice diversity of enemies – and it’s fun to see the different gangs refresh as you progress through the story – but most are easy to take out or can be avoided entirely.

The bosses are predictably tougher, but they’ll be a cakewalk for beat ‘em up aficionados or anyone who spends time grinding out stat boosts. Boss AI is functionally identical for the most part: they sometimes hard-block, sometimes accept hits, always counter if you bully them on knockdown, and constantly spawn distracting mobs. The enemy roster offers a decent mix of behaviors and abilities, but it’s hard to notice when you’re just crowd-killing and pinballing them across the screen with a yawn.

Expressive Combat With Tons of Moves and Abilities

Scott Pilgrim EX Is One of the Surprisingly Easier Recent Beat ‘Em Ups

Like the first game, there’s a wide assortment of weapons and trash scattered around to batter enemies with, but wielding these pickups also hampers hero abilities. I was genuinely surprised at how much each of the seven immediately available heroes could do: each has different combos, directional specials, a panic move, multiple jump attacks, multiple grapples, dash attacks, even swappable assists. This is a remarkable amount of expression for a beat ‘em up and handily outmatches, say, Absolum on this front (or an under-leveled hero in the original Scott Pilgrim).

However, there’s not a single moment in any difficulty mode of Scott Pilgrim EX that makes the case for this oversized moveset. Enemies often try to surround you, but you soon learn to line them up for multi-hit disposal, and pickups on the floor are way too touchy, firing off across the screen with the lightest nudge and often killing unseen mobs. Sure, you can try and get fancier against the aforementioned bosses, but will find more success using simple attacks and careful short combos.

There’s no free-for-all versus mode a la Guardian Heroes or any other special side activity that might justify this combat potential, which is admittedly just weird. It leaves you feeling strangely overpowered for what the game can throw at you, an uncommon situation for a beat ’em up, and I wonder if Scott Pilgrim EX might have been better off had some of its moves or heroes been locked at the start behind challenges or secrets.

Simplistic Quests Scattered Over A Tiny Toronto

The Game’s Small Map and Simple Action-RPG Elements Leave Much To Be Desired

You can purchase new equipment to fill four gear slots that add a buff or tweak here and there, but it’s all text-only, not visible on your hero, and the gear is mostly set-and-forget. Assists are cool to have and most grant a single buff, like temporary invincibility or increased defense, but there’s a lengthy activation windup that makes them harder to trigger during boss fights, and you’d probably never need them for a random encounter on the map.

Speaking of that map: Toronto is certainly colorful and pretty, but it’s also tiny. Starting from one edge of the map to the other – from the Suburbs to Downtown – I timed myself running end to end at 54 seconds with no agility upgrades. Some new screens get unlocked at certain junctures, sure, but the constant backtracking quickly grows repetitive, which stands in stark contrast to repeat-runs through the inspired and varied level design found in the original game.

Progress similarly sends you speeding from point to point on each random task, like bringing a key to a medieval-themed burger joint in another dimension or a bomb to crack a glacier. While the map itself is fairly open from the start, the quest structure is strictly linear, which seemingly defeats the purpose of the game’s open-world design.

Occasionally, you might wander into an area and be abruptly tasked with punching some barrels or dealing with a locked-room brawl, but this is rare and never properly engaging. In fact, most quests are ultimately resolved by standing on a lit spot literally called the “Activation Ring” and clicking confirm, something which I imagine was intended to be a joke about banality in game design?

The Game Continues On from Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

The Original Game’s Creative Team Is Here, But Where Is The Magic?

Full disclosure: I love Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comics, so I was excited to find that he worked directly on Scott Pilgrim EX‘s narrative, serving as a continuation of the 2023 Netflix animated series (fitting, since the streamer axed it back in 2024), which is also why Matthew Patel, Gideon Graves, Lucas Lee, Robot-01, and Roxie are available as heroes in addition to Scott and Ramona. However, I didn’t recognize O’Malley’s hand here at all, and the game’s dialogue is awkwardly wooden, though it does shift depending on your chosen hero.

As for Anamanaguchi, the band turns in another banger of a soundtrack. Maybe the new OST is less earwormy than the original, but I snuck into the game files on my local for a few listens while writing this review, and the songs are definitely growing on me over time.

Toronto still looks beautiful, and there’s plenty of Where’s Waldo-esque attention to detail, with recognizable faces hiding in the background, cute cats perched on roofs, and multiple video game references throughout. That being said, Robertson’s work in the original had a madcap, larger-than-life, sometimes hideous zaniness to it, and Scott Pilgrim EX feels more sedate and plain in comparison.

It Feels Familiar and Fun, But Something’s Missing in Scott Pilgrim EX

Or Did We All Just Grow Up?

Maybe that’s the main takeaway. Scott Pilgrim EX certainly looks nice and feels warmly familiar, its hero roster is superb, and they’re all fun to control and well differentiated. A playthrough is short and sweet at a few hours if you’re not too distracted, and there’s even a New Game+. But there’s otherwise not much here that stands out, and the game lacks any impressive set pieces or water cooler moments, with nothing approaching the multi-stage Gideon boss fight in the original.

I still have some achievements left to unlock – including a 90-minute speedrun trophy, which should give you a hint as to the game’s length – but I wanted something more substantive, irreverent, or enthusiastic from Scott Pilgrim EX. Its heroes may have a few more fancy moves, but I mainly wanted to return to Absolum or Towerborne for another run when it was over. All the same, as ardent Scott Pilgrim fans, we take what we can get.

Scott Pilgrim EX

Systems

Released

March 3, 2026

ESRB

Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol

Developer(s)

Tribute Games Inc.

Publisher(s)

Tribute Games Inc.

Multiplayer

Local Co-Op, Online Co-Op

Number of Players

1-4 players

Steam Deck Compatibility

Verified

PC Release Date

March 3, 2026

Pros & Cons

• Huge roster of heroes unlocked from the start and a surprisingly deep basic move set
• Nice pixel art and Anamanaguchi tunes
• Overall, it’s more Scott Pilgrim

• Mechanics lack depth, with very low challenge level for a beat ’em up, even on Hard mode
• Dialogue in the game feels decidedly off, which lessens the effect of its many character cameos
• Barebones quest structure doesn’t offer any surprises or side content to engage
• No new moves to learn or meaningful upgrades to obtain, dampening the game’s action-RPG foundation
• Simplistic boss fights, small map, and pushover random encounters quickly fade from memory when it’s all over