We had an opportunity to sit with the developers Tribute Games and play Scott Pilgrim EX for thirty minutes at this year Gamescom.
Evil forces have converged on Toronto, and it’s up to Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers to lead the charge against the dastardly robots, vegans, and demons. Not only that, but we were able to play with two brand new characters in the game’s roster: Lucas Lee and Roxie Richter.
If you didn’t play Scott Pilgrim game before, let’s just say that their developers also made the upcoming MARVEL Cosmic Invasion and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Scott Pilgrim EX is another side-scrolling beat em’ up couch co-op game with the usually lovely pixel art, whacky action and synth-rock music.
The developers of Scott Pilgrim EX were kind enough to join us in full four player co-op game. After selecting your character, you jump straight into the action. To not spoil a lot of story, we’ll summarise a bit – members of Toronto’s coolest band, Sex Bob-omb, have been kidnapped and their instruments stolen. The city is being terrorized by demons, robots, and even worse – vegans.
Your job is to save them, together with your awkward allies (but hey, an ally is an ally, what you can do?). Your team needs to bash their way across the city and some other rather unusual places (and time?). A total of seven playable fighters will be featured, and even more will be revealed in the future.
Fight & Power-up!
As you battle out across a wild, video game-warped Toronto, filled with bright, bursting colors and deep-cut Scott Pilgrim references, you’ll be completing quests while defeating the gangs that rule over different parts of the city. As you play, you’ll earn some currency that can be used to upgrade your gear or purchase new abilities. Enemies can be dispatched with each character’s unique, upgradable toolkit, or with different items found in the game’s highly interactive environment.
You can arm yourself with all sorts, from baseball bats to demonic rods, turnips and more. Usually I need a bit of time to adjust in co-op games of this type, especially visually, as it takes me a while to get used who is who, let alone where am I on the screen. But in Scott Pilgrim EX, after a few minutes it was all quickly set in place and easy to follow the action.
Controls were quick and responsive, but you need to be careful of your timing and positioning because you can be easily overwhelmed unless backup is there to help you out. Hitting enemies is super satisfying with amazing sound effects. Being Scott Pilgrim, over the top wackiness is guaranteed, but to be honest, we weren’t expecting anything less. You can perform different combos and there is a character specific special move that can be executed once the relevant meter is full. Each of characters in Scott Pilgrim EX have at their disposal a little sidekick pet that can unleash additional attack on enemies. You can switch them up and find your best fit.
Fighting is not your only task (well it is 98% of time). Sometimes to progress to new or optional stages in the game, you will need to perform min- missions to access other parts of the city. No spoilers of course, but they give an interesting twist to the constant brawling and they encourage more exploration.
After our session with Scott Pilgrim EX was over, I only wanted to play more of it. I can only imagine fun this is going to be between a good set of pals. There are few mechanics in the game that can heat up some rivalry, or help you tease other players. With all this in mind, the wait for release on this one is going to be agonising.
Scott Pilgrim EX is coming at some point in 2026.
