Few game announcements have made me quite as giddy-eon as the reveal of Scott Pilgrim EX during last year’s Game Awards. Tribute Games, fresh off the back of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, is turning its attention towards a spiritual successor to 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. That Ubisoft Montreal movie tie-in, which uppercutted well above its weight, has left a lasting legacy as a challenging, reliable, and most of all very funny co-op game. Having played its spiritual sequel, I can comfortably say that Scott Pilgrim EX is shepherding that reputation, with some cool quirks to note.
The tentpole reveal during gamescom was that Evil Exes Roxie Richter and Lucas Lee are going to be playable characters in Scott Pilgrim EX. Enemies to friends makes sense given that Scott Pilgrim EX is set after the events of 2023’s canon-bending anime, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. And during my session, I spent half an hour playing as Roxie, lurching through the sky and dicing up Vegans with her spin-to-win katana, which you can see in action below.
The first thing I noticed about Scott Pilgrim EX was the litany of expressive animations. Roxie’s facial expression changes subtly as she moves, with smear frames adding cute visual feedback to her hectic attacks. Lucas is more of a stoic brute by comparison, sending out deadly kicks and skateboard-powered attacks from a static position — I quickly got a sense of how both characters would bring welcome diversity to the character roster. It wasn’t long before I was timing my sawblade-like spin attack to connect with Scott or Ramona’s juggling combos to sustain the smackdown on an enemy.
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Another thing that quickly won me over was how tastefully referential Scott Pilgrim EX is, from the assets to the typography. The checkpoint gates are straight out of Sonic, and so is the antagonist, Metal Scott. Computer terminals reference NES controllers, and Green Shells suddenly littered the field during one battle, creating a dastardly minefield of trips and slips. Hell, even the letter A has been tweaked to look like a triforce in dialogue boxes. It sounds cringeworthy when written down, but it’s endearing in motion, primarily due to the already deeply referential IP that Tribute Games is working with. A deluge of irreverent humour helps to tie it all together. There’s a beach in Toronto with a portal to the Ice Age, where a prehistoric catgirl has stolen Scott’s bass. Don’t worry about the why — enjoy the ride.
It’s easy to do just that when the combat feels so kinetic and polished. The pace of play is careful here, not too overwhelming that you can’t think tactically about activating supers or calling in assist characters when needed. However, Scott Pilgrim EX does well to combat the fatigue of constant end-to-end fighting with brief brawler minigames. At one point, I had to blow up a ‘Vegan Wagon’ with burger bombs, and later, I was punching glaciated vegans on a time limit. As I fooled around between a big fight, exploring the shopping district and trying to jump and ride a skateboard, I started thinking about who I would tap to run through the full game in co-op, which is always a good sign during a preview.
Here is where I started to appreciate the face-melting soundtrack, too, or at least, what I could hear of it inside a busy and extremely loud convention hall. New York chiptune (and now indie rock) heroes Anamanaguchi have returned to score the successor, and it is the perfect sugar rush of melodic pixel pop to accompany you on this adorable, adrenaline-pumping adventure. Seriously, just go watch the trailers — those boys are COOKING.
However, potentially the most interesting aspect of Scott Pilgrim EX is its open-world structure — Tribute Games call it an “Adventure Brawler”. While I couldn’t get a sense of it during my demo, the developer we were playing with mentioned that, alongside the main quest, there were hidden areas and side quests to explore, and players would be encouraged to backtrack and explore Toronto to engage in new missions and secrets. As someone who isn’t particularly fond of beat-em-ups outside of the first Scott Pilgrim game (their heyday was before my time), this concept is very appealing to me. I hope it shakes out.
Our demo ended with appropriate fanfare, as two of my team members fell to the final boss, leaving myself and the player controlling Ramona to clean up with very little HP remaining. It was tough going, but exhilarating, and we made it with a sliver of health thanks to some careful dodging and long-range use of interactive objects. Honestly, I could have sat playing Scott Pilgrim EX for the rest of the day. It already feels clean and coherent in its vision, and I’m eager to get started, developing my characters while exploring alongside my friends. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long for that…
Scott Pilgrim EX is coming to PC and consoles in 2026
