So earlier this week, Bryan Lee O'Malley's indie comic epic Scott Pilgrim concluded. "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life" started the series off in 2003, and over six volumes tells the story of how Scott falls in love with Ramona Flowers, only to find out in order to keep the woman of his dreams he must defeat her seven evil exes. The story is humorous as well as endearing, and is unlike pretty much anything else in comics today. Don't worry, this will try to be as spoiler free as possible.
Scott Pilgrim is likely more well known due to the upcoming Edgar Wright film "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" starring Michael Cera, named after the second book of the series (though the movie will go through the entire series). Alternately, the upcoming game may also have retro gamers in for a surprise, with its chiptune soundtrack done by Anamanaguchi and pixel art graphics done by Paul Robertson; with several gaming references and tributes made in game (including exit animations that look to resemble Mega Man, Mario, Kirby, and Toejam & Earl), the River City Ransom style gameplay should be addictive to play.
However, we're here to talk about how the comic relates to gaming, not vice-versa. So how does Scott Pilgrim relate? How about a plethora of references or spoofs? Take the band names, to begin with: Scott is the bassist of his band, "Sex Bob-Omb," after the well known bomb enemy from the Mario series. Likewise, a flashback hints at his high school band, titled "Sonic and Knuckles." He was in a band in college named after the game "Kid Chameleon." In the last book, Scott states he's always wanted to name a band "ShatterBand," a reference to the game Shatterhand. A rival band of Sex Bob-Omb early in the series is "Crash and the Boys," after Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge on NES, and another rival band is named "The Clash at Demonhead," named after the NES game of the same title. This is just band titles, guys.
During his fights, Scott also makes gaming references. First off, during his first fight that interrupts the band's gig, there's a dance-style sequence that's VERY reminiscent to Space Channel 5. Scott and his foes also pull off fighting game moves, such as Shoryukens and Double Hurricane Kicks, while others pay homage to Chrono Trigger and Ninja Gaiden. Some fights include flavor text like "REVERSAL," "VS.," or "FIGHT!!" Upon defeating his rivals, Scott's enemies disappear and turn into coins, much like River City Ransom.
Other events may have victory text that's not necessary, such as "Scott Pilgrim wins his birthday!" As if this isn't enough, spoken lines pay tribute to games as well. Scott says to himself at one point "I GOTTA BELIEVE!!", the main slogan of PaRappa the Rapper, while Ramona says in another fight upon being grazed, "How appropriate. You fight like a cow." Her line is taken directly from The Secret of Monkey Island. Scott also mistakes evil ex-boyfriend twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi as "Randy and Andy Katamari." There's also smaller things, such as the drummer for a rival band being seen gaining skills through Konami's Drummania, or Scott wearing a Rock Band t-shirt, and later wearing a Mother 2 t-shirt, along with shirts showing Mario's mushroom or Dragonquest's slime.
Mr. Pilgrim has also picked up items, like a Mithril Skateboard, which also displays its stat boosts, taking a page from RPG equipment. During and after fights he also levels up, complete with stat gains, and gains experience points from getting a job; while looking for one, however, he makes a reference to a Job Class System, a la Final Fantasy and some tactical RPGs. Upon the worst of things happening, a "Game Over screen," and later a "Continue? screen" appear; status bars revealing necessities like thirst, cash, or a "pee bar" show Scott's condition, and upon winning one battle the 23-year-old protagonist manages to get an "Achievement unlocked!"
Think I'm done yet? Not hardly. Ramona travels from one destination to another through the Subspace Highway, marked by a door with a star on it, much like Super Mario Bros. 2's Subspace. The drummer of The Clash at Demonhead has a bionic arm, similar to Nathan Spencer of Bionic Commando fame. Evil ex Gideon Graves opens a club at one point, where the logo is his initials, "GGG", drawn in a way to form an upside down triforce. Many book titles resemble game title screens or logos, such as Bonk's Adventure, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Double Dragon. And, as if all of this wasn't enough, characters can be seen playing or talk about playing Tony Hawk, Bomberman, a Sega Genesis, a GBA SP, and a PSP, among MANY others.
It's safe to say that O'Malley is quite the fan of gaming, as well as music, as there's a few music references in the comics as well. I nailed quite a lot of references here, but I can honestly say I didn't get them all. Gamers will love this series, but it's not just made for gamers. The story is an amazing one, the conclusion leading me to re-read the series again to make some sense of some things I missed the first time through, and upon reading it I've only managed to hype myself up even more for the upcoming movie and video game. To anyone that appreciates the classics, I recommend this comic series to you.
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