We take the inevitable for granted, but sometimes you need to look at the individual steps it took to get there.
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life is a graphic novel that was written and drawn by Bryan Lee O’Malley. It was published by Oni Press on August 18, 2004.
There is a lot to examine at that moment in history. Or, to put it another way: why was Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life successful? There are a number of possible explanations…
- Was it the story? This writer naturally is going to credit Bryan Lee O’Malley with being a genius that produced the perennial tale of a dirtbag 20-something in the early 21st Century. But… Well… That is a well-trodden trope. Whether in books, comics, movies, or even songs, there are millions of semi-autobiographical tales of heterosexual CIS men learning to solve their relationship problems with mindfulness and punching. Good writing is not unique plotting.
- Was it the magical realism? Scott Pilgrim has delivery girls skating through subspace and wannabe rockstars lamenting that they cannot transform into morph balls right from the beginning. From there, issues are resolved as exes are transformed into spare change. It is 20-something life, but through a magical lens! Of course, that is what 90% of comics have ever been. We take it for granted that the X-Men throw snowballs or Spider-Man is a mutant spider monster, but the core of all these stories is taking things like racism or responsibility, and gluing it to something that is fun to draw. Nothing new in Scott Pilgrim’s world here, either.
Was it the manga influence? Anime and manga at the time were still fairly new in the West… but not that new. Pokémon had set the world on fire nearly a full decade earlier (seven years rounds up to ten), and we were already three years into the age of Cowboy Bebop or Trigun being readily available on American cable. This was not like the mid-90s when there were more issues of Rob Liefeld’s HAND-O-GUNS (the only antihero with HANDS that are GUNS) than Sailor Moon. This was another manga for the pile.- Was it the publisher? Oni Press is not Marvel or DC Comics, but it was a space for stars. Clerks by Kevin Smith was published by Oni Press. Jingle Belle by Paul Dini was published by Oni Press. The Blair Witch tie-in comic was published by Oni Press (I assure you, this was very important in 2000). Oni Press has had some big names and hits in its day, but even Greg Rucka’s Stumptown only ever got 18 episodes on network television. Young Sheldon got 123 more episodes than that! And your mom knows what that is! Just being a part of Oni Press by no means guaranteed a media legacy like Marvel would a few years later.
- Was it the nerdity? Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life started by introducing the band Sex Bob-Omb, and ended with a look at Crash and the Boys. The Subspace Highway is a clear reference to Super Mario Bros. 2, and fights work on beat ‘em up rules. This is a story using the language of Sega Genesis and Nintendo Entertainment System games. And, back in 2004, a generation of “Nintendo kids” were trying to navigate the same problems as this early-20s protagonist. It was kind of a thing for the era. It is easy to claim O’Malley simply tapped into the nerd zeitgeist of the epoch and rode the same wave that would eventually propel Mario Mario to the big screen (not Bob Hoskins edition). Of course, not like this was only the media property goofing on Sonic the Hedgehog…
And my barely visible point in all of this is that we do not know why Scott Pilgrim took off. If you went back in time and attempted to steal Bryan Lee O’Malley’s thunder, there is no single factor you could employ to replicate this success. Maybe the world needed well-written, gorgeous “Amerimanga”. Or maybe it was just a matter of the right place at the right time. We have no way of knowing! We just know that Oni Press’s own SideScrollers did not see remotely similar success in 2006.
Regardless of why, the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series was critically and publicly acclaimed almost immediately. This led to a second graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, in June of 2005. Here, it is revealed that Kim Pine and Scott Pilgrim have a backstory…
Of course, the original wasn’t in color
And it is basically 1989 NES beat ‘em up River City Ransom (aka Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari aka Street Gangs). This “high school” story is even referenced in later volumes, and occasionally grows more exaggerated…
Until it is revealed that the whole tale was fabricated…
By the villain of the piece, who had been poking around in Scott Pilgrim’s head.
This revelation was saved for the seventh volume, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, which was released in July of 2010. And, speaking of that precious little time, Scott Pilgrim would then be much more of a household name.
A whole lot of things happened a month after Scott Pilgrim’s Final Volume. On August 13, 2010, we got Scott Pilgrim vs. The World…
A film that condensed the entirety of the seven volumes of Scott Pilgrim into one, solid story. Was a lot of potential content left on the cutting room floor? Of course! This is a movie that takes place over the course of, like, a weekend. Scott and Ramona barely know each other before he starts lightly murdering her exes! The glow is gone! Everything about Kim is smoothed out to “she’s like the third sarcastic girl in Scott’s orbit”! Oh, wait, they did have a solution to that…
It was determined that Scott’s River City Ransom-based past was important enough to use in featured promotional material. Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation premiered on Adult Swim the night before the movie launched, and was a faithful adaptation of Scott’s adventure in high school. Is it ever mentioned in the movie? Technically yes! Scott Pilgrim does mention Kim’s backstory before fighting Roxy Richter, so this cartoon is canon to the movie! There is no explanation for whether it is a fantasy composed by Gideon in the film, though, as that adaptation completely drops Gideon’s Scott-based surveillance abilities. So… uh maybe it was real? Whatever! What is important is it happened, and this River City Ransom pastiche graduated from comic to Adult Swim Special. This may have been because River City Ransom was such a large part of Scott Pilgrim DNA that…
August of 2010 also saw the release of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. This was another retelling of the Scott Pilgrim complete heptalogy, but now as a videogame. And it was more River City Ransom than anything! Beat ‘em all up, buy food from shops to increase stats, level up fifteen times or so, and eventually get to Gideon’s turf. Like the attendant graphic novels, it was a tour deforce of videogame references beyond just River City Ransom, but the classic beat ‘em up was the most obvious inspiration.
The only problem was that the initial “low level” beginning of the game was garbage, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game had a more debilitating slow start than Regigas. If you had some friends to bounce off of in the beginning, or maybe this was your first beat ‘em up, it could work. But if you are just starting out with one Scott versus the world? Well, it will be about four stages (out of seven!) before you are moving at a pace faster than Big the Cat, or beating a random mook into submission with less than seventy punches. This was the ideal game for New Game+ runs, but not so much actually starting the game.
And the worst part? In the game that was so clearly inspired by River City Ransom, they did not retread the River City Ransom part! 66% of other Scott Pilgrim media properties got that in there, but Scott’s high school years were ignored on consoles. And nobody cares if Super Simon Lee was intended as a hidden boss! You already had Mr. Chau for that!
Oh, wait, maybe that wasn’t the worst part. Maybe the worst part was that four years after release, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game was completely delisted and effectively obliterated from the universe. Sorry, game that was only ever available digitally!
And thus began the dark ages of Scott Pilgrim.
The story was done! The movie happened! The videogame was a cute tie-in! For about ten years, the best we could hope for was someone coloring in O’Malley’s original art. That was all he wrote. Said “he” even moved on to other projects. It’s done! Everybody move on! You know Kim would.
And then we got a comeback.
Somehow, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game returned. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition released on January 14, 2021 as a major win for games preservation. Unfortunately, it was not much more than that. It was the same game again! Nothing particularly new here, and no way to import a save so you could skip that terrible beginning. You want me to grind for mechanical arms all over again? In this economy? Bah!
But Scott Pilgrim did return with new content in November of 2023 as Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. There are already some legends associated with this series, and some claim that the only reason this project got off the ground was an email chain/group of the actors from the first movie that had apparently been ongoing for over a decade. But what is likely most accurate is that COVID in 2020 led to a number of projects that did not require a cast to all be in the same room, and a Scott Pilgrim series seemed like a slam dunk for a streaming platform that was always looking for the next hit (that would exist for no longer than eight episodes).
And, special bonus, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was definitely the story of an older author looking back on their 20s and saying “hey, I was kind of a mess”. Or… uh… Scott was kind of a mess. Yeah. So it was a new kind of millennial autobiographical tale…
That still found time to reference Scott’s high school years. And it is Kim telling the story this time, which should make it some kind of canon again…
So now Scott Pilgrim Very Obviously Plays River City Ransom was a part of every Scott Pilgrim media for nearly two decades except the one place where you could play River City Ransom. This had to be rectified!
Finally, in March of 2026, Tribute Games, who were responsible for some pretty amazing beat ‘em ups already, (and grew out of the people that made the previous Scott Pilgrim game in the first place) published Scott Pilgrim EX, which finally allows you to guide Scott to fight a giant, flying, laser-eye wielding Simon Lee.
Like Super Shredder, but not
So today’s moral is that no one knows what will or will not become globally popular, but, if you stick with it for twenty-one years, eventually, the one part most obviously based on a videogame will become a videogame. Woo!
FGC #728 Scott Pilgrim EX
- System: I am starting to wonder if the “overlap” period of new gaming systems is ever going to end. This 2026 release is on Playstation 4 & Playstation 5, Xbox One & Xbox X|S, Switch & Switch 2, and Windows. Just Windows.
- Number of players: If someone had gotten off their butt and released this when I was in my 20’s, I might have gotten the full four players on one couch. Alas, that is now but a fantasy.
- Maybe actually talk about the game for a second: This is a beat ‘em up that hits the exact sweet spot of being just long enough to enjoy on a full run and replay continually. Maybe it is because of the swath of minigame diversions? Or because the heroes (and villains) are adorable? Or the time travel conceit allows for just enough variation of enemies and themes? Whatever! Like the original Scott Pilgrim graphic novel, this is something that is objectively well-made, but subjectively I cannot tell you why it is the best. It deserves to be just as successful, though.
Common Complaints: We still have not quite mastered leveling up in a beat ‘em up. The good news is that on a regular playthrough, I never felt like I had to grind or was “too far behind” to do damage or move or whatever. The bad news is that the leveling system really feels punishing when you switch characters and suddenly are playing with a hero that has a speed rating of molasses. I get that it is fun to buy food and get stronger, but could we find a way to swing that so it still encourages experimenting with the whole cast?- Favorite Character: Roxy Richter is the ninja girl we all need. Also, while I am now noticing that the majority of the cast is male, could we get Envy on the playable roster? I feel like her walk animation would make it worth it.
- Is it really a beat ‘em up? There are two mandatory fights on an elevator. Yes, it is the same elevator, but it is the thought that counts.
- Say something mean: I understand the Ocarina of Time reference with the musical instruments and their attendant button presses, but the whole concept never really goes anywhere interesting. It is just a slightly unique key system. If you are going to do something like that, at least make the final ensemble of all the instruments play out like the Wind Fish finale.
- Just play the gig, man: Anamanaguchi returns on music duty. I will say that possibly the only place that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game has a leg up on its sequel is in the background music department. That is such a great soundtrack! Sorry to say, Scott Pilgrim EX only scores a “it’s pretty alright”, and is unlikely to be something I will be listening to individually for the next fifteen years.
- Favorite Reference: There are 10,000,000,000,000 videogame references across this Scott Pilgrim World. In fact, I have a hard time finding a specific frame of this game that is not referencing something else. So we are just going to go ahead and say “it was cool to see the Double Dragon garage”… before we have to address how that segues into another tired Bimmy
‘n Jammy joke. 
Did you know (Tribute Games Edition): Before Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, the people that would leave Ubisoft to found Tribute Games worked on TMNT for the Gameboy Advance. And… if I check my notes here… That was one of the bad ones! Dammit! Now I’m angry all over again! Goddamned fish boss…- Did you know (Scott Pilgrim Edition): This game is stated to be the sequel to the Netflix series. And, as these things go, the Netflix series is likely best considered a spin-off of the movie material, though it theoretically could be based on any of the canons. Regardless, this game features a fight at Gideon’s (closed) Chaos Theatre… but Ramona’s stuff is still all over the floor. And her purse only exploded distinctly in the finale of the graphic novel series. So, in conclusion, this is a Zelda timeline situation.
- Would I play again: This is a really fun beat ‘em up. And I have, like, 80% of the achievements. I’ll probably go for 100% somewhere down the line…
What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Kitsune Tails! Woo-Hoo. Please look forward to it!
