Finding Closure

The Scott Pilgrim franchise is born primarily from creator Bryan Lee O’Malley’s young adulthood in Toronto, Canada, and the music that defined that period of his life. But just as important is O’Malley’s appreciation for video games. The 2010 movie adaptation begins with the attract screen music from The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, and the remainder of the film and the comic is absolutely littered with all manner of video game references.

In tandem with the movie, Ubisoft released a beloved retro beat ’em up that pitted Scott against Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes to win her adoration. It was created by members of Ubisoft who had recently moved on from Game Boy Advance development, so their pixel muscles were still strong. Jonathan Lavigne was a designer on that game alongside a small team, and as Ubisoft now seems prone to do (e.g. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown), the team was disbanded and redistributed within Ubisoft after launch without a direct follow-up project planned.