Anybody else pick up this game. It's one of those rare good licensed games. Old school River City Ransom style gameplay with great sprite animation and chiptune music. Loads of tributes to other games as well as the comic. Up your stats by buying food and items and learn new moves by gaining experience and leveling up. The only thing which I'm a little down about is the game can get a little easy when you max out your character and the differences between Average Joe and Supreme Master difficulties are negligable. Still if you like the comics or plan to see the film, or just like old school beat'em ups, Anamanaguchi or Paul Robertson the game is completely worth it at only $10 on the PSN.

I've been having a blast with it since yesterday.

I agree... It's totally worth 10$ and you know it's something special if Isukun and I agree on it. I've spent many an hour arguing with this guy. It feels good to be on the same side for a change ;D My only complaint is no online. WTF? That would have made this game perfect in everyway.

The lack of online doesn't bother me too much since I don't play games online, anyway. I could see them wanting to add it if the game had more longevity to it, but as it is, it's pretty easy to max out your characters fairly quickly. It's not a game you'll be spending weeks on trying to do everything, but for $10 it's definitely worth it. There was also a past interview where they pretty much said the lack of online was due to time constraints (and despite the stupidly long credits, the actual dev team is pretty small, companies just seem to feel it's necessary to list out every freaking employee in the credits these days, even if they didn't touch the game). It is still a movie tie-in game, so hitting that release date is pretty important.

I'd really love to see them release a legit OST for the game, too. The music is some of the best game music I've heard in years. Absolutely love Clash at Demonhead, Chengdu Gardens, and Dragon's Den. Just goes to prove full orchestration and CD music doesn't always make for a better soundtrack.

I also love that they worked in a bunch of old school cheat codes, including one that references the comics. Still don't know how to unlock that last character, though.

The gameplay has gotten me kind of pumped to get back to work on the game I've been working on with a friend of mine over at iNiS. It's in a similar vein, 2D sprite based beat'em up. Our game has a heavier emphasis on crazy combos and mixes in shooter elements. I'm hoping once we have some early code to show off, we can appeal to get it bumped up to an Xbox Live Arcade title and maybe get a decent budget to get a few extra bodies on the team.

Xbox Live Arcade has a section for small budget fan made games. It seems like it isn't very difficult to get your game on there. So if you were to finish it I'm sure you could get in.

Yes, I know about the independent games channel. That's why I said hopefully we can appeal to get it bumped up. I'd rather it be a full fledged arcade title. Independent games can't be updated, so DLC and patches are out of the question. Plus potential sales are much lower on the Independent Games channel since you get no publicity and people have to actually search for your game after the first few days when you drop off the top of the list.

Don't you need a publisher for that? Anyway this is getting off topic...

I'm totally in lesbians with Scott Pilgrim but I'm a little disappointed to discover of it's existance since it's really similar to my work but famous :/ I didn't know anything about it until I saw the movie trailer about a month ago.

I don't agree that the game has little replay value I bet it already and I still play the heck out of it. The trohpys are fun to get and there are still secrets I haven't unlocked.

The publisher thing is the easy part since for a game which is distributed online, you can just declare yourself the publisher. The problem is getting approval from Microsoft. They're a bit more lenient with companies that have a track record than someone who just appears out of the blue.

I'm totally in lesbians with Scott Pilgrim but I'm a little disappointed to discover of it's existance since it's really similar to my work but famous :/ I didn't know anything about it until I saw the movie trailer about a month ago.

Mal was a bonafide starving artist. If he didn't get lucky with some famous director liking his Scott Pilgrim, he'd still be a starving artist who just got a few comics printed by some Canadian indie publisher. I mean, seriously, Oni Press? Who? Mal was asking for donations.

Anyways, my point is that he's famous not because he's special, or better, or whatever. He was just willing to be a starving artist, and work at it, and he got his lucky break.

That said, however, I worked with the guy in early webcomics, and he can actually draw. Granted Scott Pilgrim doesn't have dazzling art, but Mal can in fact draw much better than the average amateur. I don't want to insult ppl's egos, so take that as you will.

I'm not insulted. I don't consider myself to be an amatuer tho just because I'm not famous. I don't think you should either I've seen your work it's really good. I've seen what it takes to get famous and it's about who you know more than anything.

Warpedwenger
I don't consider myself to be an amatuer tho just because I'm not famous. I don't think you should either I've seen your work it's really good. I've seen what it takes to get famous and it's about who you know more than anything.

My point of talking about O'Malley is:

(1) I know he's not a hack. He has actual storytelling and drawing ability.
(2) I know he wasn't born with a silver spoon, like his Daddy knows ppl who knows ppl, or somesuch. He trudged through many years as a small-time starving artist, and he kept at it.

I'm defending his right to become famous overnight. Basically.

I'm an amateur because comics/art isn't my profession. I decided back in college that comics would be a hobby.

I never attacked the man his work is amazing so what are you trying to say?

I decided to check out a video of the gameplay and it almost makes me want to go out and pick up a 360 right away or at least obtain this through...certain unmentionable means.

I wish they'd port a game like this to Steam and then offer USB controller support. Something tells me they'd get a lot more attention that way. I would even venture to guess that anyone that owns a computer and enjoys gaming - be it casual or otherwise - has Steam installed on it.

I doubt they would get more attention on Steam. Most PC gamers these days are the casual of the casual, playing mostly social networking or Flash games that they can access for free. That type really doesn't bother with services like Steam. Steam is more popular among the hardcore group, but the game really does cater more to the larger console crowd. It's not like it's some obscure game that's getting overlooked on the consoles. It's turning out to be a pretty popular title despite the online only distribution.

Isn't it only on PS3 tho?

No, it comes out for the 360 on the 25th. Microsoft's Summer of Arcade held it back since they require any games released during the Summer of Arcade to be at least exclusive until 4 weeks after the end of the promotion. Otherwise, the game would have launched simultaneously on both systems.

isukun
Most PC gamers these days are the casual of the casual, playing mostly social networking or Flash games that they can access for free. That type really doesn't bother with services like Steam.

That may be true, but I'm just saying that I haven't met a gamer yet that doesn't own at least one of the Half-Life's, casual or not. Even an old neighbor of mine who's in her fifties purchased the first one on the principle that it was an amazing deal (the one they had two years ago). Funny thing is, she never disabled the log in on start-up, so she's always looking at the advertisements before hastily closing them.

I feel like if they do decide to port this game to the PC, it will end up on Steam anyway. Most console-originated games gone multi end up there because it's easy and efficient for the company, and it's a self-marketing platform. I never thought the arcade shooter, Geometry Wars would end up there, but eventually it did.

I've met plenty. In fact, I only know a handful of people who have even played the game and most of them just played the first game before Steam even existed.

The game was amazing! Best 15-20 hours of my life getting all of the trophies!

isukun
I've met plenty. In fact, I only know a handful of people who have even played the game and most of them just played the first game before Steam even existed.

Eh? Naw, I think blindskhas a point here. Most PC gamers will have played Halflife. Mainly because tF2 and Portol were so amazing on PC and of course they all came out with the orange Box... as they did on console too, but things like TF2 were getting a lot more support on the PC version ;)

Sales really don't reflect that. Half-life, even as a series hasn't sold enough units to hit the majority of PC gamers.

ozoneocean
Most PC gamers will have played Halflife. Mainly because tF2 and Portol were so amazing on PC and of course they all came out with the orange Box...

I didn't even think of Portal! Actually, that might be more likely than Half-Life that nearly every gamer would own a copy, and even more likely on PC (now that they have Mac support, a most obvious assumption). I mean, remember when they made Portal free?

You could even take a game like TF2 and make the same argument (as Ozone touched upon). A lot of players on the 360 switched to PC because it was missing the updates. Valve never updated because they wanted it free, but apparently XBLA's marketing requires them to charge money as DLC or something.

Anyway, I'm just saying that Steam is about as widely popular as XBLA and most definitely PSN. Something like this will get a lot of attention by releasing on Steam, especially to the strictly PC audience.

The number of Steam accounts is about on par with the number of PSN accounts, which puts them about 10 million subscribers behind the number of Xbox Live accounts (and nowhere even remotely close to the total number of PC gamers). Plus, ever since Steam was introduced, you needed an account just to activate the games from Valve, even if you bought the box versions in the store. So basically, the number of people who have played Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Left4Dead and any other spin-offs or variants will not be greater than the number of Steam subscribers.

Besides which, it's a console style game aimed at console audiences. Playing with the keyboard isn't exactly ideal and a lot of gamers don't see much point in investing in gamepads and sticks when your average RTS, MMO, or FPS plays better with the mouse and keyboard. The game is also pretty poorly optimized for the PS3, I doubt a PC version would fare better.

isukun
Plus, ever since Steam was introduced, you needed an account just to activate the games from Valve, even if you bought the box versions in the store. So basically, the number of people who have played Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Left4Dead and any other spin-offs or variants will not be greater than the number of Steam subscribers.

That's just it - factor in the amount of players that install Steam just for those games on top of the players that are subscribers anyway, and you have a huge amount of gamers to promote your game for. And since you're wanting to bring up numbers, I sifted through several press releases that contradict what you're saying.

I assumed earlier that Steam has a huge presence in the digital downloading scene, and it turns out they're even stronger than I original thought. Just reading through this has informed me that Steam is allegedly 70% of the digital download market. This includes XBLA and PSN. Yes, it's based on sales, and fine, I understand that Steam counts full-prices game whereas XBLA typically doesn't. You could have a valid argument against that. But take a look at this...

Valve released information on their number of subscribers . And then we also can see how Xbox LIVE did as well . They are spaced a year apart, but I'm willing to bet Steam is still ahead, if not about on par with XBLA in the number of subscribers counted today. I still stand by what I say - Steam would be a viable platform for them to release this game on, plus it will get a lot of attention.

And yep, I did notice it's an arcade-styled fighting game. There are plenty more of them found on Steam. Luckily, they'd probably add controller support, because it turns out you can hook those up to your computer as well.

Hopefully that's enough for you, because I think this game deserves more conversation than we're giving it. I apologize if my vouching for the only platform I own - in turn hoping to see the game released on it - has bothered you.

Where the heck is this game??? I have a PS3 and I couldn't find it searching in the Playstation Store.

I have a PS3 and a PC.

It should definitely be in the Playstation store if you're in the North American, Australian or European regions. It shows up for me.

And yep, I did notice it's an arcade-styled fighting game. There are plenty more of them found on Steam.

Plenty? Where? I see a bunch of Sega ports, Street Fighter IV, and an indie game, none of which ever came close to topping a sales chart on Steam. The most popular games on there are the FPSs.

Luckily, they'd probably add controller support, because it turns out you can hook those up to your computer as well.

You kind of missed the point I was trying to make there that most PC gamers don't need controllers for the majority of games they play, so they don't typically go out and buy them.

Alright, so I finally went and checked out this game at a friend's place...and most of you probably won't like what I have to say about it. It honestly felt like one of those typical cash-ins where Universal pretty much just said, "well, the movie's out, how about we throw whatever remnants we have of a game out there as well."

The art style is interesting and the music compliments the style well. But the gameplay just fell short for me. I felt like the developers were given the game Castle Crashers(far superior game) and said, "hey, let's try to do that." Half the time I was just mashing one button, the abilities you gained weren't all that inspiring (I mean, the charge thing, seriously?). Castle Crashers set an extremely high bar for these types of games, and this just fell short in nearly every way.

Might be a little harsh, considering this is just a ten dollar game. But I don't think it's worth it for something that only quenches that nostalgia trip (which seems to be the draw for those that like it). Sorry to say, but I feel like this is an insult to both the comic and movie, both of which are much better than the adaptation in this particular medium.

I take it you didn't play for very long. I honestly felt Castle Crashers really didn't do anything for the genre. They took some ideas from other games and made an incredibly shallow gaming experience with a few RPG elements tacked on. That one really was a button masher with easy canned combos and infinites. Plus every character played exactly the same down to identical attack animations with only slight variations in spell effects. Weapons and familiars did little beyond boosting your stats. The weapons all functioned exactly the same and had the same range. The only characters who showed any variety were the main four and even then it was only some of their spells. The game involved a lot of grinding, which may have been entertaining if the combat system were more robust instead of being a bland button masher.

The only thing Castle Crashers really has over Scott Pilgrim is the collectibles. There is more to keep you playing long term because it takes longer to level and get everything in the game. Apart from that, though, Scott Pilgrim has a deeper combat system (pick up and use or throw items and enemies, special attacks, strikers, combo attacks, grapples, counters, dashing to increase damage, etc), the enemies show more variety in their attack patterns (they aren't just alternate versions of the playable characters and their AI varies based on type, they dash in, block a lot, or seek out and throw items to keep the player at a distance), and the items and weapons you pick up have a bit more variety and function than those of Castle Crashers.

Yeah, I played about two hours worth of the game (so far). I can give it another chance, but the impression I got from that amount was that this game is trying really hard to basically be a Castle Crashers type of game. Looking back though, I think the reason CC sold me in the first place was the co-op experience (probably my favorite element in most games).

I tried really hard to like this game, and for me, the art style was what pulled me in. But even that began to fall short what with the lack of diversity in enemies (same sprites but different t-shirt colors for some of them), it's just something I don't like to see in games these days. I understand they're going for the retro feel to it, which is fine when done right.

But how you described CC as - a bland button masher - was how I felt for this game. How did I take out an enemy? Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap the same button over and over again. And then eventually I leveled up and received a new ability - now I could run and attack, now I could pick up objects and use that to attack, now I could pick up other guys and attack...I just found the lack of variety to lose my interest in the game. I realize the big name game reviewers are in love with this game, and quite a few people love it as well, but I just feel it's...lacking. CC set a high bar for me, and this just felt banal compared to that.

In the back of mind, I just kept thinking of Universal's approach to this game: when they handed it down to the few developers they had working on it, they're pitch really just was, "make it retro, because the movie is sort of like that." Then they all got together and played a game like, oh say, Final Fight and copied many of the elements found in that title. The deadline of course was to coincide with the movie's release, so whatever they slapped together in nine-ten months is what we're seeing now. Just felt like a total cash-in to me.

If you want my perfect example of a cheap (in price) arcade, retro-styled yet has a modern touch type of game, check out Geometry Wars. At least with a downloadable game, I would hope they could grab my attention within the first hour of gameplay, and this game shined in that respect where SP did not.

now I could run and attack, now I could pick up objects and use that to attack, now I could pick up other guys and attack

You can pick up items and enemies from the start. The leveling system probably isn't the best for Scott Pilgrim, but that doesn't make the game lacking in variety. Most enemy types block if you button mash, especially in the higher difficulties and straight on attacks don't always work, especially since a number of enemy types have ranged attacks or dedicated weapons. You even have enemies who counter grapples or hit you from the ground. You don't see much of that in Castle Crashers.

Castle Crachers is basically just a game full of clone characters. Most enemies are just clones of the main playable characters, hence all the unlockable characters. Behemoth didn't have to do much of anything to reprogram the AI or move sets for any of the characters or basic enemies since they all function basically the same.

If you're seeing characters with pallet swaps in Scott Pilgrim you're not looking very hard. There are no pallet swapped enemies in the game. You have a few types with similar functions, like the three fatty characters, although they all have completely original sprites and some differences in their move sets. Having multiple enemies of the same type show up really isn't any different than any other game in this genre, Castle Crashers included, but SP offers more variety in how those enemies function. There are eight basic enemy types in stage 1 and they all have very different attack patterns and AI and every stage afterwards introduces new enemy types. Most stages in Castle Crashers would only have one or two basic enemy types and at least one would be a clone character.

I would buy SP on principle just because blindsk hates it and Isukun likes it, LOL. Unfortunately I'm in the East Asia region these days and it seems it's not on the PS Store here yet. It shouldn't be too long though; they're probably waiting to release it with the movie's Asia screening.

Blindsk repeatedly citing Castle Crashers rather than River City Ransom makes it apparent that he's ignorant of the 2 game's origins. I think he thinks Castle Crashers wins points on innovation while SP does not, or something. It's like saying Warhammer 40K is ripping off Starcraft. It invalidates his opinions even more.

Oh and thanks, now I know not to check out Castle Crashers.

BTW, is this game 2-player (offline)? It saves your progress? How long is it?