Who is Scott Pilgrim? According to the official website, “Scott Pilgrim is 23 years old, living in the big city with his gay roommate, just trying to get by in this crazy world. He’s in a band. He’s lazy. He likes video games.”

More accurately, Scott Pilgrim is a graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O’Malley set in a universe that combines video games with real life. The entire premise is that the series centers around Scott, who is in love with the new girl in town, Scott’s hometown of Toronto. Ramona Flowers, who is American. However, before he can actually date her, Scott has to defeat her seven evil exes. The combination of action, romance, and comedy elements maintains interest while giving a good story with witty humor and numerous video game references. Gamers will flock to this series because of the classic video game references and premise of the world Scott lives in. This series has everyday people with the ability to do amazing things straight out of classic games, yet it’s not out of the ordinary for them. Musicians can sympathize with the struggles of being in a band and all the things that could interfere with the music or just trying to get noticed by producers. Scott being in a band opens up an entirely different level to the series that broadens its appeal even more. Even people with no interest in music or video games can enjoy this series because of the romantic story it presents and the hilarious writing it includes. The series is six volumes long, nice and short compared to some graphic novels, and it allows you to read a good chunk of the story with each book.

More recently, a Scott Pilgrim movie has come out named after the second part in the graphic novel series. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” premiered on August 13 of this year, directed by Edgar Wright, the guy behind movies such as “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”. The movie received good reviews for the most part, with a tagline of “An epic of epic epicness”. The movie spans all six parts of the graphic novel series, and incorporates the best parts of every novel. The movie as well as the graphic novels shows the same references and sheer hilarity, whether it is the Zelda theme playing in the movie or the Seinfeld theme playing in Scott’s apartment. Events from the comic are recreated beautifully in the movie in ways that blow the mind. It maintains the humor that will keep you laughing throughout the movie, and the romance between Scott and Ramona is more tangible in the movie than the comic. While certain things are different from the books, the movie has the same qualities that made the graphic novels golden. The action scenes play out just like in the novels, and the visuals blend in a way that amazes the eyes. References can be seen even more clearly, obvious things like a Street Fighter fight scene show up and the people who get it are instantly drawn in, while others will just enjoy the scene. Michael Cera plays the same character he always plays, that of the classic awkward teenager, but he makes a certain distinction with Scott Pilgrim to show the differences from real life and this world. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” was an amazing film, and the entire premise from the graphic novels is maintained, allowing this movie to show the same charm as the graphic novels did.

The gamers who appreciated the references in both the graphic novels and the movies also have a Scott Pilgrim video game. Released as a downloadable game selling for less than $10, it was nominated as the Best Downloadable game for 2010. Being such a small game, the romance and comedy has been left out of the game big time, but the actual game play is the whole appeal. Gamers will recognize the classic beat ‘em up, side-scrolling game play style reminiscent of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game from the classic Nintendo Entertainment System. There are also many classic video game references inside the giant reference that is the game itself. You can level up one of four characters; Scott Pilgrim, Stephen Stills, Kim Pine, of Ramona Flowers to a maximum of 16 levels. The game goes by quickly, but it’s a lot of fun whether you’re a fan of the series or not, and playing with three of your friends makes it even better. Basically, it’s worth a lot more than it goes for, and it’s totally worth the buy.