So the film sort of flopped during its opening weekend, but video game fans were in for a treat with the recent release of Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Considering the countless number of video game references there are in the movie, it is no surprise that comic author Bryan Lee O'Malley and movie director Edgar Wright are huge fans of gaming. In fact, the director personally wrote a letter to Nintendo asking permission to use songs from The Legend of Zelda in his film, calling the Zelda theme “the nursery rhyme of this generation”.
However, many of these references were brief and may have been difficult to notice. The following is a list of just about every video game reference in the Scott Pilgrim vs the World movie that I could catch.
- The movie opens with music from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past coming from Young Neil's Nintendo DS. Because it's being played on the NDS, it must be the The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords version for the Gameboy Advance.
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- The Zelda “fanfare” sound effect plays when Knives Chau opens the door.
- The name of the movie, “Scott Pilgrim vs the World”, has a similar title as the 1991 game The Simpsons: Bart vs the World.
- The Sex Bob-Omb logo looks like a less angry version of Serious Sam's logo.
- During
the description for Stacey Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim's sister, she is
described as “Rated T for Teen”. This is one of the video game ratings
for the North American/Canadian Electronic Software Ratings Board
(ESRB).
- Scott and Knives play Ninja Ninja Revolution, obviously a parody of Dance Dance Revolution.
- Scott babbles about the history of Pac-Man's name to Knives and Ramona Flowers. He tells her that the character was originally named “Puck Man” when it was first introduced into the North American market. However, fear that vandals would likely change the “p” in Puck to a “f” forced the developers to change his name to “Pac-Man.”
- Scott's band is named the “Sex Bomb-omb”, which is named after the generic Mario Bros enemies Bob-ombs.
- The “Great Fairy Fountain” song from The Legend of Zelda series is playing in the background during Scott's first dream of Ramona Flowers.
- Scott performs a Dragon Punch uppercut during his fight with Matthew Patel, a move from the Street Fighter series. Unfortunately, he doesn't yell “SHORYUKEN!”
- “K.O.” is announced at the end of the fight between Matthew Patel and Scott Pilgrim. This sound effect is the same one used in the Street Fighter series.
- Each of the seven evil exes explode and turn into coins when they are defeated. This is similar to all of the enemies in River City Ransom.
- Scott plays the bass line for the Final Fantasy IV battle theme during rehearsal.
- The “ring” sound effect from Sonic the Hedgehog is played during Scott's confrontation with Todd Ingram backstage.
- The “zone cleared” sound effect from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is used when Scott Pilgrim “gets it” about the relationship between Ramona and Roxy.
- Roxy Richter uses a segmented sword, similar to the one used by Ivy from the Soul Calibur series.
- Roxy's last name is “Richter”, the same name as “Richter Belmont” from the Castlevania series. She also uses a whip as a weapon, similar to Richter Belmont.
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- The “defeated enemy” sound effect from the Legend of Zelda (NES) is heard during the battle between Ramona and Roxy Richter.
- The name of Envy Adams' band is “The Clash at Demonhead”, which is also the name of a 1990 NES game.
- Scott is wearing a shirt with the “bass icon” from the Rock Band games during his battle against the Katayanagi twins.
- Scott Receives an extra life, or a 1-up, after his fight with the Katayanagi twins.
- Wallace Wells tells Scott to “Finish him!!,” in a similar manner as the announcer for Mortal Kombat.
- The final duel takes place in the Chaos Theater, which is a name of a locale in Earthbound.
- Scott's stats increase when he receives the power of love and the power of self-respect. Stat increases are common in role playing games.
- G-Man has the same name as a recurring character in the Half-Life series.
- The logo on G-Man's shirt looks like an upside-down version of the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda series.
- “2 Player Mode” is displayed when Knives joins Scott in combat.
- The bodies of Scott and Knives pulse red when they are low in health, which is a characteristic of weakened boss characters in brawlers/beat-em-ups.
- Gideon had a health bar during his fight with Scott and Knives.
- Gideon's beam katana looks similar to the one used by Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.
- “Nega Scott,” a dark version of Scott Pilgrim, looks similar to “Dark Link” from The Legend of Zelda series. Dark Link is an evil doppelgänger of Link, and is typically black with red eyes.
