Sidescrolling beat-’em-ups can easily devolve into repetitive mindlessness, but Scott Pilgrim avoids the pitfalls to deliver simple, old-style fun. Based on its comic-book namesake, the game proudly wears its influences — most notably, NES classic River City Ransom — on its sleeve.

Like Castle Crashers before it, Scott Pilgrim’s light dose of role-playing progression kept us hooked. Punching, kicking, and baseball-batting enemies to death makes them drop coins (cashed in for health, strength, and speed boosts), while also giving you experience points (which translate into cool new combos and abilities as you level up). The slow leveling is annoying at times, especially when you and up to three co-op pals have to split your earned coins and XP. This game is ruthlessly hard if your characters aren’t strong enough, so you’ll need to replay completed worlds repeatedly to earn more money and moves.

Fortunately, the game is fantastic on almost every level, especially for longtime gamers. Its nods to old-school gaming — including references to arcade hits like Golden Axe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — even extend to its art: the pseudo–16-bit graphics and chiptunes soundtrack give it the feel of a high-res SNES classic. It absolutely nails its ambitions, and we love that.

Regrettably, couch co-op is the only option, and the lack of Live multiplayer sucks. Its absence doesn’t ruin the game — playing alone is a blast, despite the challenging enemies — but it’s something we want patched in, pronto.

Scott Pilgrim hardly has an original idea of its own, and that’s entirely the point: it’s a wonderful homage to its predecessors, while still proving thoroughly enjoyable in its own right.

On Xbox Live Arcade

+ Leveling up + great combat options = top-notch 2D action.

+ Absolutely gorgeous art; incredible soundtrack.

- No online multiplayer? Really?

? No, seriously: where the hell is online multiplayer?

8.5