WHAT IS IT?

A low-budget digital reimagining of beloved 90s Star Trek series Voyager, and, incidentally, Voyager‘s second quasi-sequel this year (after Starfleet Academy, of course).

IS IT GOOD?

Surprisingly, yes, though its complex systems – and deep love for obscure Trek lore – make this one only for the diehards.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Annika Hansen. Icheb’s Ghost. Mirror Harry.

FLASHBACK

It’s an interesting time for Trekkies.

The dreadful Star Trek Discovery is finally behind us, even as its pseudo-sequel, the Toronto-shot (and occasionally Toronto-set!) Strange New Worlds, has shown it’s still possible to deliver some good old-fashioned Trek.

Meanwhile, Disco’s other sequel, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, has offered up a weird hybrid of the two, doling out fan service – hello, Voyager’s The Doctor! – alongside occasionally excruciating YA melodrama. The jury’s still out on Starfleet Academy, though there’s no denying the power of its DS9/Benjamin Sisko tribute episode last month.

Into the fray enters a legacyquel of its own, Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, which essentially functions as a “what if” scenario for fans of the TV series, which ran seven seasons during the era of Peak Trek. While never as popular as fellow 90s Treks The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, Voyager remains a beloved entry in the canon, no doubt bolstered by the enduring popularity of its two female leads, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), both of whom have popped up in recent projects like Star Trek: Prodigy and the Next Generation “coda” Star Trek: Picard.

Those projects, supported by a Hollywood budget and investment in returning characters, can’t really be compared to Across the Unknown, an avowedly budget title from an unknown studio, with relatively simplistic graphics, iterative design, and mostly lacking voicework (though both Robert Duncan McNeill and Tim Russ are on hand to provide voiceover readings of their characters’ “personal logs”).

Just to give an idea of how budget this game is: until release, it wasn’t even clear if it had cleared the rights to Voyager’s wonderful theme music. (Spoilers: it’s here, even if the rest of the soundtrack is fairly bland.)

Colour me surprised, then, that after some admittedly confused opening hours, I’ve found Across the Unknown to be an overall enjoyable experience, revisiting key moments from the series in the guise of an engaging (if hopelessly complicated) spaceship-management sim.

YEAR OF HELL

Star Trek: Voyager, which ran from 1995-2001 as the flagship series of the UPN network (rip), follows the crew of the USS Voyager (callsign NCC-7465, but then you knew that already), stranded halfway across the Milky Way galaxy in what Trek lore refers to as the “Delta Quadrant”.

A relatively unknown area of space – and home to the horrifying Borg, villains of the best Star Trek movie – Voyager’s unique setting allowed its writers to explore (at least in theory) new species, new conflicts, and new tensions, with the stranded ship having to balance the desire to return home against the responsibility to uphold Starfleet values. (Early on, the show also tried to make a big deal of the fact Voyager “absorbed” a crew of anti-Starfleet Maquis revolutionaries into the ship’s ranks, though the Maquis folks honestly settled into their Starfleet uniforms a little too well, and too quickly.)

Across the Unknown, which draws on such popular sci-fi video game series as XCOM and FTL, is a game about exploration, and about decision-making, in line with the challenges a starship captain might face while stranded 70,000 lightyears from home. Play alternates between management sim – explore systems, collect resources, upgrade systems – and a relatively simplistic choose-your-own adventure campaign, which mixes up new storylines with those remembered (or, in some cases, only half-remembered) from the TV series.

Much of the tension in Across the Unknown comes not from the life-or-death decisions found in the story – sorry, Seven/Chakotay stans – but in your ability to manage the crew’s ever dwindling morale. While it may be tempting, for example, to invest all your resources into weapons and shields, turning Voyager into a bullying warship (abandoning your Federation principles along the way!), you’ll still to ensure Neelix’s mess is up and running, and there are enough quarters to house your demoralized crew. It is, in other words, a balancing act, one that you’ll constantly be managing throughout its approximately twelve-hour runtime. (Or, if you prefer, half a 90s Trek season.)

COURSE: OBLIVION

Even with – or possibly because of – its surfeit of tutorial-style assists, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by Across the Unknown, with its confusing array of rapidly dwindling ship resources, systems to manage, research trees to unlock, “work teams” to deploy. This is probably the worst thing about the game, the persistent feeling that you’re overlooking something, that some system you’re not even aware of is about to fail. Even after far too many hours with the game, there are still times when “my” Voyager will suddenly collapse into “Grey Mode”, life support systems offline, because I’ve overlooked some obscure system or gameplay mechanic.

That said, there’s an undeniably appealing rhythm to Across the Unknown, one in which you learn to always have a research project on the go (pro tip: develop the plasma torch early), always have a new room under construction (another pro tip: Engineering Offices are the main way to increase your “work teams”), always have a pending trade deal (last tip: pay close attention to what’s going on in the Aeroshuttle Hangar), even as you pursue the immediate mission lines to progress the story.

About that: one of the best things about Across the Unknown is its ability to unfold stories quite organically. The game does a lot of work to make you feel like you’re merely stumbling into scenarios, instead of ticking check-marks from an episode guide.

You might, for instance, come across a wormhole, only to discover it’s a teeny-tiny wormhole, only to also discover that on the other side… well, Voyager fans know already what’s there, but let’s refrain from spoilers for now. You might also, to give one more example, be out on a seemingly random away mission, only to encounter an organ-harvesting operation, which then unfolds into a larger mystery (and throughline from the early seasons of Voyager).

What’s also lovely about these scenarios is that they’re a chance to depart from Trek canon, gleefully disregarding the show in order to cultivate your own Voyager experience. To offer a prime example: on a lark, I disregarded Starfleet protocol and abandoned the Ocampa during the “series premiere” mission, using the Caretaker Array to blast home and short-circuit, well, the entirety of Voyager seasons 1-7. (Don’t worry: the game offered me the chance to “reconsider” my option and do the right thing.)

At other times, you might be tasked with ferreting out a traitor – the canonically wrong answer letting you embrace a certain “Bajoran” as a permanent member of your crew – or deciding how to resolve an infamous ethical conundrum (#justicefortuvix).

Even though many of these boil down to multiple-choice menu selections, it’s still fun, for a certain kind of dork, to fool around with the canon this way. Bear in mind that these choices are meaningful – you’ll gain and lose crew members in occasionally shocking ways, and there’s a good chance that the Voyager at the end of your story will little resemble the Voyager of “Endgame”. Personally, though I’ve largely played the “good guy”, there have definitely been moments when, plagued by dwindling resources and plummeting morale, I was awfully tempted to just go all Equinox on the Quadrant.

And that’s Across the Unknown in a nutshell. If any of those choices, those references, made you smile in recognition, you’re bound to have a fun time in this game. If you’re looking for a digestible, bite-sized experience – Across the Unknown is very Steam Deck-friendly, with its discrete and easily interruptible mission structure – you’ll appreciate this opportunity to experience yet another episodic Trek, whether at home or on the go.

And if the prospect of minutely managing a Federation starship’s complex interconnected systems unnerves you, rest assured there’s an easy mode. (Honestly, it’s a much better game on easy mode, where the fail conditions aren’t quite so harsh.)

Just please do me a favour: don’t activate that godawful “Fair Haven” holodeck program.

***
Final score: 7/10 operatic doctors.

Visit the official website for Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown here.

The post Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown (PS5) Review: Fun Will Now Commence appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

With the launch of MLB The Show 26 on March 17 (with early access beginning March 13), the development team is pushing that realism even further while trying to keep the game accessible to players who may not be hardcore baseball strategists.

Speaking with the Toronto Guardian ahead of launch, Ramone Russell — who leads Product Development, Communications and Brand Strategy for the series — explained that balancing realism with fun remains one of the biggest challenges in building a baseball simulation.

“It’s very difficult,” Russell said. “It’s definitely not a science. It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of luck. Baseball is just a different animal.”

Balancing realism and accessibility

Unlike many sports games, baseball simulations must replicate a sport where failure is common even for elite players. Russell noted that this makes designing gameplay systems particularly tricky.

“If it’s too realistic, then it’s not fun,” he explained. “And maybe if it’s too fun, then it’s not realistic.”

To strike that balance, the studio relies heavily on experience within the team itself. Russell said the gameplay group includes both passionate baseball fans and people who have actually played the sport professionally.

“Our gameplay team has, for the most part, remained the same since the inception of the franchise — over 26 years ago,” he said. “We’ve had the same gameplay director, which is incredible in any industry.”

The result is a game that tries to mirror real baseball while still being approachable for new players.

A new way to hit the ball

One of the most noticeable gameplay additions in MLB The Show 26 is a new batting mechanic called Big Zone Hitting.

Hitting has always been one of the hardest parts of baseball — something Russell emphasized while describing the new system.

“Hitting is the hardest thing to do in all of sports,” he said. “Round bat, round ball — physics, weird things happening — and then you have athletic people running to catch it.”

Big Zone Hitting was designed to bridge the gap between the game’s existing control schemes. The traditional Zone hitting method gives players precise control but can be difficult for beginners, while Timing hitting is easier but less strategic.

The new system sits somewhere in the middle.

“It’s not as hard as Zone, but it gives you a little bit more control than Timing,” Russell said. “It was something that our fans were asking for.”

New attributes and improved fielding

Gameplay improvements extend well beyond batting.

The developers have introduced new player attributes influenced by the rise of advanced analytics in modern baseball. Pitchers now feature more detailed left- and right-handed split attributes, while fielders have new ratings that affect their directional movement and reaction times.

Fans had long complained that defensive players often behaved too similarly.

“Our fans were saying, ‘All of the fielders move the same. They react the same,’” Russell said.

To address that, the team added four new defensive attributes designed to create clearer differences between elite defenders and average ones.

Animations also received a major overhaul, particularly for catchers and infielders.

Because many real-life catchers now receive pitches while kneeling on one knee, the animation team completely re-recorded the position’s motion capture data.

“Our gameplay team and animation team recaptured all of our catcher animations — every single one,” Russell said.

Expanding the Road to the Show journey

One of the biggest structural changes in MLB The Show 26 appears in the popular single-player career mode, Road to the Show.

The game now expands the amateur portion of a player’s career, allowing players to experience more high school and college baseball before reaching the professional level.

According to Russell, the decision came directly from community feedback.

“The feedback that we heard from our fans said they liked the college experience,” he explained. “So it was like, ‘Well, if you liked it, let’s add 11 more colleges.’”

The game also now includes the officially licensed College World Series, complete with authentic stadium environments, uniforms, celebrations and crowd chants.

The development team studied extensive footage to recreate the atmosphere.

“We watch so much film at the studio, it’s ridiculous,” Russell said with a laugh.

The Road to Cooperstown

Once players reach the major leagues, MLB The Show 26 introduces a new progression system called Road to Cooperstown, designed to give players more goals during the long grind of a professional career.

The system challenges players with short-term objectives that reward them with additional training points and faster progression.

“It’s more about saying, ‘Hey, can you get 10 hits over the next five games?’ or ‘Can you keep your ERA under five for the next 10 games?’” Russell said. “We’re always trying to put little carrots in front of you to keep you going.”

The feature aims to make long-term career progression more engaging while guiding players toward the ultimate goal of reaching baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Franchise mode gets a major overhaul

While career players will see expanded storytelling, franchise-mode fans will notice changes behind the scenes.

The development team essentially rebuilt the game’s trading system from the ground up.

“The trade system they basically ripped out and started from scratch,” Russell said.

The overhaul includes improvements to trade logic, roster management and lineup decision-making.

Modern baseball strategies also influenced these changes. In recent years, teams have increasingly placed their best hitters earlier in the batting order rather than strictly following traditional lineup conventions.

“It used to be your fast guy in the one hole, power hitters three and four,” Russell said. “Now you have guys like Shohei Ohtani batting second, or Aaron Judge batting second. Teams want to give their best hitters as many opportunities as possible.”

Diamond Dynasty goes global

Another major component of MLB The Show 26 is the return of the World Baseball Classic to the game’s Diamond Dynasty mode.

The international tournament introduces unique team rosters, uniforms and scenarios drawn from global baseball competition.

“You have this extra excitement in baseball that we only see every three years,” Russell said. “And you have all of these unique players playing for these unique teams.”

The developers also added several new stadiums, including the iconic Tokyo Dome.

Russell said these additions reflect a broader goal shared by both the game’s developers and Major League Baseball itself: growing the sport worldwide.

“Our goals are the same goals as Major League Baseball — let’s grow the game of baseball however we can,” he said.

The science of baseball physics

Underneath all of these changes lies one of the most technically challenging aspects of the game: accurately simulating the physics of baseball itself.

Russell described bat-and-ball physics as one of the hardest parts of building the simulation.

“Trying to get it to be accurate and trying to make it fun — that’s very, very difficult,” he said.

The game’s stadiums are built to scale, and the physics engine can even replicate real-life hits using data from actual games.

“We can take footage from a game, get the launch angle and hit speed, put it in our game, and that ball will land exactly where it landed in real life,” Russell explained.

Built with player feedback

Many of the new features in MLB The Show 26 were inspired directly by the game’s community.

From the expanded college system to Big Zone Hitting and the updated fielding attributes, Russell said fan feedback plays a major role in shaping each year’s release.

“A lot of the feature set comes directly from consumer feedback and research that we do with our fans,” he said.

The development team has even hired talented community members in the past — including one top-ranked player who joined the studio after repeatedly providing detailed gameplay suggestions.

A massive package of baseball content

Beyond gameplay systems and career improvements, MLB The Show 26 also continues the franchise’s ongoing historical storytelling initiative.

The game introduces ten new players through its Negro Leagues Storylines mode, continuing the series’ effort to highlight baseball history.

Combined with the expanded Diamond Dynasty content and improvements across every major game mode, Russell believes this year’s entry offers one of the most complete packages the series has delivered.

“The overall package,” he said, “every game mode got touched. Gameplay received development love, Road to the Show received love, Franchise mode received love. The Diamond Dynasty content this year is insane.”

For baseball fans — whether they prefer managing a franchise, building a custom dynasty team, or guiding a young player from high school to the Hall of Fame — MLB The Show 26 aims to offer more ways than ever to step onto the diamond.

The post Ramone Russell on MLB The Show 26: New Career Paths, Gameplay Systems and Global Baseball appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

The ninth mainline entry in the long-shambling zombie horror series.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s brainless fun, emphasis on the brainless.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Cereza, Dante. Kojima.

SEEING S.T.A.R.S

If I had to pick the moment Resident Evil Requiem ceased to be scary, it’s the moment when Leon Kennedy picks up a kill counter.

Up to that point, Requiem had been pretty stupid – like, not boulder-punching stupid, though still pretty dumb – but the addition of the counter, which awards points to be spent on upgrades and yet bigger guns, marks the moment in which I gave up all hope on Requiem living up to its prerelease promise.

Some context: prior to 2017’s brilliant Resident Evil 7: biohazard, the series had been trapped in a downward spiral, devolving into a self-parody of what it used to be. Taking all the wrong lessons from the era-defining RE4, Capcom doubled-down on action and braindead gunplay, with RE5 and then RE6 – a game featuring a zombified U.S. president – representing the absolute nadir of the series.

When, in 2017, the series soft rebooted with the first-person biohazard – not to mention its nauseatingly terrifying demo, easily one of the scariest games ever made – Capcom demonstrated it still had the magic (horror) touch.

The subsequent Resident Evil VIIIage (2021) returned to some of the stupidity of RE4 (whose influence it wears on its zombified, Euro-village sleeve), but still managed to deliver the frights, largely courtesy the memeworthy Lady Dimitrescu. When Capcom openly promised that Requiem – that’s Resident Evil 9, for those keeping track at home – would be a return to form, starring an inexperienced everyman protagonist akin to the terrified Claire Redfield or Ethan Winters of prior games, we RE diehards had every reason to be excited.

Then we learned that Grace was only a co-star, alongside a gun-toting Uncle-Bro Leon Kennedy returning from RE2 and RE4.

A WHOLE LOT OF BSAA

Things start worryingly in Requiem (RE9 for short), with a plot hole-laden opening in which the FBI deploys a solo, inexperienced agent to investigate the site of a recent murder. Oh, and the crime scene also happens to be the site of a traumatizing episode from the agent’s childhood. But sure, let’s send Agent Grace Ashcroft on her own with no backup. Nothing could possibly go wrong…

Once things go wrong, Requiem quickly gives you a strong flavour of the competing interests at play in this game.

On the one hand, there’s the fairly scary, albeit haphazardly told, story of a young, frightened woman, ill-equipped to survive the mysterious medical centre to which she has been kidnapped.

On the other hand, there’s a big, explosive, action game featuring a dude with a propensity for roundhouse-kicking zombies to the face. When the game focuses on Grace, it can, at least, be scary. When it turns to Leon, as it increasingly does before effectively handing the game over to him in its latter half, it’s mostly stupid, albeit enjoyable in its own stupid way.

Sticking to Grace for a moment, credit to Capcom for walking back its tendency towards overpowered protagonists, here the young FBI agent mostly limited to a weak handgun, some defensive (and breakable) melee weapons, and a whole lot of patience. The best parts of the game involve Grace cowering in fear in one of the many shadowy corners of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, as she tries (and fails) to avoid being spotted by monstrous foes. Capcom recommends playing as Grace in first-person, and we agree. It’s too bad, however, that Grace herself is so poorly written and poorly acted, with a distractingly fake-sounding nervous stutter which peppers her speech.

Leon, on the other hand, is the designated ass-kicker, an epithet which is not necessarily complimentary in this case. As I’ve noted before, it’s tough to make a scary game when the player carries an overwhelming assortment of explosive weaponry, and the backpack to carry it all in. (Side note: while Grace has to handle some delicate item management, adding some tension à la prior RE games, not once did I ever run out of space in Leon’s oversized equipment bag.)

Moreover, making that character a motorcycle-riding, one-liner-quipping “badass” unfortunately brings this game ever closer to the Re5/RE6 template, albeit without those games’ diversity of ideas. Indeed, another complaint I have about RE9 is how rarely it departs from standard zombie fare: it’s not until quite late in the game that you even get a glimpse of the types of alternative enemies – plants, rabid dogs, zombie sharks – which were ubiquitous in prior entries. One tip for making the Leon sections scarier, at least? Play it in first-person, and ignore Capcom’s “recommended” third-person view.

RE9 also marks the Metal Gearification of this beloved series (and I say this as Canada’s biggest Metal Gear fan), beginning with its pair of cartoonish, over-the-top villains who feel completely out of place. And that’s even before RE9 awkwardly tries to retcon them into key aspects of RE lore.

Speaking of which, much like later Metal Gear entries, RE9 is also much too in love with its own past, revisiting not only certain environments but even specific enemies, long thought dead. Sadly, though, unlike MGS4‘s triumphant return to Shadow Moses Island (surely a series highlight), RE9‘s return to Raccoon City (a spoiler already given away in the trailers) has little if anything interesting to say, offering a perfunctory revisit to a few familiar locales, now stripped of any fear factor. Most egregiously, certain sequences in RE9 play like cheap rehashes of things done better before, including a nearly beat-for-beat retread of the nursery portion of the (far superior) Resident Evil 2 remake.

TRICELL HARDER

One day, Capcom will tell the story of the Umbrella Corporation architect and their love for wide-open atriums featuring curved double staircases.

That day, we’ll also learn why everything from metropolitan police stations to rural healthcare centres is locked behind a series of inscrutable, symbol- and gem-based puzzles. Maybe, we’ll also learn why nobody thought these might pose a safety hazard, particularly when, say, a bioweapon has been accidentally unleashed, and people just need to get through a closed door.

Until that day, we’re left with the often ludicrous, undeniably entertaining, and wildly varying Resident Evil games. Although it’s been some time since their peak, even this latest entry, likely destined to go down as a “minor” RE, is still a great deal of zombie-stomping fun. Don’t forget to pack a Green Herb.

***
Final score: 7/10 Zombified Great White Sharks.

Visit the official website for Resident Evil Requiem here.

The post Resident Evil Requiem (PS5) Review: Brain Dead appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

A (surprisingly violent!) stealth/horror title with a wonderful Burtonesque aesthetic.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s entertaining in its own morbid way.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Wednesday Addams.

THE HILLS ARE SILENT

Tarsier Studio’s macabre Reanimal, its first new horror title since the well-received pair of Little Nightmares of 2017/2021, is an engaging, well-told, if fairly disturbing adventure, where the emphasis is less on the truly frightening and more on maintaining a generally eerie vibe. As such, it’s not as scary as fans might hope, though it definitely has its standout moments, even as its story is interesting enough to pursue on its own.

THE EVIL IS RESIDENT

From its opening, contextless sequence – a stormy rescue at sea – Reanimal takes off and rarely lets up.

Following the trials and tribulations of a pair of animal mask-wearing siblings as they seek to escape the clutches of a horrifying assortment of adult-coded foes, Reanimal offers a solid core of stealth gameplay, in service of a series of disturbing setpieces overflowing with dark shadows, slithering monstrosities, and quite a lot of blood and guts. The fact that these are children we’re playing as makes it all the more distressing.

Moment to moment, Reanimal plays a lot like a horror-inflected version of Ico, that classic of PS2 immersive adventuring. Whether playing in two-player co-op or solo (we honestly preferred solo, it contributed to the oppressive vibe), expect to spend a lot of time exploring expertly rendered environments – a coastal castle, a tumbledown cinema, a flooded city – in pursuit of doohickeys to unlock the next obstacle in your way, all while being stalked by a myriad of Burtonesque foes.

Although the aesthetic remains fairly consistent – grim, grey – throughout, this set-up does allow for quite a bit of diversity in terms of what you’re exposed to, each new area an opportunity for another new set-piece. One minute, you’ll be dropped into an extended homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic The Birds, while in another you might be easing your rickety motorboat through a flooded building while underwater monsters bear down on you. It’s good stuff.

THE FRAME, FATAL

While technically a spiritual sequel to Little Nightmares, Reanimal perhaps has more in common with the horrifying creations of Playdead, the brains behind the critically-acclaimed Limbo and Inside. Like those games (and, to be fair, like Little Nightmares before it), Reanimal embraces an approach which might best be described as “horrifying stuff, plus kids!”

This both lends it a certain sense of urgency – you worry more for these oddball kids than you would for, say, a lonely explorer traipsing through an abandoned space station – but it also occasionally allows for Reanimal to veer into the unpleasant. Frankly, it feels borderline wrong to see these kids subjected to certain of these environments, these visuals. The fact they’re merely avatars for you, the player, makes it tolerable, but there’s an unshakeable “ick” factor, not present even in the previous Little Nightmareses, which were decidedly more tame.

Another fair comparator might be BioShock, in which you could – with a merciful fade to black – “harvest” the spirits of that game’s mutant Little Sisters, which at the time represented a rare dalliance with a relatively untouchable aspect of interactive storytelling. Reanimal, in which your youthful protagonists can die in fairly macabre ways, does not offer such a fade to black, though the stylized art at least blunts the trauma of it.

That said, my main criticism is, perhaps ironically, the opposite: Reanimal fails to make death consequential. Checkpoints are frequent, and there’s rarely any cost to failing a segment and restarting. Over time, this both encourages risk-taking (why bother trying your best when you can just instantly retry) and dulls the threat of foes or obstacles: the third or fourth time you begin the same chase sequence, it’s hard to get exercised about the giant snake dude slithering from up-screen.

Still, at a breezy five-hour campaign (with a handful of optional unlockables to pad out the extra time for those interested), Reanimal nevertheless earns a hearty Toronto Guardian recommendation for any horror fans. It looks great, it plays wonderfully, and it has enough spookiness – and more than enough entertaining set-pieces – to reward the interested horror gamer.

***
Final score: 8/10 Pugsleys.

Visit the official website for Reanimal here.

The post Reanimal (PS5) Review: Big Nightmares appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

The latest – and, spoilers, fantastic – entry in the surprisingly long-running Scott Pilgrim series of comic books, video games, movies, and cartoons.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s a delightful, if canonically ambiguous, entry in our beloved, Toronto-centric series.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Every Torontonian, most geeks, and definitely Michael Cera.

BREAD MAKES YOU FAT?

There’s never been a better time to be a Torontonian.

Between last month’s side-splittingly funny Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – a film that begins and ends with a CN Tower “heist” of sorts – and this month’s release of Scott Pilgrim EX, sequel to the goofy movie with which Nirvanna shares no small amount of DNA, Toronto is proudly, entertainingly, back in the spotlight.

It’s been sixteen long years since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: the Movie blew our collective minds with its raucous, geekified take on Toronto, introducing a whole generation of dorks to the awesomeness that is our city. It’s been longer still since Scott Pilgrim debuted, in the pages of the cult classic graphic novel – the first entry of which arrived in 2004 – written and illustrated by Ontario’s own Bryan Lee O’Malley. (He grew up in London, Ontario, but moved to Toronto in the early ‘00s.)

For a long while, Scott Pilgrim had the feel of a precious, hidden gem: one you either knew about and lovingly embraced, or missed out on entirely. Despite landing director Edgar Wright – of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame – the film adaptation performed poorly at the box office before quickly disappearing into obscurity, the flame kept alive in only the most obscure (and not necessarily even Canadian) corners of the Internet.

Over time, though, something wonderful happened.

Acclaim for the film, not to mention the excellent, underrated comic book series, began to grow. Critical reappraisals followed, even as it became hard not to notice the film’s impeccable casting instincts – its bevy of future-famous faces includes Kieran Culkin (“Wallace”), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“Ramona Flowers”), and Aubrey Plaza (“Julie Powers”) – not to mention Brampton’s own Michael Cera in the title role. Amusingly, the movie also features a plethora of superhero actors, including ex-Superman Brandon Routh (“Todd Ingram”), ex-Human Torch/future-Captain America Chris Evans (“Lucas Lee”), and future-Captain Marvel Brie Larson (“Envy Adams”).

It took some time, but eventually Scott Pilgrim went from cult classic to cult canon, earning for itself a sequel animated series – 2023’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off – and several beautifully remastered editions of the graphic novels, not to mention various action figures, Funko pops, and board games. (Surely, the truest sign of nerd success).

Now here we are, 2026, and Scott Pilgrim EX – the title is an amusingly geeky double-entendre – has arrived. A direct sequel to the 2010 Scott Pilgrim tie-in video game, as well as a pseudo-sequel to both the comic book and the recent Takes Off, with which it shares its canonically dubious continuity, EX is a fantastic (if flawed) retro-action title, and a must-play for gaming geeks and Canadians alike.

It’s also very, very funny.

I’M IN LESBIANS WITH YOU

Like its decade-and-a-half-old predecessor, Scott Pilgrim EX is a hardcore 2.5D side-scrolling beat-em-up, a genre which generally involves moving left to right, foreground to background, as you and, in optional multiplayer, your team of allies, take on a succession of missions. Here, the six-or-so-hour campaign is suitably silly, as you track down your band’s missing/stolen instruments, dispersed across space and time thanks to the machinations of “Metal Scott”. And yes, if you recognize that as a Sonic CD reference, you’re tuned right into this game’s wavelength.

Selecting from a roster of familiar faces – Scott, Ramona, a few of their famous “Evil Exes”, some spoilery characters – your team of one to four players (crossplay enabled; shout-out to my PS4-owning buddy Carl!) is set loose on a wonderfully realized 16-bit Toronto, here rendered as an interconnected set of screens which can be more-or-less freely explored. It’s a nice touch, having everything connected from the start (with hidden shortcuts connecting the farthest flung locations), instead of the more traditional structure of standalone levels, as in the recent Marvel Cosmic Invasion (also from Tribute Games) or the previous Scott Pilgrim game.

Gameplay is slightly more sophisticated than button-mashing, as you’ll need to learn the difference between regular and heavy attacks, expert use of the throw/pick-up function (for weapons), and of course your various super attacks. Most fun of all, EX has an abundance of unlockable summons, ranging from Sex Bob-omb’s #1 fan Young Neil (who summons a legion of groupies, it’s hilarious) to Ramona’s zippy housecat. We’ll refrain from spoiling more, but part of the fun of EX is unlocking each new summon and trying him/her/them out until you decide on your favourites.

Also, the soundtrack, by returning chiptune artists Anamanaguchi, is fantastic, demonstrating that the band, which scored both the original game and the recent Takes Off TV series, haven’t lost their touch.

THINK ABOUT DEATH AND GET SAD AND STUFF

Splitting the difference between nerd homage and Toronto love, EX is overflowing with fantastic references, from knowing character and level designs to tributes to iconic parts of Toronto.

On the nerd/gamer side, you’ll encounter an overwhelming amount of familiar-looking enemies and items, liberally “borrowed” from titles like Super Mario, Mortal Kombat, Devil May Cry, and a frankly absurd number of allusions to my favourite 16-bit series, Ghosts ‘n Goblins. (Clearly, someone at Tribute is as big of a Sir Arthur aficionado as I am.) There’s also an entire Ocarina of Time-like system for learning various “riffs” (bass, drums, etc.) which progress the story. It’s awesome.

When it comes to Canadiana, Montréal-based Tribute Games – founded by several veterans of the Ubisoft team that developed the original game – clearly knows their Toronto. There’s the obvious – the CN Tower, a brilliantly reimagined Casa Loma, plentiful TTC references – accompanied by the more specific, like lovingly parodic takes on Toronto stalwarts such as Honest Ed’s (rip), Second Cup, and Shopper’s Drug Mart. Heck, there’s even a whole shop which exclusively sells power-ups named after Neil Young albums.

CONSTANT COMMENT

Scott Pilgrim EX is not without its problems, at least some of which are inherited from its tough-as-nails predecessor.

To begin with, EX can be ruthlessly difficult, refusing to dole out a bare minimum of health power-ups even as it sends you through increasingly harsh challenges. The placement of checkpoints – often before a long gauntlet of enemies preceding a boss fight – can feel unfair, albeit accurate to the quarter-munching era to which this game also pays homage. EX also crashed several times during our playthrough, most notably at the height of a particularly tough boss fight. Not cool.

Indeed, EX is one of the few games to earn a rare Toronto Guardian “Easy Mode” Stamp of Approval: it’s frankly a better game on lower difficulties, since the combat, while still challenging, is offset by what feels like a fair allotment of health and other power-ups.

EX is also clearly designed with multiplayer in mind, so woe be to any solo gamers. Combat in general is more fun with allies, while boss fights are more tolerable with multiple players teaming up. In fact, there reached a point during my single-player playthrough that I began activating a second controller for every boss, leaving my idle ally to soak up enemy attacks as a distraction. Also, fair warning: some mechanics – like the ability to revive after being K.O.’d – are only available in multiplayer.

Then there are the minor, but nevertheless irritating, problems. Puzzles and Shops which don’t save your progress when you die between checkpoints, forcing you to go back and repurchase/redo everything. Unskippable dialogue sequences. Unskippable dialogue sequences. In 2026. The (bizarre) inability to swap characters from anywhere but Ramona’s house, necessitating longish treks across the map whenever you want to change your hero. EX also suffers from some fairly mediocre platforming controls, which mostly don’t matter, but occasionally hinder the game’s optional challenges.

Perhaps the game’s single worst failing is its atrocious revive system. It took us forever to figure out that, once an ally is down and that ten-second counter appears above their head, you need to stand near – but not over – their prone body and manually throw hearts at them, hoping one lands in the correct spot. Even if it wasn’t so poorly explained, it’s still a baffling design choice, adding needless complexity to an essential mechanic which, in any other game, operates with the tap of a button.

Having said that, the weaknesses of Scott Pilgrim EX are only what reduce it from a pure 10/10 to a still impressive 9/10 vegan gelatos. The whole time we were around it, we had a fantastic time. It almost felt like we were on drugs. Not that we do drugs. Unless you do drugs, in which case we do them all the time. All of them.

***
Final score: 9/10 vegan gelatos.

Visit the official website for Scott Pilgrim EX here.

Check out Bryan Lee O’Malley’s official prequel comic, Scott Pilgrim: Dawn of Metal Scott, here.

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