Cult classic Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game is now on Steam, and you can pick it up at a deep discount – if you’re prepared to deal with a few caveats. The fan favourite has had a rocky ride, with the 2010 2D beat ‘em up tie-in to Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels and the associated movie being delisted from sale in 2014. Now it’s finally arrived on the Valve storefront alongside a big sale, albeit with several issues that are putting some fans off.
The game made a triumphant return in January 2021 when Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game – Complete Edition, a remaster including the additional content of its two DLC packs, arrived on publisher Ubisoft’s Uplay store (now Ubisoft Connect), along with the Epic Games store. This also marked the first time that the game was available to PC players.
However, it hasn’t been available on Steam until now, almost two years later. It’s also celebrating the return with a hefty Steam sale discount, knocking 67% off until January 19. That means you can pick up the iconic side-scroller for just $4.95 USD / £4.12 GBP / €4.95 EUR.
Despite this, however, the game is currently sitting at a ‘Mixed’ rating on Steam, with just 57% positive reviews at the time of writing. This is down to a number of issues cited by Steam reviewers, many of which are also being mentioned by fans on Reddit and Twitter as reasons they are holding off buying the game altogether.
The Steam version of Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game uses Denuvo anti-tamper DRM, an anti-piracy solution with an unfortunate reputation for negatively impacting the performance of games. It also requires you to install Ubisoft Connect and have made an account on Ubisoft’s proprietary platform.
In addition to this, players in the Steam reviews report input lag, bad audio mixing with music that “even at max is a bit too quiet,” a complete lack of Steam achievements, and poorly implemented controller support that requires the use of Steam Big Picture mode to enable. Furthermore, some players are reporting poor performance in the online co-op mode.
It seems like it’s still not smooth sailing for Scott Pilgrim, then, even after all these years. Nevertheless, as a beloved classic at a rather low price on Steam, you may well be tempted to grab a copy anyway on the off-chance that it doesn’t stay available. “Letting bias take over, I physically can’t NOT recommend this game but… augh. It hurts,” one positive Steam review reads, which adds that it’s one of the writer’s “favourite games of all time” but “a miserable PC port.”
If you’re unsure, why not check out the best old PC games for plenty more classics to keep you busy? Alternatively, we’ve got our picks of the best free games on PC if you want some great gaming without breaking the bank.