The character of Scott Pilgrim is a bit different from Michael Cera’s other awkward teen roles. Scott is an egotistical bassist who ignores his punk band so he can conquer one short-lived romance after another. When his satisfaction with a woman sours, he quickly moves on to another girl. How he is able to woo so many girls with an incredibly low self esteem is apparently a mystery that is hardly important to the overall story.

It is clear that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is made especially for those who grew up playing the original Game Boy and SEGA Genesis. From the opening 8-Bit logo to the constant character statistics and coin rewards,  it’s fairly obvious that if you do not love old school video games, punk rock music, anime or any combination thereof, you will find this film to it be an excessively unnerving experience. Despite its origins as a graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has managed to become one of the few and only satisfying video game-related films. With its hyper-kinetic energy and stylistic formula, the film manages to set a one-time only standard that will never work again.  As is, the film walks a fine line between “entertaining” and “migraine inducing.”

As you’ve probably seen in the trailers, Scott Pilgrim is a guy who meets a girl, falls in love, and is forced to fight a long line of super-powered evil exes. Each battle is a different video game scenario and by the end, you will have seen standard RPG boss battles, Street Fighter duals, Tony Hawk Pro Sakter-style grinds, and Rock Band-esque bass battles. Those with keen eyes and ears towards game references will notice various nods to The Legend of Zelda,  Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog, and the lesser known NES game Clash at Demonhead, which serves as the name of a competing band to our lead’s Sex Ba-Bombs, which happens to a reference to Super Mario Bros.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World might seem like a love story set in an LSD-induced universe, but it is actually a story about earning self respect set against a love story that happens to to take place in an LSD-induced universe. Scott is dating 17 year old Knives Chau when he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who you might recognize as the younger version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s Clementine. He is more reluctant to break up with Knives than he is to intensely pursue an ongoing relationship with Ramona. Poor Knives never saw it coming! Neither does Scott. What makes Ramona so different from all the others is that she is, in many ways, just like him.  Though the similarities are mostly disguised by her confidence and free-spirited attitude, like Scott, Ramona has a long line of fast-ending relationships and has to ultimately learn to deal with the one that never quite worked out. You could almost imagine Ramona Flowers vs. the World featuring a similar story arch from a different perspective.

As someone who often partakes in gaming, I found the various video game parodies to be quite amusing, but it was the deeper, underlining storyline that keeps it all together. Almost getting lost in the overall concept of the film, there is this story of redemption. Ramona is more important to the story than one might think as she serves as more than just a love interest. She is the key to Scott’s journey. He needs to pursue her and fight so hard to keep her so he can be able to take a good look at himself in the mirror and see that it isn’t all about him. Sadly, it almost feels like an afterthought tossed up at the end of the film to make the last 90 minutes of frantic insanity feel more meaningful for those of us who like our stories to be more than just superficial eye candy.

Following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is Edgar Wright’s most unique film to date. While it isn’t as satisfying as the other two, it will manage to find its place in the hearts of countless gamers.

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