Video Game References

Due to Bryan Lee O'Malley's hobby, one of Scott Pilgrim's (and some of his friends') favorite activity is Video Games. Many references to various games are made throughout both the books and the movie.

In Precious Little Life

The character Stephen Stills is a reference to Stephen Stills from Crosby, Stills and Nash who performed the second song on the Nintendo released album "white knuckle scorin"
The consoles that Wallace has are what looks like a PS2, an NES, and an SNES.
The band Sex Bob-omb is named after an enemy in the Super Mario series called Bob-omb.
During Scott's first outing with Knives, she uses the term "Fobby" to describe a boy at her school. This is a reference to the enemy featured in Mother 2 / Earthbound as well as the term "fresh off the boat" since Knives mentions him being an immigrant to Canada. In Vs. the World the term is used again by Tamara when referring to Knives' decision to bleach her hair.
When Scott has lunch with Wallace and Other Scott, Scott can be seen wearing a shirt with the Sonic and Knuckles logo on it.
Scott says that he would like to "turn into a morphing ball and roll to the bathroom," which is a power of Samus Aran from the Metroid series.
The band that plays before Sex Bob-Omb, Crash and the Boys, is named after the game Crash 'n the Boys Street Challenge, a sports game for the NES.
The drummer of Crash and the Boys, Trisha "Trasha" Ha, is said to be discovered by the other two members of the band seeing her playing DrumMania at the Pacific Mall Arcade. The said arcade at Pacific Mall does exist and it does have the DrumMania game.
Matthew Patel's demon girls use fireballs as an attack, which is a common attack in video games.
During the battle with Matthew, Scott's group uses a dance sequence from Space Channel 5.
Scott uses a reversal and later a Shoryuken (dragon punch) from the Street Fighter games on Matthew during their fight. Kim acts as the hit counter.
Scott gets 64 hits total on his air juggle. The number '64' could be a reference to the Nintendo 64 console.
Scott "air juggling" Matthew could be a reference to the air juggle that's common in many Beat 'em Up games.
When Matthew is defeated, Scott receives a prize of coins. This is a reference to games like River City Ransom where a player gets coins for defeating an enemy.
When Ramona Flowers explains Subspace Highways to Scott, he replies "Is it like in Super Mario 2?" Mario 2's definition is actually pretty darn close to it despite Ramona disagreeing.
When Scott's sister, Stacey Pilgrim, is introduced, the rating under her information is "T for Teen." Coincidentally, the book is also rated T.
Doors with Stars (a.k.a. Subspace) on them first appeared in Super Mario 64.
Scott's "dream desert" sequence is a callout to a similar scene from the end of Final Fantasy VIII.
Matthew's Demon Hipster Chicks could be a reference to how some bosses have back-up fighters to make the fight harder for the player.

In Vs. the World

The opening title page of this volume is a tribute to Bonk's Adventure.
In the flashback where Scott Pilgrim and friends are playing a game, the "Bomb Up" sound effect indicates that they are playing Bomberman.
Clash at Demonhead is also a name of a NES game.
When Ramona and Knives fight in the library, Ramona tells Knives she fights like a cow. This is a quote from a battle in The Secret of Monkey Island where the hero and a pirate say "You fight like a dairy farmer!" "How appropriate. You fight like a cow."
Scott Pilgrim has taught himself the bassline from Final Fantasy II. The baseline he mentioned is in fact Battle - Scene I from Final Fantasy IV, which was released as "Final Fantasy II" in western markets.
Scott finds a glowing box with "Item" over it, and inside finds a Mithril Skateboard with the stats +4 Speed, +3 Kick and +1 Will. The box itself resembles present boxes from the Toejam & Earl games for Sega Genesis. Mithril is a strong metal typically found in RPGs. Item drops, on the other hand, are a classic video game element.
Scott and Ramona Flowers are referred to as 'an item.' Scott misunderstand her, and thinks of the classic Fire Flower, Star and Mushroom items from the Super Mario series.
The band Sonic and Knuckles is named after the video game of the same name.
Scott Pilgrim's fight in Benvie Tech has a striking resemblance to River City Ransom with an obligatory "Exes Turf", several bosses on different levels, weird dialog (BARF!) a boss named Simon on the roof (complete with chain-link fence on the edge), and ending with saving a girl (Kim).
During the flashback when Lisa Miller visits Scott at his house, he is playing on a Sega console, specifically, a Genesis. The game he is playing is Sonic & Knuckles, Sandopolis, Act 2.
The insult Scott makes to Wallace in the smallest box is "I am rubber, you are glue!" While a generic insult, it has appeared in The Secret of Monkey Island as an insult and retort. Bryan Lee O'Malley has stated that the insult was "kind of a Monkey Island thing."
Scott's "training" is playing Tony Hawk Pro Skateboarder games. Seeing as how many people believed they could skate after playing the game(s), this is plausible.
Rammy is also the name of Um Jammer Lammy's evil twin. The similar naming is coincidental and is considered an "unconcious homage."
- Interestingly, O'Malley states that much of the art style of Scott Pilgrim was influenced by that of the Um Jammer Lammy visual artist, Rodney Alan Greenblat.
Scott's finding out where the library is degrades to asking Wallace what the cheat code for Sonic 3 is (it's up-up-down-down-up-up-up-up. The code needs to be entered just after the SEGA logo fades in).
When Wallace finds Scott on the ground after Envy called, he asks if he found out about Wallace saving over Scott's file in Final Fantasy.
The NO logo on the Demonhead's drum set appears in, appropriately, Clash at Demonhead, specifically when you shoot a friendly character.
The Chaos Theatre, the New York club owned by Gideon, the is the name of an important location in Earthbound/Mother 2.
When Stacey calls Scott, she is wearing a T-shirt with a star from the Super Mario games on it.

In & the Infinite Sadness

The band Kid Chameleon is the name of a popular Sega Genesis game.
Scott Pilgrim wears a shirt with a Super Mario Bros. Mushroom on it.
When Envy is about to smash Ramona and Knives, a little voice in Scott's head says "I gotta believe." This is PaRappa the Rapper's mantra.
In a scene where Sex Bob-Omb is rehearsing one of their songs, Young Neil is seen playing either a Nintendo DS or a Game Boy Advance SP.
A Save Point appears before Scott Pilgrim and Envy Adams meet. Scott tries to use it before she appears. It appears to be styled after Final Fantasy VII's save points (the question mark is removed).
During a flashback, Scott, Envy and friends are playing Bomberman. The appearance of what appear to be a Sega Saturn, Saturn controllers, and the appearance of Ninja and Fairy bombermen possibly mean that they are playing Bomberman Wars.
Todd Ingram drops a 1-Up shaped like Scott's head along with coins. Game characters' heads have been used as 1-ups many times, most notably in the NES Mega Man games.
In Ramona's flashback, The University of Carolina in the Sky is tethered to the mountains by a giant chain, which could be a reference to the Mountain of Woe from Chrono Trigger which has the same description. It could also refer to the chained Little Planet in Sonic CD.
The fact that Ramona fights with a Large Hammer could be a reference towards Amy Rose from Sonic the Hedgehog or the original Donkey Kong hammer power-up. The hammer is also described as having "+2 against girls" which is classic DnD/RPG tribute.
Lynette Guycott is named after one of the governors in Clash at Demonhead, Tom Guycot.
"Rad" Spencer, from Bionic Commando on the NES, has a bionic arm that functions similarly to Lynette's.
Wallace's waking up of Scott mirrors the opening of Chrono Trigger, in which Crono's mom wakes him up in a similar fashion.
The Chaos Theatre is named after a club in Earthbound (Mother 2 in Japan).
Destroy All Vegans, the name of Chapter 18, may be named after the game Destroy All Humans!.
Josh Lesnick's strip features King Hippo from (Mike Tyson's) Punch-Out!! and Nintendo Power character/spokesperson/editor Howard Phillips.
- The Nintendo Fun Club was a club Nintendo made to help sell more games. Doc Louis from Punch-Out!! inexplicably tells the player (Little Mac) to join the Nintendo Fun Club.
David MacGuire's strip features Ramona saying Donkey Kong, the name of both a fictional video game ape and a successful arcade game made by Nintendo, later ported to the NES.
Wallace's umbrella looks like a Super Mushroom from the Mario Bros. series.
Envy's parting line: "See you next time" is a line said by Mario after the ending credits of Mario Kart 64.

In Gets it Together

The color splash page in the front of the book features Scott Pilgrim and Ramona in a Sonic the Hedgehog 2-style logo.
While at the mall, Scott's Thirst and Money bars are shown.
Scott Pilgrim's dream seems to be inspired by The Legend of Zelda. The elf takes place of the "annoying" fairy Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The elf also questions him about "The Code", which refers to the code allowing the player to start the "Second Quest" without playing through the game the first time. Also when Ramona shows up, the forest elf shouts "Look out! Random encounter!" Random encounters - in which the player is confronted by a low level monster or enemy - often appear in RPGs, JRPGs in particular.
Scott's pee bar is shown. The Sims has a bathroom bar, but it fills when the Sims go pee, not empty.
When Scott Pilgrim takes the dishwashing job, he gains 500 experience points.
After Scott gets his job back, he gains 1,000 experience points.
After he proclaims his love for Ramona and before he fights Roxie, Scott gains 9,999 experience points.
Scott used Makoto's Fukiage from Street Fighter III when he "Punched [Roxie] in the boob."
When Roxanne falls to the ground after Scott punches her, the impact sound is "PLOK." This is possibly a reference to the SNES game of the same title.
After Scott admits that he loves Ramona Flowers, he levels up, his stats increase, and he receives a new weapon.
During the final battle between Scott and Roxanne, the fight scenes are reminiscent of the original Ninja Gaiden intro.
When Roxie is defeated, she explodes in a shower of furry animals, which is based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
When Wallace moves out Scott is seen wearing a shirt with the Mother 2 logo on it.
The question mark that appears over Scott's head when he spots Lisa at the mall is a near-copy of the one that appears on Super Mario Bros.'s question mark or power-up blocks.
Scott thinks his later switch to cook after being taught how to cook while dishwashing is like a "job system" similar to those found in early Final Fantasy games.
Comeau manages to obtain Starmen in Steve Manelle's strip. Starmen are invincibility power-ups in Super Mario Bros.

In Vs. the Universe

The splash page logo at the beginning of the book looks like the Double Dragon 3 logo.
The robot on the flier about Sex Bob-omb's gig and Scott's upcoming beating looks a lot like Mega Man X.
the Katayanagi Twins names are really similar to Kyo Kusanagi, a fighter in The King of Fighters series.
Scott wears a shirt with the Rock Band bass guitar logo. O'Malley stated on one of the film's commentary tracks that he had received a copy of the game from Harmonix (he had stated that he didn't get the point of the game) prior to drawing Volume 5. He later changed his mind about the game and, in tribute, he drew the shirt.
When Kyle & Ken Katayanagi summon their robot to the costume party, the words "ROBOT-01 HAS JOINED THE PARTY!" appear. A group of characters in an RPG is typically called a "party", only this is an actual party.
Scott Pilgrim forgets the names of the twins. He calls them Randy and Andy Katamari, the names of the Dragon Twins from River City Ransom (In the North American version only), and the name of a Japanese game involving rolling items into balls.
Kyle & Ken Katayanagi are a parody of Jimmy and Billy from the Double Dragon series.
During one of Scott's shows, Lucas from Earthbound and A Pokémom trainer reminiscent of red, can be seen in the crowd.
When the twins are defeated together, Scott Pilgrim unlocks an achievement, like Xbox 360 games. Which is also an achievement in the Game.
Chapter 31 has the title "World of Ruin" which is a reference to the second world of Final Fantasy VI (Japanese order).
The double hurricane kick is a three-pronged sword- the name comes from Street Fighter series' hurricane kick and both River City Ransom's Dragon Twins and Double Dragon 3s Billy and Jimmy perform a similar-looking move.
GAME OVER and CONTINUE? are phrases typically found in arcade games.

In Finest Hour

In the beginning, Scott is playing Monster Hunter Freedom on his PSP-Go.
Scott's silhouette on the bus to the Cameron House is similar to Link from The Legend of Zelda series.
Scott and Ramona perform a X-Strike to defeat Gideon Graves, a Double-Tech from Chrono Trigger.
Scott makes use of the Extra Life obtained in book 3 and gets up unscathed after dying.
Gideon Graves's company logo looks like an inverted "Triforce" from Legend of Zelda, but is actually three Gs.(Gideon Gordon Graves)
The plot of Scott Pilgrim not remembering his own memories properly is similar to that from Final Fantasy VII.
Throughout the first half, Scott wears a shirt with a slime on it from the Dragon Quest series.
Envy Adams appears with all stats at 999 (bust, waist, and hips) at a party, the highest most RPG games will allow.
Neil is playing Time Critics, which is an obvious reference to Time Crisis, when Scott Pilgrim introduces him to his sister.
Ramona Flowers, in her head's subspace, is wearing the inverted Gideon Graves's "Triforce" head band, later when Scott is sliced in half by Gideon, Ramona's head glows and her headband changes to a headband similar to Athena from The King of Fighters series.
The Power of Understanding is loosely designed off Cloud Strife's Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII.
When Scott gets The Power of Understanding, he unlocks a new T-shirt with Ramona's Subspace Star on it, a reference to how some games off bonuses after certain achievements are met.
Gideon Graves impales both Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers in a similar style to Sephiroth's impaling of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII.
Gideon unleashing The Glow resembles Ryu's "Shinku Hadoken" from the Street Fighter series. Both the hand placement and the wave itself look similar to the Kamehameha from the Dragon Ball series.
Chapter 34 is entitled "A Link to the Past", which is the title of the third The Legend of Zelda game.
Gideon Graves's master plan to freeze Ramona Flowers, along with his other 6 ex-girlfriends, is a reference to The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, in which 6 Maidens are sealed up by Agahnim (Ganon) inside crystals, Princess Zelda is eventually added as number 7 in the events leading Link to the Darkworld where the Crystals holding the maidens are.
Scott Pilgrim and Kim's new band Shatter Band's name is based off the video game Shatterhand.
One of the articles in the upper left corner of NOW is "Are video games art? Source says no." The "video games are(n't) art" conflict has raged for years.
The outfit Ramona wears in Scott's second dream sequence is worn by Yuko of the Valis series.
Scott's second memory cam with him and Envy shows him wearing Super Mario Bros 3's Tanooki Suit.
Scott rides on the top of a bus similar to how Mega Man does in both Mega Man 4's intro and credits sequence.
Boat Dad 2's logo looks like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2's logo.
- The game next to it, Doug Fighter, could be a reference to both Double Dragon and Street Fighter.
The girl in the arcade appears to playing some form of Dance Dance Revolution.
Gideon's pummeling resembles, by both name and appearance, Sabin Figaro's Pummel attack from Final Fantasy VI.
Scott levels down when Gideon steals the Power of Love. He levels up again when he earns the Power of Understanding.
After defeating Gideon, Envy walks up to Scott to hug him, finally giving Scott closure to their past relationship. The "Closure" could possibly be a reference to the idea of "Friendship" in the Mortal Kombat series if a player decides not to perform a "Fatality."
Scott says Ramona was being held by Gideon "like a total bad dude", a possible reference to the game Bad Dudes.
After Gideon thrusts his hand into Scott's chest to get the Power of Love, there is a cut to a few character with shocked expressions. In the background, there is a girl playing an arcade game with "Fatality KO" on the screen, so she's playing Mortal Kombat.
Adjacent to the Mortal Kombat-esque machine, the kanji that machine is a reference to Touhou Project, which is a series of arcade-style shooters, even though there wasn't an arcade version of Touhou.
The battle between Scott and Ramona and Gideon is initiated by the word "FIGHT!" which is how each round in many fighting games begins.
Though NegaScott is obviously a reference to Dark Link from the Legend of Zelda series, the way he is defeated and forms with Scott is a possible reference to the Shadow versions of the main characters from Persona 4. In the game, the Shadows were the embodiment of the true nature of the main characters, and to defeat them was to acknowledge that they were a part of them, like how NegaScott was the embodiment of everything Scott's done wrong in the past, and he had to acknowledge NegaScott to defeat him.

In The Movie

The Universal Theme and Logo are in 8-Bit Form.
All villains explode into coins with Gideon Graves turning into 7,000,000,000 coins that spray over Chaos Theatre.
As with many arcade-style games, Scott also gets points for defeating an evil ex. (Matthew Patel = 1000 points, Lucas Lee = 2000 points, etc.).
Scott's Pee Bar is seen at one point.
Scott and Knives Chau go Two-Player on Gideon doing the moves done on the Game they always play, Ninja Ninja Revolution (which is a parody of Dance Dance Revolution).
Gideon's health bar is seen during the fight.
- Also, the health bar is similar to ones from Hack-and-Slash games, such as Devil May Cry, with the bar being at the bottom of the screen with an icon representing the boss next to it (in this case, Gideon's nickname "G-man").
Young Neil is seen playing a DS Lite numerous times in the movie, and at the beginning when Knives asks him what he plays, he states Zelda and Tetris as two of the games he plays (although Knives meant what instrument he plays).
- Considering the sound effects, Neil is most likely playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords, Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World, and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. While all three are Game Boy Advance games, the DS Lite had backwards-compatibility with GBA games. A GBA cartridge can be seen in the system when Neil talks to Knives in the aforementioned scene.
Neil is also briefly seen wearing a shirt with the Nintendo 64 logo on it.
Scott gets an Extra Life upon defeating Kyle & Ken Katayanagi.
During the battle against the Katayanagi's they summon two snow dragons out of their amps in a reference to the Double Dragon games.
A VS. symbol comes up every time a boss battle happens (the vs. logo for Roxy is pink noting her gender and homosexuality).
Like in the Book, Scott plays the Bass Line from Final Fantasy II. But, he plays only the first part in the battle against Todd the vegan.
- This bass line is actually from Final Fantasy IV. The game had first been released in America as Final Fantasy II, making this a double reference.
Another gag lifted from the books is Stacey's rating of "T for Teen".
Roxy's whip sword is like Ivy's from Soulcalibur.
Scott wears a shirt of the Bass symbol from Rock Band.
Pac-Man's creation and renaming is used as a conversation topic by Scott when talking to Knives while playing Ninja Ninja Revolution and when talking to Ramona Flowers at Julie Powers's party (and, as revealed on his "brain roulette", he can use it as an excuse).
The K.O. Sound is a recreation of the one from Street Fighter Alpha 3.
Music from Legend of Zelda is used in the dream sequences. The cover of A Link to the Past's Fairy Fountain theme (played during the second dream sequence), according to the in-DVD Trivia Track, required the approval of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto.
The appearence of Nega Scott right after Gideon is defeated refers to Dark Link, an enemy in the Legend of Zelda series. The design of Nega Scott in the movie is also similar to Dark Link's design in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros Brawl, given the dark grey colour of his skin, hair and clothes combined with his glowing red eyes.
Sound effects from Zelda, Sonic, and Mario are used. Super Mario 3 sound effects are heard at one point and according to the Trivia Track, Mario 3 is Michael Cera's favorite game on the NES.
Ramona's hair is dyed three different colors; pink, blue, and green. These are the colors of the three Goddesses from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
When Roxie smashes the disco ball, the glass shards and their reflections slightly resemble the character selection screen of a typical fighting game, with Roxie and Ramona being the giant character portraits and Scott being a mere icon.
After the end credits, the The End logo is beaten up and destroyed by the Scott Pilgrim sprite from the video game. The logo bursts into coins and Scott teleports offscreen.
Lucas Lee's stunt double could be a references on how weaker enemies in video games all look alike, and how some enemies in a video game are just weaker versions of a boss.
Roxie's weak point is a reference on how many bosses in a video game have weak points the player must hit to defeat the boss.
The reversal of time that occurs after Scott uses his Extra Life might be a reference to Blinx: The Time Sweeper, where time reverses if you die and have a extra life.
The X in the snow that Scott and Knives walk through may be a reference to the logo of Xenogears.
The punch that Scott delivers to Mathew Patel before the air juggle is, once again, a clear reference to the Street Fighter series' Dragon Punch/Shoryuken fighting move.
The bleeps that censor Julie (and later, Envy) are lifted from the "booting up" noises of Commodore 64 games.
The sound that Scott lets out after getted kicked by Lucas Lee in the air comes from one of the Tekken games (most likely Tekken 5, as it is listed in the credits). Either Paul or Heihachi lets out the scream. Angel's voice clips from Tekken Tag Tournament are played when Ramona is controlling Scott to fight Roxie.
One of the shapes the Katayanagis' amps form after their defeat forms a T-Block from the Tetris games.
G-Man, Gideon's nickname, is also the name of a character from the Half-Life games.
When talking to Scott after Gideon's phone call, Wallace tells Scott to "Finish Him" similar to how Mortal Kombat character Shao Kahn does.
The pyramid-like tower at the Chaos Theatre could be a reference to the altar seen at the beginning of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link.
Both Scott's charges at Lucas Lee and Gideon are references to Ninja Gaiden's intro.
The composition of the scene where Gideon lies on his knees, defeated, combined with Gideon's pose, seems to recall the scene of Aeirith's death from Final Fantasy VII.
The Yeti vs. the Dragons in the Katayanagi match could be seen as a reference to The Zelda game Twilight Princess where Yeti and Dragons are notably featured.
When Todd Ingram claims he doesn't know the meaning of the word "incorrigible," a ring sound from the Sonic the Hedgehog series is played along with the text "He really doesn't".
During Scott's rematch with Gideon, after being revived with his Extra Life, Scott notable rushed many of the repeated scenes and fixed his mistakes. This could be a reference on how player tend to rush a level or boss fight and skip cutscenes after playing something, shortly after being killed in the game. Also, players tend to focus on gaining achievement are playing something again, similar to how Scott learned to fix his mistakes and gained points for it.
As soon as Scott geta an Extra Life from defeating the Katayanagi Twins the coin sound effect from Super Smash Bros. Melee can be heard.
Roxy Richter references Castlevania's Richter Belmont. Aside from the same name, they both use a whip as a main weapon.
Roxy Richter's fighting style is also reminiscent of Smoke from Mortal Kombat.
When Scott runs out of his house to the Chaos Theatre, the way he runs is like Ben from Full Throttle.

Other Scott Pilgrim Media

For Video Game References from the game, see References in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game.

In Free Scott Pilgrim, the energy drinks seen have stats multipliers in place of some of the nutrition values.
In Free Scott Pilgrim, the Winifred Hailey clones wear gauntlets similar to the ones worn by Street Fighter series character Cammy White.
In Free Scott Pilgrim, after the Winifred Hailey clones are defeated, they leave behind Free Drink Coupons. This could be a reference on how lesser bosses or boss clones leave next to nothing upon their defeat.
The promo poster for The Infinite Sadness is an homage to Super Mario Bros. 3's cover art.
A poster that was previously sold on Oni Press's online store was an homage to a promo poster for Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix.
The cover art for the Japanese omnibus of Volumes 5 and 6 is a reference to Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha 2.