Edgar Wright, the critically acclaimed director behind the likes of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – which got its own video game adaptation called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – quickly rose to prominence thanks to his sharp wit, excellent scripts, and phenomenal direction. His snappy, energetic films satirized everything from British politics to zombie movies, providing endless entertainment to an ever-burgeoning fan base eager to know more about him and his work. That likely also includes his fascination with video games.
It is always fun to learn about famous actors and directors who genuinely love video games, or the games they hate, and Wright is no exception. He has a history with video games, long before he worked on the fantastic adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, including with one infamous classic that he regards as being the “hardest video game of all time.“ This nightmare of a video game has cost people a substantial amount of money, heartbreak, and tears, so it’s no surprise that Edgar Wright also fell prey to its cruel ways.
Edgar Wright Struggled To Beat Dragon’s Lair
It Is Truly One Of The Hardest Games Ever Made
When Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was hitting cinemas back in 2010, Edgar Wright discussed his love of video games with Vanity Fair. In the interview, he discusses the games he loves, although there is surprisingly no mention of Ben Starr’s favorite game franchise of all time, much to the dismay of JRPG fans everywhere. Crucially, however, Wright talks about the game he found “incredibly difficult” when he was younger, playing in the arcades: Dragon’s Lair.
In the interview, Wright reveals that they had a Dragon’s Lair arcade machine on the set of Scott Pilgrim, which is simultaneously unsurprising and exceptionally cool, and he encouraged the film’s director of photography, Bill Pope, to give it a try. Wright had described it to Pope as “the hardest video game of all time“, and, naturally, Pope struggled to beat it too. Of course, it is no surprise that they struggled to beat what is undeniably one of the hardest video games ever made.
We had a Dragon’s Lair arcade machine on the Scott Pilgrim set at one point. I said to Bill Pope (Scott Pilgrim’s director of photography), “This is the hardest video game of all time. I bet you can’t get through the first round.” He’s pretty good at video games, and even he couldn’t do it.
Dragon’s Lair is a notoriously challenging arcade game that was, like all arcade games of the time, designed to waste away all of your hard-earned money through obtuse game design. In theory, you can beat Dragon’s Lair in just 12 minutes, with the game only featuring 22 minutes of animated scenes. However, because it gave practically no direction on what to do, players were constantly finding themselves faced with the game-over screen.
Edgar Wright Has A Long History With Video Games
He’s Been Playing Them Since He Was A Child
Edgar Wright, fortunately, has more fond memories of playing video games, although he admits in the interview that, before making Scott Pilgrim, he had “lapsed out of gaming maybe ten years ago” as he felt it was “like being addicted to heroin.” This is surprisingly common for those in the film industry, with actor James McAvoy sharing similar sentiments about his obsession with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion that caused him to end up quitting gaming entirely.
Wright has returned to gaming since, but he explained that before his brief hiatus, his favorite games were Resident Evil 2 and Tomb Raider II and III. He explains that he was “obsessed” and “played them endlessly.” They’re all excellent games, so it’s easy to see why he became so engrossed with them for such a long period of time.
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While he hasn’t spoken much about video games since that initial Vanity Fair interview, he responded to questions from fans in a video uploaded to the Total Film YouTube channel in 2013, where he said “There has never been a good video game film,” because he felt “it’s not fun watching a video game adaptation if you’re not playing it.”
Another interesting gaming tidbit from Wright’s life found in the interview is that, while he had never met Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary creator of Mario, had actually screened Scott Pilgrim in Japan and gave the production team his blessing to use the Great Fairy Fountain song from Zelda during a dream sequence. If you’re wondering what Wright thought of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, he told Eurogamer in 2011 that he bought a PS3 just to play it and was, rather fortunately, “stunned by how well it came off.“
Source: Vanity Fair, Total Film/YouTube, Eurogamer
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game
Systems
9/10
- Released
- August 10, 2010
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Cartoon Violence, Language, Mild Blood, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
- Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Chengdu
- Publisher(s)
- Ubisoft
- Engine
- unity
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer, Local Co-Op
- Franchise
- Scott Pilgrim
