Scott Pilgrim vs. the World includes a lot of visual references
to video games, but they all seem to have been added by someone
who doesn’t know how video games work. The point of all the
little glyphs, meters, effects in games is to communicate
something, to show what the player can interact with and which
actions get the player closer to achieving the games goals. For
instance, when I saw the “pee bar” appear in this scene, I
thought they were setting up a running joke where the pee bar
would later appear at inopportune moments, letting us see that
Scott Pilgrim needs to pee. But that’s not what happens;
although there is a running gag about Scott running off to pee
to avoid awkward moments, it’s conveyed entirely verbally, and
the pee bar never appears again after this scene. The point of
these visuals in video games, that is, is to induct the player
into the logical world of the game, explaining a series of rules
through which this world can be navigated, but that’s just what
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World l