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 the book.
In Precious Little Life
- The band Sex Bob-omb is named after an enemy in the Super Mario series called 'Bom-omb.
- In Scott's desert dream, the cactus has a face, a common trait amongst plants, clouds, and other non-intelligent creatures throughout the Super Mario series.
- 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 NES game Crash 'n the Boys, 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 common in video games.
- During the battle with Matthew, Scott's group uses a dance sequence from Space Channel 5.
- Scott uses a Shoryuken (dragon punch) and later a reversal a la Street Fighter on Matthew during their fight.
- When Matthew is defeated, Scott receives a prize of coins.
- When Ramona explains Subspace Highways to Scott, he replies "Is it like in Super Mario 2?"
- When Scott's sister, Stacey, is introduced, the rating under her information is "T for Teen".
In Vs. The World
- The opening title page of this volume is a tribute to Bonk's Adventure.
- In the flashback where Scott and friends are playing a game, the "Bomb Up" sound effect indicates that they are playing Bomberman.
- The 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 teaches himself the bassline from Final Fantasy 2.
- Scott finds a glowing box with "Item" over it, and inside finds a skateboard with the stats +4 Speed, +3 Kick and +1 Will.
- Scott and Ramona are reffered to as 'an item.' Scott thinks this means video game items and the classic fire flower, star and mushroom from the Super Mario series appear in his head.
- The band Sonic and Knuckles is named after the video game of the same name.
In And The Infinite Sadness
- Kid Chameleon is the name of a popular Sega Genesis game.
- Scott wears a shirt with a Super Mario Brothers mushroom on it.
- When Envy is about to fight Ramona and Knives, a little voice in Scott's head says "I gotta believe." This is PaRappa the Rapper's mantra.
- A Save Point appears before Scott and Envy meet. Scott tries to use it before she appears.
- During a flashback, Scott, Envy and friends are playing Bomberman.
- Todd Ingram drops a 1-Up shaped like Scott's head along with coins.
- In Ramona's flashback, The University of Carolina in the Sky is tethered to the mountains by a chain wich could be a reference to the Kingdom of Zeal from Chrono Trigger which has the same description.
- On Chapter 14, the chapter name references the movie tag of the Japanese animation Akira.
In Gets It Together
- The color splash page in the front of the book features Scott and Ramona in a Sonic the Hedgehog-style logo.
- While at the mall, Scott's Energy and Money bars are shown.
- Scott's dream seems to be inspired by The Legend of Zelda.
- Scott's pee meter is shown.
- When Scott takes the dishwashing job, he gains 500 experience points.
- When Scott uses the bathroom, his 'pee bar' depletes...like The Sims.
- After Scott admits that he loves Ramona, he levels up, his stats increase, and he receives a new weapon.
- When Roxanne is defeated, she explodes in a shower of furry animals, which is based on Sonic the Hedgehog.
- When Wallace moves out Scott is seen wearing a shirt with the Mother 2 logo on it.
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.
- Scott wears a shirt with the Rock Band bass guitar logo.
- 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.
- When the twins are defeated together, Scott unlocks an achievement, like Xbox Live/ PSN games.
In Finest Hour
- In the Beginning, Scott is playing Monster Hunter on his PSP-Go
- Scott and Ramona do the X-Strike to defeat Gideon, a Double-Tech from Chrono Trigger.
- Scott makes use of the Extra Life obtained in book 3 and gets up unscathed after dying.
- Gideon's company logo is an inverted "Triforce" from Legend of Zelda.
- The plot of Scott 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 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 introduces him to his sister.
- Ramona, in her head's subspace, is wearing the inverted Gideon'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's sword from Final Fantasy VII.
- Gideon impales both Scott and Ramona in a similar style Sephiroth impails Aeris in Final Fantasy VII.
- Gideon unleashing The Glow resembles Ryu's "Shin Hadoken" from the Street Fighter series.
- Gideon's Cryogenic Freezer contains 6 girls and descends from the ceiling similarly to GLaDOS with it's various personality orbs from Portal.
- Chapter 34 is entitled "A Link to the Past" which is the title of the third "The Legend of Zelda" game for SNES
- Gideon's master plan to freeze Ramona, along with his other 6 ex-girlfriends, could be a reference to Square Enix's video game "Kingdom Hearts" where there would have to be 7 princesses of Heart frozen to culminate in the antagonist's evil plan. This could also be a reference to Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, inwhich 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.
- "Chaos Theater" is the name of the Theater where you first meet the Runaway Five in Earthbound for SNES.
- Scott and Kim's new band Shatter Band's name is based off the video game Shatterhand.