Scene It! Lights, Camera, Action Member Review for the Xbox360

 

 

Good old family fun night. Those were the days. Solving murders with your parents and then later robbing them blind through better urban development. Almost all of us has played a board game at some point or another in our lifetime, and almost all of us have heard of the popular DVD trivia game, Scene It! (Unless of course, you live in a third world country and if that’s the case, you likely wouldn’t be browsing this site – I’d like to think there’s more important things to worry about than reading up on games you can’t play!)

Having played Scene It? And Scene It? 2^nd Edition, I was a little curious as to how the 360 version would turn out. I’ll admit, I enjoyed the original versions of Scene It (although the first one felt a little alienating. Perhaps I should have been born in the 60s.) But they certainly weren’t without their flaws. The questions were repetitive and there was no sense of urgency when answering the questions (players couldn’t buzz in to “steal your answer, which took away a lot of “edge of your seat”, “knuckle biting, “whatever other clichéd phrases I can enter here” gameplay.) So how, I wondered could the 360 version differ or offer anything new in the way of trivia when we already have two editions of the original “Scene It?”, two editions of “Disney Scene It?”, two “Harry Potter Scene It?” games and not to mention numerous others.

Imagine then, my pleasant surprise when I played “Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action” for the first time. The puzzles were fresh, the game modes were new, and the white knuckle suspense I longed for was introduced to the series, thanks in no small part to the inclusion of the buzzer controllers. (Which really aren’t going to add clutter to your living room. They fit snuggly into the game box. The motion sensor, well that’s another story.) The game ranges in puzzles – Some involve watching a movie clip and buzzing in correctly with the right answer, others involve buzzing in to finish the missing words from famous movie quotes before other players get the chance, and some can be just plain annoying such as the anagram puzzle, where a movie title is, as the puzzle type suggests, made into an anagram. These are just a few of the various types of puzzles found throughout the game, all of which are multiplayer friendly.

Contrary to what other reviewers may have said, you really don’t come across a lot of the same questions. Having played the game numerous times with my fiancé, I can safely say that very rarely did we come across the same movie clip, and I was surprised by how often new ones kept coming into play. Granted, some of the questions tend to repeat themselves in small trivia segments, such as when you have to match the movie star up with their high school yearbook photo, but it’s really not noticeable enough to bring the game’s score down.

Game play allows up to four players to play competitively, or in party play, which is a game mode where you just answer questions with no score or bonus points, which is nice for those looking to have fun for all, while losing the competitive edge. Allowing up to maybe six players would be a nice addition, but four works just as well, especially since you can easily play in pairs. Do the math with me now folks – four pairs of two, equals eight overall players.

While it’s a great addition to your video game collection if you have friends or family, which I’m assuming all of you do, the game does have it’s flaws. You may find yourself squinting at the television if you don’t own a nice sized LCD. We have a 42 inch one here, and when I played without my glasses I had to squint to see the words. Now, my eye sight isn’t that bad mind you, but it may put it into perspective. If you own a 27 inch, sit danger close to the television.

Of course, sitting that close to the TV may hurt your ears. The games commentator, while often funny and a nice filler between rounds, can become annoying and repetitive. His voice certainly isn’t going to be on the end of male 900 numbers any time soon, and his jokes can fall pretty flat. (Although I found something oddly funny when he’d make remarks about writers being lazy when they were all on strike during the times I played.)

One thing I’m surprised and disappointed with is their lack of downloadable trivia via the X-Box Live service at the time of this review. The game has been out since November and we have yet to be treated with a trivia pack. Even if the content was put together in the form of themes to make it easier, such as a sci-fi trivia pack, or a “famous directors” package. I’d love to show my inner nerd off by beating everyone at Stephen Spielberg based questions and putting my Wookie knowledge in their face.

Really though, an annoying commentator, some small print is nothing to get bent out of shape about. “Scene It? LCA” is an enjoyable game for the whole family, and while “M” rated games are down 50% percent from 2005, the video game market is still full of them and this is a nice, clean addition to anyone’s video game library.