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Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action

1 rating: 4.0

Trivia video game by Microsoft for the Xbox 360

The popular DVD board game is easier to play than ever thanks to this Xbox 360 version. Your favorite film scenes will play, and it's up to you to buzz in and answer the trivia questions. The Xbox 360 version includes four controllers to play the game … see full wiki

Tags: Video Games, Xbox 360 Games, Trivia

Release Date: November, 2007

1 review about Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action

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Scene it - A video game for movie buffs

Mar 12, 2008

by jkafer
posted in The Gaming Hub

Rating:

Pros: Fun, challenging trivia questions, generous achievements, lots of questions, fun to play in groups

Cons: ho-hum graphics and sound. But really, who cares?

The Bottom Line: If your friends like trivia and movies, look no further than Scene it for Xbox 360.

Everyone loves trivia games, especially those that deal with pop culture such as movies. This would explain the success of the Scene It DVD games. Many iterations of this game have been released over the years and finally the game comes to the Xbox 360 with all new questions and new controllers. Is it a great party game?

Read on, dear reader....

•• Story ••
There really isn't a story here. But the setting is on a movie backlot. The game begins with a birds-eye fly in of a movie set and the minigames take place in various locations such as the back office, the sound studio, or a theater itself. This is an obvious setting for the game and a fairly creative backdrop.

•• Gameplay ••
The gameplay is really quite simple. Scene it is made up of random mini game based on movies. Most of them are multiple choice and some require you to buzz in before the other players. And how does one do this? With the included big button controllers!

Yes, Scene it includes 4 controllers in red, blue, green and yellow. Each controller has a large button on the top and each of the regular Xbox controller buttons in a line down the middle. As well, we have the Xbox jewel and start and pause buttons. The only buttons missing are triggers and shoulders, but thankfully the game doesn't require them. To top it all off, these controllers are wireless and talk to a USB receiver that plugs into the back of your Xbox. It would have been nice if the controllers talked to the already-existing infrared port built-in, but it's not a big deal.

As expected, the minigames are all about movies and start with films from the 60s all the way up to today. There is a lot of content variation, ranging from answering questions based on a movie clip to naming the actor based on their high school photo to guessing the movie based on clues thrown onto the screen. There are about 20 different types of games not including the final showdown. And if each game type has about 50 different questions, that means the game probably has over a thousand questions total. This is purely a guess based on the fact that we played at least 20 long games and never got a repeated question.

On that note, you can choose to play long or short games. As the names imply, this setting is good for people who want to play a quick game or sit back and play for a while. The longer the game, the more points you can rack up. Points are given out based on speed. Some games require you to buzz in first with the correct answer while others require you to simply get the question right and award you points on a sloping scale based on how fast you answered. But be careful! on the second round of questions, wrong answers will subtract from your score. And as you might guess, the final round can make or break the game and turn the tide of victory to the underdog. And the player with the most points wins.

For fun and achievements, after each reound, players are award with movie themed bonus points. You can get awards for answering the most questions correctly in a row, having the fastest buzz-in time or the longest streak. These bonus points add to your score and most of them are tied to achievements, which are plentiful and fairly easy to get.

•• Graphics ••
Scene it is not a game that calls for "next gen" graphics. This isn't powered by the Unreal Engine and it won't win any awards for best art design. But it certainly does the job by providing colorful backdrops, smooth animation and hi definition film clips and photos. The cutscene animations are cartoony and fun, but nothing fantastic. And since you see the exact same thing each time you play a type of minigame, you'll soon find yourself skipping these parts. In all, the graphics get the job done, but aren't anything wonderful.

•• Sound ••
The same description could be said of the sound design. There's a fair amount of music throughout the game, but it's synthesized and simple. The narrator who guides you through tries to be snarky and sarcastic, but ends up being repetitive. Want dry sarcasm and witty banter in a game show host? Load up You Don't Know Jack for a perfect example of the way it should be done. This is not to say that the sound in Scene it is bad. The sound effects, voice-overs and music are decent, but again, don't expect award-winning sound design.

•• Multiplayer ••
This game is all about multiplayer. It supports 4 player couch play, but nothing over live or system link.

•• Parents Should Know ••
This game is rated T for Teen and is only rated that way because it might feature some risque film clips from movies. We found nothing offensive in the game and if the kids want to play a trivia game about movies, they're probably old enough to handle this.

•• Conclusion ••
If your friends like trivia and movies, look no further than Scene it for Xbox 360.

Recommended:
Yes

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