Review: Scene It! Lights, Camera, Action

Ever since Buzz came out on the PlayStation 2, gamers from practically every platform have been crying out for someone to make a trivia game for their system. Nintendo Wii owners have just gotten their wish in the form of Electronic Arts’ Smarty Pants and now Xbox 360 gamers can get their trivia groove on with the release of Scene It Lights Camera Action.

Ever since Buzz came out on the PlayStation 2, gamers from practically every platform have been crying out for someone to make a trivia game for their system. Nintendo Wii owners have just gotten their wish in the form of Electronic Arts’ Smarty Pants and now Xbox 360 gamers can get their trivia groove on with the release of Scene It Lights Camera Action.

We all like movies and that’s what Scene It is about. Originally a DVD board game, Scene It’s move to a video game platform was really an eventual move and the shift to the Xbox 360 has come about with the packaging of a new type of game controller.

Much like how Buzz comes with four game-show styled controllers with big round buzzer buttons, the Scene It package comes with four game-show styled controllers each with a big round buzzer button. But unlike Buzz, the controllers in Scene It are wireless relying on an infrared receiver that you plug into one of the Xbox 360’s USB ports.

Now four of your friends can try their hands at movie trivia anywhere in the room they want to without having to worry about tripping over cables!

There are all manner of various games each one being about movies… which sort of makes sense since Scene It is a movie game. For instance, you might see a clip for the Matt Damon flick The Bourne Identity after which you’ll be asked a couple of questions about the clip followed by questions about the movie or story itself. There are even games where you have to buzz in before a drawing appears to guess the movie, fill in the blanks for famous quotes, and many more.

But what’s so odd and yet irritating about Scene It is that it feels like it’s missing so much. What made trivia games like Buzz and You Don’t Know Jack so good is the relationships that the player had with the host. Throughout the questions in those games, the player formed a playful bond with the host.

But in Scene It, the only time the host speaks is when a round is about to start or when it’s ending. This leaves Scene It feeling very empty and altogether boring. There were points where I almost fell asleep just trying to get through a game.

Strangely, a “short game” isn’t really all that short taking around 15 minutes to complete. I did start a long game, but that was about when I started to get bored of it so quit early on.

Then there are the questions. Scene It doesn’t say just how many questions are in its library, but I ran into the same questions and even some of the same video clips in the space of playing for around two hours.

It’s things like this that make Scene It seem half-hearted. You kind of get the feeling that Scene It will only be good if there are no less than 3 of you playing in the same room otherwise you might just want to switch onto another game.

If it came down to it, we’d have to suggest Scene It only if you were into playing movie trivia with your friends. Scene It, sadly, is just one of those games that you can’t play without friends nearby.

Should you buy it?: If you do buy it, make sure you have friends nearby. It’s only good with friends.

Developer: WXP
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Classification: PG
Formats: Xbox 360
URL: Scene It! Lights, Camera, Action

Reviewed by Leigh D. Stark