Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action Xbox 360 review

The Xbox 360’s attempt to cash in on the success of the PS2’s Buzz, Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action! ties in to the board game that lots of people own but few people play (and I’m not sure I’d like to meet the person who regularly plays the Friends edition). Fortunately, it also comes with four wireless buzzers (along with a receiver for them that plugs into the console), and a fairly decent movie quiz too.

Overtly American in its presentation, you’re taken ‘enthusiastically’ around a movie studio, with rounds loosely based around the idea of making a film. You can opt for a long game if you wish, which can feel that it’s guffing on longer than Titanic, or there’s the more comfortable option for a shorter, snappier quiz. We recommend the latter.

Whichever you choose, the game – with the aid of a voiceover that grates as if you were being personally serenaded by Robson & Jermome – bustles into life quickly. Lots of rounds ensue, and there’s a good deal of variety to them. Perhaps the weakest, ironically, are the ones where you sit and watch a movie clip for a bit, and then answer questions based on it. The clips, while impressive, tend to drag on a bit, and then the questions are based on observation or the blindingly obvious, on the whole. Bah.

But the other rounds are better. Identifying photos, bits of trivia, audio clips, posters, ranking things in order and such like are included, and there’s a mechanic whereby the game continually keeps a record of what you’ve been asked, so it takes a long time for the questions to start looping round again. This is a good thing.

Also, the questions, apart from the movie clip bits, can be quite tough, which clearly has a pro and a con to it. We tested it with a casual group of gamers, and midway through, one complained that “I don’t mind joining in, but this does your morale in after a bit”. Conversely, get a group of movie buffs together, and this is likely to be just the ticket.

Scene It? has problems, but it is a robust, decent enough movie trivia game. Selling for £40 with the four wireless controllers, it’s unlikely to be the last game in the franchise you’ll see on the 360 either. That said, if you’ve seen the subject matter of some of the Scene It? board games they peddle out, that might be quite a scary proposition…