Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action (Xbox 360)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Aaron Thomas
• Reviewed on: 11/14/2007
• Updated on: 11/20/2007
• Released on: 11/06/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action (Xbox 360) Review

Scene It? has been a popular DVD-based party game for a number of years, so it's not surprising that the series has finally landed on a console, and with cool buzzer controllers to boot. Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action is a multimedia party game that will test your Hollywood knowledge from the 1950s to 2007. Film buffs who want to showcase their nerdiness will love the game, but even if you're only a casual movie fan, it's a lot of fun.

You can play Scene It? with regular Xbox 360 controllers, but the game comes with four special controllers officially known as the "Xbox 360 Big Button Pads." With the exception of being wireless, these controllers are very similar to those used for Buzz! on the PlayStation 2. They're meant to be held in one hand, and they feature a big, colored "buzzer" button on top as well as four face buttons lined up vertically on the front of the controller. Although the controllers are wireless, you do need to set up the included sensor atop or near your television and then plug the sensor into an open USB port because the controllers use infrared and not radio frequencies to transmit. They also require two AA batteries each, which are included with the game. It's curious that the game restricts you to only four players, even if you have more Xbox 360 controllers. This kind of limits the whole "party game" appeal of the package. There's also no online play and there aren't any leaderboards, which is a shame because both seem as if they'd be a natural fit here.

Once you've got the controllers set up, you'll want to pick a game type. This won't take long because there are only two options. "Party play" randomly selects game types and goes on forever. Why this is considered party mode is anyone's guess. It's also anyone's guess as to why the game shows you everyone's answers as soon as they enter them in this mode (but not in the quick-play mode). When three people quickly answer a question and exclaim "Oh that was easy!", it's not too hard for the fourth person to figure out that the others know the answer, look to see what it was, and then enter it. Suffice it to say you're going to want to go with the "play now" game mode, which lets you play a more structured game. You can choose from short play, in which each of the three rounds consists of three puzzles, or long play, which raises the number of puzzles per round to five.

The game is set in a Hollywood movie lot. The game's host will take you around to different areas and start a set of questions loosely based on that area. Consequently, if you're in the animation studio, the puzzle will be centered on a drawing, and if you're in the sound studio...you get the idea. Each question is typically worth 2,000 points, and the point value decreases as time passes. Most of the time there's no penalty for a wrong answer, but there are occasions where you do lose points for an incorrect guess. There's tremendous variety to the types of game, or "puzzles" as they're called. We'll cover the highlights:

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Recent user reviews

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 4 reviews
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• 4.0 stars

  "Party game"

  by bdepot on May 10, 2009

• 3.5 stars

  "A lot of fun but dont play it too much"

  by popshuvit on February 5, 2008

• 1.5 stars

  "Bad Questions"

  by superguy on December 31, 2007

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