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Scene It? Bright Lights, Big Screen Review (X360)

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Scene It? Bright Lights, Big Screen Review (X360)Warner Bros.
The first two console Scene It? games were Xbox 360 exclusives, but Bright Lights, Big Screen is a multiplatform release published by Warner Bros. Interactive. Because of this change, it takes a few steps back from 2008’s excellent Scene It? Box Office Smash. It is still a really good, really fun game of movie trivia, but Scene It? Bright Lights, Big Screen is a bit of a letdown compared to past releases. Find out all of the details here in our full review.
Game Details

  • Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
  • Developer: Screenlife
  • ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
  • Genre: Movie Trivia
  • Pros: Big Button Controller support; very quick between questions; fun party game
  • Cons: No Avatar support; no online play; new host/characters are awful

Features

Just to recap the concept, Scene It? is a movie trivia party game. There are different types of questions including some where you watch a movie clip and then answer questions about that scene, questions where you have to name the movie as the movie poster materializes, questions where you listen to sound clips, anagram questions where you unscramble letters to figure out a movie title or actor, and many, many more. There are tons of question types and all genres and eras of movies are covered so it can be fun for gamers of all ages.

Previous entries in the series came with special Big Button Controllers that were very non-gamer friendly. Bright Lights, Big Screen (BLBS from here on out) doesn’t come with these controllers, but if you already have a set you can use them in this game, which is, honestly, the best and easiest way to play. The regular Xbox 360 controller works just fine, of course, but it isn’t quite as noob-friendly.

Warner Bros.
Another change from previous Xbox 360 releases to this new one is that Avatars are not supported here. This is kind of a big drawback because that was one of the cooler and more appealing features of Box Office Smash. It really helped non-gamers (parents, girlfriends, etc.) get into the game easier when they could play as a character that looked just like them. BLBS instead uses a handful of generic male and female characters that are seriously lacking in any real personality.

Online play is another feature absent in BLBS. It will have DLC packs available in the future to add more questions, but online play with other players isn’t offered. Online play was neutered a bit in Box Office Smash in order to work fairly for all players (some question types were removed in online play) but it was still very fun to play online, so it is a shame it isn’t available here.

On to some good news. The best thing I can say that has changed about BLBS is that the game flows from question to question incredibly quickly now. There is no delay between questions, or annoying announcer, or any pointless junk getting in the way. The game zips from one question to the next very quickly, which is much appreciated. The core gameplay of answering questions is also still very good (pretty hard to mess up a simple concept like this), so from a core gameplay perspective BLBS is as good as ever.

Presentation

The presentation in BLBS gets the job done, which is all you can really ask for. The menus and everything are pretty clean and easy to follow, so no real complaints. We don’t like the characters much, but they don’t get in the way at least. The sound is fine for what it is. The movie clips look and sound good.

Bottom Line

Warner Bros.
In the end, Scene It? Bright Lights, Big Screen is a fun game of movie trivia, but a bit of a letdown compared to previous Xbox 360 versions of the game. It still plays perfectly fine (a little better even since it transitions from question to question so quickly), but missing features like Avatar support and online play hurt it a bit. I would say that Box Office Smash is still the best Scene It? game on the Xbox 360, and if you don’t already own a version of the series that is the one I’d recommend. With that said, if you are a movie junkie and have already played through the 2000+ questions in each of the first two 360 games, you might as well pick up BLBS because it is more of the same you already love. Despite a few rough patches, Scene It? Bright Lights, Big Screen is still a fun party game that is recommended for at least a rental.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy

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