- Title: Scene It? Box Office Smash
- Publisher: Microsoft
- Developer: Screenlife Games, Krome Studios
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Movie Trivia
- Pros: Greatly improved over original in every way; tons of questions; online play; Avatars
- Cons: Movie clips tend to repeat (but with different questions)
If you aren’t already familiar with Scene It?, it is a movie trivia game where you watch movie clips or answer trivia questions. It is available as a DVD board game as well as on the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 iterations of Scene It? are played with special controllers that have one big “buzzer” button as well as the A,B,X,Y buttons lined up so players can buzz in and answer questions. The controller is very easy to use and is great for non-gamers as it makes the game very accessible and easy to play.
You can play Scene It? Box Office Smash by yourself or with up to three other people. You can also play online with three other people as well, which functions very well and is pretty darn fun, particularly if you are playing with friends. The game types in online play exclude timing-based “buzz in first”-type questions and instead focuses on questions that everyone has a shot at answering which ensures that everyone has a fair chance and lag never poses a problem.
Box Office Smash is also notable in that you can use your Avatars from the upcoming New Xbox Experience. Having your family represented in the game by characters that look like them really draws in non-gamers and makes it especially fun.
Gameplay
The different game types are really what makes Box Office Smash stand out. One game will have you watch a movie clip and then answer specific questions about it. Another game will slowly reveal a movie poster and you have to name the movie. Or another will play a sound clip where you have to name the movie and then answer another question about it. There are several other game types thrown into the mix, and you’ll see several different types during a game which helps to keep the experience fresh and fun and new.
One minor complaint is that the movie clips can repeat across games. There will be different questions for that clip each time, but it does get a little old to see the same clips two or three times.
Presentation
The presentation is another area where Box Office Smash greatly improves on Lights, Camera, Action. LCA used a somewhat flimsy movie set theme that just wasn’t terribly appealing. The announcer was also very obnoxious, and some of the animations and things onscreen were pretty poor. Box Office Smash fixes that by giving each game type its own unique theme and replacing the old announcer with two much funnier ones.Bottom Line
