Of course, if you are the only one at home but you still want to play with friends, Box Office Smash also allows for online play with up to four players. This is definitely the biggest improvement over the last Scene It? title which completely lacked this feature. It is easy to get into both short and long matches, and the action continues at the same pace as if you were playing offline. Playing online is also a good option for those looking for a challenge as there is already some incredibly stiff competition to be found. This title is also the first built with the New Xbox Experience (NXE) in mind, so after the NXE is finally released, you’ll be able to play as your newly created Avatars instead of the few included character options.

Much like Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action, Box Office Smash has a ton of questions and movie clips to keep players entertained. At least once a round, players will be treated to a brief movie clip taken directly from classics like Big to newer releases like Serenity. Paying close attention to these clips often helps when answering the questions that follow it but can sometimes seem completely pointless. These questions will usually ask about specifics from the clip you just watched like “what color was Steve Martin’s tie?” or “what was the first line uttered?” Still, there will be times when these questions seem completely unrelated, asking about things that weren’t in the clip or even about the movie that it came from. While this does add some variety given that you’ll see most of these clips numerous times, it can also be quite frustrating when you’ve paid close attention just to have fairly random questions asked afterwards.

This brings me to my only real problem with Box Office Smash. While there are a plethora of questions and movie clips in the game, as with any game of this nature, you will begin to get repeats. In fact, it only took me a couple of games before I began to have that feeling of déjà vu. The more games you play, the more duplicate questions you can expect. I know that this is an inevitable aspect of all question-based trivia games, but it still seemed like there were far too many recurring questions. There are supposed to be some downloadable packs to be made available for this title that should bolster the total number of questions, but no actual specifics have yet been announced.

Even with this problem, Box Office Smash is still incredibly fun, especially with a group, and it is a great improvement over Lights, Camera, Action. New challenges such as, my personal favorite, Pixel Flix, which consists of watching and identifying classic 8-bit renditions of well-known movie scenes, help keep the experience enjoyable and varied. The addition of online multiplayer, the integration of NXE Avatars, and the promise of an extended question bank in the future further make this a pretty complete package. Also, if you are looking for a game to play with your relatives during the holidays, not many are as easy to pick-up-and-play as Box Office Smash while still being enjoyable for players of all ages and walks of life.

By Adam Brown
CCC Staff Contributor