Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! Review for Xbox 360

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! box art

System: X360, PS3, Wii	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Artificial Mind & Movement	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Warner Bros. Interactive	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Nov. 17, 2009	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1-4	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Teen	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

So what's missing? Online support, for one. Scene It? is best when played with friends or family locally, but there's no reason for a game this simple to not have Wi-Fi multiplayer. When you're home alone, you can only play single-player, which is not much fun at all. The developers also dumped the ability to play as an avatar from your console, which is a huge and lazy disappointment. The avatars they replace this feature with aren't great, either. Also, despite the seemingly large number of questions, it seemed to us that we came across material pertaining to the same movies (Julie & Julia, to name one) fairly often.

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! screenshot

The presentation doesn't help matters. Even on an HD console, Bright Lights! Big Screen! looks like a budget-bin Wii game. Cheesy and cartoonishly animated cutscenes interrupt the gameplay from time to time. The "host" (whom you can turn off, thankfully) is the hammiest and most annoying character we've met in a long time. We wanted to punch him. The avatars make stupid noises and movements whenever they win or lose. The only parts of this game that look and sound good are the DVD-quality movie bits.

There are a few smaller problems as well. For one, some of the time limits on the answers can be a little demanding and frustrating, and you'll often realize the answer just as time runs out. If you pause the game in mid-question for any reason, even if a controller runs out of batteries, the clock keeps ticking. The font is hard to see on smaller TVs. Also, regular gamers will find they have an advantage over their less-experienced friends, thanks to their knowledge of the controllers' button layouts. There's no way around this problem, but it can be a little unfair when your wife loses points scrambling for the right button. (Sorry, hon).

All these faults add up to an experience that's inferior to those of other Scene It? games, so if you have a choice, avoid this one. Nonetheless, it's virtually impossible to mess up this basic formula: ask questions about movies that players compete to answer. PlayStation and non-Twilight-fan Wii owners don't even have a choice. The bottom line is that if you get stuck with Bright Lights! Big Screen! this holiday season, there's no reason to despair.

By Robert VerBruggen
CCC Freelance Writer

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

2.1

Graphics
The movie clips look fine, but otherwise the graphics are pretty threadbare.

4.2

Control
No real problems here.

2.0

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The voiceover work from the host and avatars is very grating.

3.2

Play Value
The core aspects of this game, the clips and questions, are great, so it's a lot of fun to play, even if the developers fumbled a lot.

3.4

Overall Rating - Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

Play on your own, or compete against friends and family in two-to-four-player multiplayer that can be played with as few as one controller.

Demonstrate your knowledge of recent Hollywood blockbusters and enduring movie favorites by answering more than 2,800 fun trivia questions, interspersed with movie clips.

Test your store of trivia and your ability to think fast with 23 challenging puzzle categories.

A new and improved single-player option, as well as party play modes.

Personalize your playing experience with twelve fun all-new movie-themed avatars, and have fun with a new, very entertaining game host.