Video Game Review: Mediocre ‘Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen!’

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CHICAGO – Being a film critic makes it hard to find people willing to play “Scene It?” with you. Consequently, I haven’t become familiar with the video game versions of the popular DVD/board game and hadn’t played any incarnation of the franchise in years. The Nintendo Wii version of the latest release doesn’t make me long for missed years of “Scene It?” gaming but should provide a pleasant diversion for movie nuts.

Honestly, a review of “Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen!” can be a little tough to manage. It’s not exactly a title that contains any surprises on a gameplay level. It’s a movie trivia game and, to that end, it delivers 2,800 questions in a variety of categories and mini-games. Most of the questions are pretty easy. Some of the games are kind of clever. The presentation is what you’d expect from a Wii trivia game. To use a baseball analogy, “Scene It?” is a fastball straight down the middle - no curves.

The questions are well-designed, as are the mini-games - most notably a bit called “The Invisibles,” which erases characters from a still and asks the player to identify the movie - and, for a lot of players, simply having clever, fun questions to answer will be enough to justify the purchase price. On a basic level, “Scene It?” delivers. The producers of these games have been making them long enough that it would be difficult for it not to do so.

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen!
Photo credit: Warner Bros. Interactive

Where “Scene It?” stumbles is in the variables - the presentation of the questions and how the player interacts with the game, the first available for the Nintendo Wii. To be blunt, using the Wii-mote as a buzzer is annoying. The game makes it difficult to tell who buzzed in first and the controls seemed sketchy. The presentation of the game complete with cheesy announcer jokes is a bit lackluster with mediocre graphics and writing. And I imagine if you’re playing the game on a TV smaller than 40 inches, the answers would be difficult to read.

There’s also a totally bizarre star system. At the end of each round, the announcer will award seemingly random stars that can be used to give certain players boosts in the next round. But only one player at a time can use a boost. So, if you’re playing one-on-one, either you or your opponent will always have a boost advantage after the first round. It’s weird and ill-conceived.

Finally, there’s no online play - unacceptable for a trivia game in 2010.

“Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen!” gets the basics right - movie trivia questions presented for group play. It’s everything beyond that foundation that either feels like the bare minimum or just above it. Hardcore movie nuts should take a look, but everyone else would be better entertained by going to a local bar on trivia night.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]