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Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

A Movie Trivia Bonanza

We’re not quite sure why it’s more fun to answer questions about movies than to actually watch movies, but it is, and the Scene It? franchise has been profiting off that fact for years now. Though first released as a board game with accompanying movie clips, it’s also been successful as a video game, and its latest virtual outing is subtitled Bright Lights! Big Screen!

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! screenshot

At its very core, the game delivers what it’s supposed to; it’s not hard to get together with family and friends and have a blast with this latest installment. At the same time, however, new developers Artificial Mind & Movement evidently built the game from the ground up — possibly so they could release it in time for Christmas on all three major platforms instead of just the Xbox 360 (home to Krome’s Box Office Smash and Lights, Camera, Action) or Wii (home to Konami’s new Scene It? Twilight) — and didn’t do a very good job.

This title lacks a lot of its predecessors’ best features. PS3 owners don’t have much of a choice aside from the board game (and who plays board games when they have a PS3?), but 360 owners who don’t have the previous two games should get those first. Twilight-enamored tween girls with Wiis can probably stick with what they already have, though other Wii owners are in the same boat as PS3 owners.

The setup is quite familiar. You and up to three friends grab controllers (or share one), and you’re taken through some of the game’s 23 different movie-trivia tests. Sometimes you watch a clip and answer questions about it, and even those who haven’t seen the movie in question can usually earn some points with a sharp eye. Other times you see photos (some of which have been altered or obscured) or hear sound clips and identify them. Elsewhere you watch credits scroll by until you know what movie they’re from (at which point you “buzz in”). Some straight-up trivia rounds out the experience. At the end, the game tallies up your score, and the best player wins.

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! screenshot

There are 2,800 questions already on the disc, and downloadable content is on the way (for the HD consoles only — sorry, Wii owners!). The questions are usually more than fair, demanding a reasonable amount of knowledge about movies without being too picky. The photos are identifiable without being obvious, and the clips are often entertaining in and of themselves. Between rounds, players get “stars” that they can use to multiply their scores, making it possible for people of different skill levels to compete (though we wish this system had been fine-tuned a little more; the game often awards more stars to the player who’s ahead, which is pointless bordering on frustrating). There are plenty of options, including one that assigns negative points for wrong answers. The game even works with the “big button” controllers sold with previous versions of Scene It? and the PS3’s Buzz! controllers, though we weren’t able to test these (online, some have complained about the response time of the big-button controllers and the layout of the Buzz! ones). There are hours of fun to be had here.

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! screenshot

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.

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.

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