Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Scene It? Box Office Smash Review for Xbox 360

Scene It? Box Office Smash Review for Xbox 360

A Sequel that’s Hard to Refuse

If you are into movies or movie trivia, you’ve likely heard of Scene It? before. With over a dozen versions of the board game and a previous entry on the Xbox 360 console, Scene It? is one of the most recognizable and best-selling movie-based trivia game series on the market. While the first console entry into the franchise was an excellent game, there was definitely some room for improvement. Thankfully, Scene It? Box Office Smash does a great job of upgrading the features and gameplay found in the series’ first outing.

Scene It? Box Office Smash screenshot

Most games in Box Office Smash are broken up into three rounds followed by the final cut. Each of these rounds is full of varying challenges that will test your knowledge of films from the 50’s all the way to recent releases. These different challenges will include everything from unscrambling various anagrams to identifying movie posters as parts of it gradually appear. Some games will require you to buzz in to give your answer while others can be answered by everyone. No matter which of these is the case, correctly answering these questions as quickly as possible will result in adding more points to your total score.

As soon as your question appears a score meter will begin to deplete. It starts out at a possible two thousand points and will steadily decrease until the question is either answered correctly or the total hits zero. This adds a welcome sense of urgency to answering these questions as well as a reward for the movie buffs among us. However, players with slower reflexes and a more limited knowledge of movies are still able to compete. Between each round in a game, players are rewarded for different achievements such as having the quickest correct answer or even getting the most answers wrong during a round. These added bonuses help to keep everyone’s scores much closer, ultimately making for more interesting affairs.

Scene It? Box Office Smash screenshot

This game can be played with up to four players in short, long, continuous, or solo game varieties. Short games will provide three different challenge types per round, while long matches consist of five types each. Points are awarded normally throughout these rounds until you get to the Final Cut. Final Cuts involve watching a short movie clip and then answering five questions about it, or at least questions that relate to it in some way. Every time you answer one of these questions correctly your score multiplier increases, while an incorrect answer will reset it.

In continuous mode, the game will keep throwing movie trivia at you until you decide to stop playing. This mode can be fun when you have a group of friends over but don’t want the action to get too heated or competitive. If you find yourself home alone or just want to try out some movie trivia by yourself, a solo game is perfect. Playing a solo game allows you to play by yourself in a game made up of ten challenge blocks with a score multiplier similar to the one found during the Final Cut. Here your ultimate goal is to try to get as many questions right in a row as you can so your multiplier will continue to build and net you a higher score.

Scene It? Box Office Smash screenshot

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.

Scene It? Box Office Smash screenshot

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.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.7 Graphics
Player created Avatars, good quality movie clips, and decent-looking 3D backgrounds will keep your eyes happy while your movie knowledge is being tested. 4.0 Control
While there isn’t much to control besides a large buzzer button and one for each of your answer choices, everything works as it should. 4.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The game’s commentators can get extremely annoying during extended play sessions, but they can also be quite humorous in small doses. 3.6 Play Value
Online multiplayer certainly adds some longevity to this title. I only wish there were more questions available so that there weren’t as many repeats. 3.8 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • New movies, questions, puzzle challenges: It’s not just trivia—it’s trivia about movies you love, with hundreds of all-new questions, audio clips, photo stills, and HD movie clips never seen before in any Scene It? game. All 22 puzzle types have been designed to provide the ultimate multiplayer experience on Xbox 360.
  • Worldwide movie trivia: Movie fans in France, Italy, German, Spain, and the U.K. have even more to love, with content from some of their favorite local films included in versions of the game sold in their countries.
  • Online multiplayer: Airplane flights are expensive, and your friends are everywhere. Solution? A Scene It? match over Xbox LIVE. Better than a phone call, playing over Xbox LIVE builds new memories with old friends and the opportunity to test your knowledge against friends or movie buffs around the world with several new online multiplayer modes.
  • At the movies: With the new Xbox LIVE experience, you can put yourself into the game through custom avatars that respond to your play and react to one another throughout the course of the game.
  • More from Xbox LIVE: With downloadable content available via Xbox LIVE Marketplace and a content tracking system that minimizes question repeats, you always have a fresh play experience.
  • Big Button Pad: With the intuitive wireless Big Button Pad, even the most console-phobic person will play, and maybe even win. The game is available with four wireless Big Button Pads, or without for aficionados who already own them from the previous Xbox 360 game Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action.

  • To top