The Scene It games are becoming as regular as sports titles and Need for Speed entries. For the past three years we have received a brand new disc version of the game, but this is the first time it has been available outside of Xbox 360 only. Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! is the latest movie trivia game to grace consoles and for the most part it gets the job done. The biggest concern for me is why these continue to be disc-based with the promise of DLC when that DLC ends up being just another disc. Still giving PS3 and Wii owners a chance to finally get in on the fun almost makes up for this oversight.
Bright Lights keeps the formula the same as previous outings so if you have already played these on 360 then you know what to expect. Questions are broken down into various game types including scrambled anagrams, clips with questions, movie posters to recognize and my personal favorite Child’s Play where the scene is drawn using adolescent imagery from classic moments. The core mechanic is still fun and the new package of questions (totaling 2,800) will keep movie buffs occupied for hours on end.
Seeing as it probably could have been added as DLC let’s start with what has been removed from this latest version of the game. For starters the online mode found in the last game is completely gone. While I am not the biggest advocate of playing trivia games online (I prefer the comfort of my own couch) it was a fantastic feature for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of people over, or likes to play at odd hours of the night. The second omission, and in my opinion a good one, is the removal of bonus points for mundane tasks between rounds. No longer will you earn extra points for answering all questions the slowest. This has been replaced with a system that allows you to perform mini-games to expand your score multiplier. While a bit flawed, this new system is much more balanced than the previous game.
Also gone are the ridiculous intermissions between each segment. The announcer is still annoying and full of terrible jokes, but at least now you can skip his dialogue and move straight into the action. Games feel like they move at a much brisker pace than before. This helps when playing with friends on the couch as previous entries would begin to wear on even the most patient person after seeing the same ridiculous CGI scene over and over again before a simple question. The overall presentation now takes a backseat to the questions and for me it is a welcome addition. The Xbox 360 version also does not support avatars anymore which is a shame as it added more personalization.
Depending on which system you pick up the game for your control options will differ. 360 fans who already purchased the big buzzers will be thrilled to know they are supported and well implemented. Wii fans will have to suffice with the Wii remote, which works perfectly fine. Probably the most disappointing though is the PS3 version. While it does support the Buzz controllers, it also does not recognize them. This means you will have to figure out which color represents which button before beginning the game. This makes it frustrating to play with the controllers you would have thought would have been implemented from the start. Hopefully a patch releases to fix this, as it stands now stick with the Dual Shock when playing alone unless you want to continuously wrestle with the buttons and miss questions out of no fault of your own.
Amazingly I still had a fantastic time with the game thanks to the idea that I am a huge movie buff. If you are as well then this latest entry will likely be worth its price tag, especially if you don’t own a 360 and you have never had a chance to play these games on a console. Questions still manage to repeat far too often and I still debate whether DLC will really be in the pipeline for the future considering the last two games really stumbled when it came to that promise. If you can get past that and the fact that online play is non-existent then this is definitely worth checking out for trivia gurus. The $40 price tag also helps.
