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Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! is not a good game. Don't buy it.
Published: December 1, 2009
I'll never claim to know all that goes on in the decision-making process to bring a game to market, but I'll sure as hell tell you when it's a bad one. Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! is a bad idea. It may have made some sense on the Xbox 360 where competition like Buzz! doesn't exist, but the PS3 there's already easily the best trivia game on the market just waiting for people to snap it up.
I'm not saying I wouldn't love for Buzz! to have some competition -- I absolutely adore trivia games in any form... when they're done right. Scene It? most definitely wasn't. Obviously developer Artificial Mind and Movement (who recently kicked out the surprisingly fun WET) is aware of Sony's quiz game; the game actually supports the wireless Buzz! buzzers, but acknowledgement is clearly not the same thing as actively embracing the competition. If you are for some reason saddled with having to play Scene It? on the PS3, do not use the Buzz! buzzers.
Why? Simple: the game makes absolutely no effort to adjust the interface to accommodate. There are no labels on the buzzers, they're simply colored buttons that correspond to the actual face buttons on a normal DualShock 3, meaning you have to spend half your time in Scene It? trying to figure out what X actually is. May your respective deity help you when it comes time to do one of the many put-these-things-in-order questions. Just using the DualShock 3, this is find, but trying to use a controller specifically designed for a trivia experience only results in confusion, incorrectly answered questions and frustration.
Not that Scene It? is a whole lot more enjoyable with a normal controller, mind. With the exception of the slick little mode from the DVD and 360 versions where actors are digitally scrubbed out of a scene and you have to figure out the movie then answer questions on it, there's almost nothing here to actually get invested in. The ridiculous amount of storage space relative to a normal dual-layer DVD or the slightly cramped 360 disc means Bright Lights! Big Screen! could have been packed with video content -- as much as any of the versions of the game leading up to the PS3 release could offer, I'm sure, but while there's a fair amount, the 2700 questions are still almost half of what Buzz! offers with its releases (and that's before you count any of the user-created quizzes).
I know, I know, Scene It? is not Buzz! -- a revelation made abundantly clear by the painful presentation and cookie cutter host (who apparently just has voice clips played on top of his yammering mouth). And it's not like the game is without any redeeming factors; the idea has always been to use a bunch of video clips to introduce a movie or actor and then pile on the questions about them, which is fine (provided you're familiar with the subject otherwise it's a guessing game for a few questions).
The inclusion of stars that are given out at the end of a round is also a nice, if slightly clunky, touch. Smoke the competition in a round and you'll be awarded stars (other players can too for doing things like ringing in fastest or even missing a ton of questions), up to three. At the beginning of a round, you can spend two of these stars to play a mini-game where you have to stop a cursor on a multiplier meter which then allows you to bank more points for a while that round. Problem is, only one player can do this per round, and if you clean up, you can keep cashing in stars to run roughshod over the competition. If multiple players were able to get in on the act during the mini-game, it could be made into a more competitive and exciting way to come back from last place or at least stay in the running.
The single biggest (and most puzzling) omission, though, is the lack of any online play. It's hard enough to get a bunch of people together to play locally when it's a truly amazing game, but if for some reason you end up absolutely adoring Scene It?, your only option is to find other like-minded folks to sit next to you on the couch, which could be rather difficult given there's already multiple offerings out there that do this whole thing far better.
I wish I could say that Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! was at least redeemable as an experience outside of any competing offerings, but the lackluster presentation, confusing button prompts, lack of online and overwhelming feeling that it all just lacks effort kills any kind of attraction that I normally feel towards trivia games of any sort. There's just nothing here to welcome or retain anyone trying it out, and I'm scratching my head as to why anyone thought putting this out on the PS3 was a good idea. Buy it, obviously, would be an even worse one.
I'm not saying I wouldn't love for Buzz! to have some competition -- I absolutely adore trivia games in any form... when they're done right. Scene It? most definitely wasn't. Obviously developer Artificial Mind and Movement (who recently kicked out the surprisingly fun WET) is aware of Sony's quiz game; the game actually supports the wireless Buzz! buzzers, but acknowledgement is clearly not the same thing as actively embracing the competition. If you are for some reason saddled with having to play Scene It? on the PS3, do not use the Buzz! buzzers.
Why? Simple: the game makes absolutely no effort to adjust the interface to accommodate. There are no labels on the buzzers, they're simply colored buttons that correspond to the actual face buttons on a normal DualShock 3, meaning you have to spend half your time in Scene It? trying to figure out what X actually is. May your respective deity help you when it comes time to do one of the many put-these-things-in-order questions. Just using the DualShock 3, this is find, but trying to use a controller specifically designed for a trivia experience only results in confusion, incorrectly answered questions and frustration.
Not that Scene It? is a whole lot more enjoyable with a normal controller, mind. With the exception of the slick little mode from the DVD and 360 versions where actors are digitally scrubbed out of a scene and you have to figure out the movie then answer questions on it, there's almost nothing here to actually get invested in. The ridiculous amount of storage space relative to a normal dual-layer DVD or the slightly cramped 360 disc means Bright Lights! Big Screen! could have been packed with video content -- as much as any of the versions of the game leading up to the PS3 release could offer, I'm sure, but while there's a fair amount, the 2700 questions are still almost half of what Buzz! offers with its releases (and that's before you count any of the user-created quizzes).
I know, I know, Scene It? is not Buzz! -- a revelation made abundantly clear by the painful presentation and cookie cutter host (who apparently just has voice clips played on top of his yammering mouth). And it's not like the game is without any redeeming factors; the idea has always been to use a bunch of video clips to introduce a movie or actor and then pile on the questions about them, which is fine (provided you're familiar with the subject otherwise it's a guessing game for a few questions).
The inclusion of stars that are given out at the end of a round is also a nice, if slightly clunky, touch. Smoke the competition in a round and you'll be awarded stars (other players can too for doing things like ringing in fastest or even missing a ton of questions), up to three. At the beginning of a round, you can spend two of these stars to play a mini-game where you have to stop a cursor on a multiplier meter which then allows you to bank more points for a while that round. Problem is, only one player can do this per round, and if you clean up, you can keep cashing in stars to run roughshod over the competition. If multiple players were able to get in on the act during the mini-game, it could be made into a more competitive and exciting way to come back from last place or at least stay in the running.
The single biggest (and most puzzling) omission, though, is the lack of any online play. It's hard enough to get a bunch of people together to play locally when it's a truly amazing game, but if for some reason you end up absolutely adoring Scene It?, your only option is to find other like-minded folks to sit next to you on the couch, which could be rather difficult given there's already multiple offerings out there that do this whole thing far better.
I wish I could say that Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! was at least redeemable as an experience outside of any competing offerings, but the lackluster presentation, confusing button prompts, lack of online and overwhelming feeling that it all just lacks effort kills any kind of attraction that I normally feel towards trivia games of any sort. There's just nothing here to welcome or retain anyone trying it out, and I'm scratching my head as to why anyone thought putting this out on the PS3 was a good idea. Buy it, obviously, would be an even worse one.
