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Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action was one of the best party games on the Xbox 360 thanks to the easy to use “Big Button Controllers” and the fact that movie trivia is something that pretty much everyone is good at. The sequel, Scene It? Box Office Smash, improves on pretty much every aspect of LCA which makes it pretty easy to recommend. Even better, if you already have the controllers from last year you can pick up Box Office Smash by itself for $40.

Find out all of the details right here.

Quick Hits

• Title: Scene It? Box Office Smash
• Publisher: Microsoft
• Developer: Screenlife Games, Krome Studios
• ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
• Genre: Movie Trivia
• Pros: Greatly improved over original in every way; tons of questions; online play; Avatars
• Cons: Movie clips tend to repeat (but with different questions)

If you aren’t already familiar with Scene It?, it is a movie trivia game where you watch movie clips or answer trivia questions. It is available as a DVD board game as well as on the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 iterations of Scene It? are played with special controllers that have one big “buzzer” button as well as the A,B,X,Y buttons lined up so players can buzz in and answer questions. The controller is very easy to use and is great for non-gamers as it makes the game very accessible and easy to play.

You can play Scene It? Box Office Smash by yourself or with up to three other people. You can also play online with three other people as well, which functions very well and is pretty darn fun, particularly if you are playing with friends.

The game types in online play exclude timing-based “buzz in first”-type questions and instead focuses on questions that everyone has a shot at answering which ensures that everyone has a fair chance and lag never poses a problem.

Box Office Smash is also notable in that you can use your Avatars from the upcoming New Xbox Experience. Having your family represented in the game by characters that look like them really draws in non-gamers and makes it especially fun.

Gameplay

There are short games and long games, depending on how long you want to play, as well as a special high score mode for when you are playing by yourself. Each game is made up of three rounds plus a final round where you play different game types, the scores add up, and someone earns bragging rights. There are special bonuses and awards between each round for answering the most questions, having the slowest correct answer, or even for being in last place which all help to keep the games close.

The different game types are really what makes Box Office Smash stand out. One game will have you watch a movie clip and then answer specific questions about it. Another game will slowly reveal a movie poster and you have to name the movie. Or another will play a sound clip where you have to name the movie and then answer another question about it. There are several other game types thrown into the mix, and you’ll see several different types during a game which helps to keep the experience fresh and fun and new.

One minor complaint is that the movie clips can repeat across games. There will be different questions for that clip each time, but it does get a little old to see the same clips two or three times.

Presentation

The presentation is another area where Box Office Smash greatly improves on Lights, Camera, Action. LCA used a somewhat flimsy movie set theme that just wasn’t terribly appealing. The announcer was also very obnoxious, and some of the animations and things onscreen were pretty poor. Box Office Smash fixes that by giving each game type its own unique theme and replacing the old announcer with two much funnier ones.

Bottom Line

In the end, Scene It? Box Office Smash is a great family/party game that is highly recommended. You can buy it in a bundle with four Big Button Controllers for $60 or by itself for $40 if you already have the controllers from last year’s game. You can play the game just fine with a regular Xbox 360 controller, but the Big Button Controllers make the game much more fun and accessible for casual and non-gamers, so I think they are worth the extra cash. Scene It? Box Office Smash is just a great party game overall that is a huge improvement over the already very good Lights, Camera, Action, and I highly recommend it.