Royale... with cheese.
Play progresses through a number of rounds that vary in length depending on whether you are playing a long or short game. Each round is made up of question blocks, containing five or so questions in the same style. There are many types of questions, many more than the board game contains. Just some of these include: movie clip (a movie clip plays and then questions are asked about the clip or the film in general), quotables (finish the quote), child's play (pictionary), credit roll (guess the film based on a selection of credits), pop culture (general film knowledge), rising stars (guess the actor based on a yearbook photo) and a lot more. Twenty-one categories in all. Points are gained for answering correctly and quickly, points are lost for answering incorrectly, the person with the highest score wins. Simple enough.
The game is essentially designed for the multi-player arena, and while you can play alone, much of the competitiveness and revelry associated with crowd-around-the-television gameplay are lacking. The game comes with four buzzer pads, so find some friends and get playing! Real-life friends, that is. While the game supports multiple accounts on the same console, there is no option for online play, which is a shame since the game lends itself so well to multi-player play.
Movie knowledge is a requirement if you want to get particularly high scores and grab some of the tougher achievements, but most of the fun comes from sitting down with a group of friends and having a laugh. You don't need to be a film buff to enjoy yourself, and even those who think they know everything will quickly find this is not the case. I love movies, and my knowledge is pretty good, but I was still presented with a decent challenge throughout.
The only real complaint I have about the gameplay is a problem that cannot be practically avoided in a game that relies on proper licensing and copyright law and goodness-knows-what. The game contains movie clips and questions from most of the big film studios, hundreds of mainstream movies and a decent handful of more lesser-known titles. Maybe it is because I have a penchant for obscure and in particular foreign movies, but I often found myself yearning for something that wasn't quite so Hollywood.
The style of Scene It does not require flashy graphics. Rather something more simplistic is needed and generally the game delivers. Questions and text are clear and legible even on a smaller screen; backgrounds and whatnot are bright and easy on the eye. Movie clips are nicely presented in the correct aspect ratios with good colour and contrast, with some even being available in hi-definition for those with decent televisions. If I have a complaint about the presentation, it is the somewhat annoying and, to my eyes, rather pointless introduction animations to each block of questions.
Accompanying these introductions are some of the most irritating voice-overs I have heard. Poor attempts at humour, a cheesy accent and no option to turn the guy off. What a shame. The music is bland and forgettable; better that than obnoxiously annoying. At least the sound on the clips is fine, if a little quiet sometimes – resulting in a mad scramble for the remote before the clip is over and the game asks you how many times Harry made a woman meow.
The game contains a lot of questions, somewhere in the region of 2000 according to internet sources. The game also keeps track of which questions have already been asked over every play session, so there is little chance of repeat questions that could quickly spoil the fun. Of course, eventually the questions are going to run out, but I'm guessing you'd have to play for an insanely long time for that to happen. Also, while nothing has been officially announced or even suggested, the Xbox Live Marketplace is the ideal forum for fresh content and I wouldn't be surprised if a few extra 'question packs' appear over time.
Games with extra peripherals seem to be popular these days, and while the publishers could have gone the money-grabbing route and charged excessively for the pack, instead we get the game and the four infra-red buzzer pads needed to play for the price of a regular game. Definite bonus points there.
At the end of the day, this is a good party game, if a touch cheaply-done and unavoidably cheesy. If you are a movie fan, even a casual one, and you know a few others who don't mind coming over for a round or two, don't hesitate in getting Scene It: Lights, Camera, Action for your XBox 360. You will enjoy it, I guarantee.