Hawty McBloggy Invites You to Play

Apparently movie trivia is not my thing. Unless I am playing against people who are all under the age of 12.

First I need to say something very important about the casual movie trivia game Scene It? bundle. Yes, it comes with the game itself and four super cute wireless big button controllers. Yes, batteries for all four controllers are included along with a transmitter (think like the sensor bar on the Wii, just a bit bulkier). Yes, that is an amazing deal at only $59.99 and so very convenient to have it playable right out of the box. BUT (and notice how big that but is) you cannot bling your controllers. I spent about an hour attempting to adhere crystals to the adorable bright colored Scene It? controllers and the surface does not allow bonding with industrial strength glue. Yes, it was a sad occasion.

Take a minute to envision how cute these controllers would be with little crystals around both the big button and all the smaller buttons. I know, adorable right? I am attempting to move on.

So instead I grabbed my husband and we played Scene It? for about three hours with plain old unadorned controllers. I should have taken the failure to bling as foreshadowing of the impending doom that was about to occur. It was fun for the first few games. But as I continued to lose over and over and over, my attitude soured a bit. And by a bit, I mean I made him sleep on the couch because I lost EVERY SINGLE GAME. Bastard.

Despite the bad attitude, I have to admit it was actually pretty fun. My husband and I have always enjoyed playing board games together (we’re geeky like that) so this game was a natural fit for us. We are both fairly competitive and we had a great time trying to beat the other person to the buzzer. The fact that my husband has seen every movie known to man gave him an unnatural advantage. Even though my movie knowledge is slightly lacking (and by slightly I mean I have absolutely none), it was still fun because there are some categories where that isn’t that important. Sometimes you have to figure out who the actor or actress is in old pictures, and other times you just to decipher what the movie title is with the letters all jumbled up. I must say I rocked the house with those categories. Take that Scene It? master husband!

The next night I ditched the husband, played solo, and focused on just trying to get decent scores. I played several games, both long and short ones. I was surprised that it is actually enjoyable even playing by yourself. You won’t want to play it hours on end (unless you are a really big movie buff who is extremely bored at the time) but it’s nice casual fun for a few hours at a time. There is less pressure when you play by yourself so you can take your time to really answer the questions right without the constant worry of having someone ready to buzz in before you. Like a bastard of a husband or something. I’m just saying.

After playing with the hubby and by myself, I held the opinion that this title wouldn’t be enjoyable for children. Not because anything is inappropriate but because they wouldn’t know the answers to a lot of the questions and would thus be bored out of their skulls. Eager to prove myself right, one day after the kiddos came home from school I ushered them downstairs with a big bowl of popcorn and some soda, ready for an afternoon of more movie questions that I wouldn’t know the answer to.

We hit up “Party Mode” (each game lasts approximately 30 minutes) which allows four players to all play at the same time. You don’t have to buzz in first to answer the question as you do in the regular mode. Instead, everybody answers each question (and there are no points taken away for negative answers either). While the children didn’t know very many answers (my 12 year old knew the most though, he absolutely nailed the Sci-fi category), they had a blast just playing and guessing. Any time they happened to get one right, you would have thought it was their birthday, there was such a celebration. Each one of us employed our own unique strategy, and these were the final standings :

• I took first. You could say I had a humongous advantage since the next oldest person in the room was 12 but the truth is I pwned them. That’s right, no mercy. (I’m kidding.) (Maybe.)
• My 12 year old took second. About half way through the game he realized I was getting most of the answers right so he quickly adopted a new strategy. That strategy was wait to see what mom chooses then choose the exact same answer.
• My four year old took third. How is that you ask? He also had an incredible strategy. He used the “always hit the y button” technique. You’d be amazed at how many of the answers are y.
• My eight year old took fourth. He answered each question the best he could, then realized the 12 year old was copying me, so he started copying him. This is how each question went from that point on : I selected my answer. My 12 year old quickly chose the same one. My eight year old then chose that one too. Brilliant I tell you.

I was pleasantly surprised that the children actually enjoyed playing the game, even though they were unfamiliar with the majority of the movies. The 12 year old was the first one to stop playing after an hour, then the eight year old left another 30 minutes after that, then the four year old took their controllers and tried to figure out if they turned on anything else in the house. That kept him busy for a while.

The main downside to the Party mode was that it doesn’t track the questions as the regular mode does. So while I haven’t had a single repeat question in the other modes (there are apparently more than 1,800 questions not seen before in any other Scene It? game), expect a lot of repeats in this particular category.

Scene It? is a must buy for :
movie trivia buffs, adult couples/friends who enjoy playing board games together, or families who regularly game together (whether it is board games or video games)

Scene It? is a rental for :
dates, when you are entertaining other couples who enjoy playing games, or when you will have company in town and want a fun group activity

Achievements :
With no prior knowledge of achievements (maybe my achievement knowledge is hiding with my movie knowledge somewhere), I unlocked 23 of 42 achievements for 490 points through basic gameplay.

Overall, if you like trivia games and enjoy gaming, you will have a blast with this game. Let’s just hope you know more about movies than I do. If they ever come out with a version that is all about Halo, then I will be a force to be reckoned with.