Scene It

I consider myself a bit of a movie buff. Not on par with some but I know enough. My wife, her sister and brother-in-law and their kids are big into movies as well. That’s why my wife’s sister picked up Scene It.

I had never played this game before and they started me off with the Disney version. From my poor performance and complete confusion I seem to have missed out on quite a bit of these flicks. After I had an extreme loss at this version we attempted the regular edition. I did considerably better.

I like that the game includes a board that can be folded or unfolded for long or short games. Play proceeds by each player rolling two dice. One six sided for movement and an eight sided one for question category. Trivia questions are either presented on the trivia cards or on the included DVD. This keeps game play more dynamic as the videos seem like a break from trivia game routine.

Categories include:

Take Three- player must determine a film, actor or actress from the three hints given.

Songs and Slogans- questions revolve around songs from movies or the tag lines (such as Aliens- “In space no-one can hear you scream")

My Play- the person who rolled watches a video clip and answers the question that follows.

All play- All players watch a video clip or participate in a random challenge. Whoever gets the right answer gets to move.

Buzz card- A buzz card is selected, each has a random effect. Some move your piece forward, others backward, some make you miss a turn others allow you to make another player miss a turn.

Miscellaneous- Answer a miscellaneous trivia question about any movie topic.

Players Choice- allows a player to choose their category, any trivia card category, my play or a buzz card.

The rules are quite simple and easy to follow so all ages can play. There are quite a number of older films however so many younger people may be at a disadvantage if they haven’t watched classic films. The upside is that there are a number of editions that are for specific genres or series or age groups so you should be able to find an edition that works for your group. Personally I would love to get the Dr. Who or James Bond editions.

One thing to point out is that there are a number of questions about behind the scenes knowledge. Stuff on directors, awards won, actors/actresses. Not everyone will be expecting that and some people don’t get that into movies but everyone should still have fun.

This would be a great game to get to try to entice non-board gamers into playing as it isn’t strictly board play with the DVD play. The regular Scene It game is also an interesting way to learn about your friends fandoms based on which questions they can answer. I was surprised at some of the questions people could easily answer while I couldn’t. I gained some new positive insight into the in-laws. It led to some great discussions about movies I would now love to see.

I would recommend this game for family game night or for a party game night atmosphere.