Games Gift Guide

Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action

Anyone that's played Scene It? knows that the majority of the game is spent debating who answered first or waiting for your turn. Wait no longer. The minds behind this Xbox 360 version of the popular DVD game capitalize on the superior interface of a gaming system adding a sense of excitement to a game that already had film buffs and pop-culture scholars addicted. Four specialized wireless controllers – undoubtedly what pushes the price up – used for games like Child's Play (guess the film based on a child's drawing of a scene) and Quotables (finish one of cinema's memorable lines) get all the players reading quickly and often prematurely hitting the buzzer to answer. Everyone can get the question right, but the quickest answer earns the most points. The simple controls even the playing field for gamers and nongamers, and the movies range from black-and-white to Bill & Ted, keeping the film historians and the summer blockbuster-goers in the race. Smartly, the game remembers which of the questions you've answered, so you don't see them again until you've gone through them all. Cheaper expansion packs will hopefully follow to justify the price for this vastly improved party game.