Scene It Movie Second Edition

Scene It! came highly recommended from a friend of mine. I have seen the game in the store and acknowledged that it looked like fun...but the thirty to forty dollar price tag has kept me scared away. After receiving a glowing recommendation of this game, I shelled out thirty dollars at Wal-Mart and went home with Scene It! Movie 2nd Edition. Although the price was a bit steep, the game has been fun to play...and you don't have to be a movie buff to be successful. There are elements of chance that help level the playing field. I'm not certain that this game is quite worth thirty dollars, but I don't regret spending the money.

Scene It! Movie 2nd Edition has a circular playing board that unfolds into a larger extended version. The playing area on the circular board looks a bit small...but this game takes longer to play than it looks. The extended board has several dozens spaces that you navigate using a six-sided die...so you could potentially finish the game in less than ten turns. But this game is not simple. The extended version normally takes me nearly an hour to complete. That is a decent game length...the shorter version can be played in less than half that time, which is a welcome option.

Younger players would be able to play this game but might struggle a bit with some of the questions. Some answers are given inside the video clips, which means you only have to pay attention, you don't necessarily need to know anything. But getting the answer within the movie clip questions doesn't mean the answer will be easy...for instance, there is a clip of Tom Hanks in Castaway calculating the number of square miles that the search teams will have to cover in order to find him. After completing a complicated mathematical equation, the clip ends and asks "how fast was the plane traveling when it crashed?" The answer was 475 miles per hour...but you would have had to listen close to get that one.

Scene It! Movie 2nd Edition facilitates up to four players (with a recommended age beginning at 13). The four mover pieces include a set of chatter teeth, a heart shaped box of chocolates, a racecar and a tombstone. There are two dice that can be tossed together. The six-sided die is numbered one through six and indicates the number of spaces you move if you answer correctly. The eight-sided die consists of symbols that indicate the type of challenge that must be completed in order to win. There is a DVD which contains video instructions, a timer and video clips for game play. The video choices include My Play and All Play options as well as a Final Cut challenge which must be used to win the game in the event that you don't win an All Play challenge upon reaching the end of the game board.

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Cranium Family

My son has recently expressed a renewed interest in board games. We tried our hand at Trivial Pursuit but the questions were a bit advanced for a ten year old. We have had great fun with Charades, but there are limitations on a game like this…it has a tendency to get off track at times…and there is no set goal…which means it can drag on forever. After Christmas, I browsed for some clearance games and ended up giving Cranium Family a try. The game is geared for ages 8 and up and splits players into two teams. So you must have a minimum of four players, but you can create teams much larger than that.

There a couple of things that really appealed to me about Cranium Family. The best aspect of this game is the fact that it is not an “every man for his self” game. By creating teams, younger players can be matched with older players allowing everyone a chance to participate. There are activities that may be a bit challenging for really young players, but there are others that even players much younger than the age of 8 can engage in. This creates a great opportunity for family bonding across age groups. The other thing I like about Cranium Family is the fact that a single game can be completed within half an hour. The limited time frame allows for shorter attention spans (like those of the adults in the room). The game is great fun for any age group.

The game board in Cranium Family has a fairly simple design. The two teams select between an orange or green plastic “mover piece.” The team that has a person with the next birthday gets to go first. In this game, you complete a task BEFORE you roll the dice. The tasks are divided among four color-coded “character card boxes.” The playing area is comprised of five corresponding colored squares…one for each character card box (red, blue, green and yellow) and purple which is player’s choice. The spaces alternate with some containing stars. If a team completes their task before time expires then they get to roll a standard six-sided die. If they are on a space with a star they get to double the roll and move that many spaces, otherwise they move the number they roll. With the potential to move up to twelve spaces per turn and a minimum of twenty-eight spaces to win, this game can move quickly.

The game board is very similar to a Trivial Pursuit board in size and construction. The board is cut on one side to allow the board to fold into quarters for easy storage. It takes thirty-seven spaces to win this game. There is one shortcut that eliminates nine of those spaces. The game comes with two mover pieces, one six-sided die, six six-sided letter dice, an hourglass timer, four character card boxes with about one hundred cards per box, a pencil and sketchpad and two tubs of clay. The game uses a variety of the enclosed props as well as items found around your house, individual creativity and some acting to accomplish tasks. Players are given a question or task based on the color space they are on, with purple being decided by the team being challenged. The character card boxes are Word Worm (Yellow), Creative Cat (Blue), Data Head (Red) and Star Performer (Green).

The Word Worm box uses language related tasks to challenge team members. The timer seems to run quickly on these challenges. For instance, the task may be to spell the word “watermelon” backwards, alternating between each member on the team. This must be accomplished in the allotted time…the added pressure of the draining sand can add some pressure! The letter cubes are used for many of these challenges. Your team may have to roll the cubes and write down a list of items beginning with each letter rolled. Another challenge would be to name five articles of clothing starting with one team member and moving to the next. Each progressive answer must begin with the last letter of the previous answer.


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