YOU'RE IN THE MOVIES

If you want to be reductive about it, videogames are all about vicarious thrills. Be a space marine, race that rally car, and rescue that princess. Those aren’t any more outlandish than the Heat generation’s desire to be Angelina Jolie, so You’re In The Movies has a feeling of inevitability about it.

This the first game in a niche that, in time, may become as ubiquitous as rhythm-action. The concept: four friends taking turns to play minigames and gurn at the camera, the footage from which is superimposed into a short movie trailer at the end.

Does it work? Mostly. But the technology used sees Zoë Mode making a brave decision to sacrifice polish in favour of functionality: it’s simply not good enough to accurately distinguish between backgrounds and people without a permanent fuzzy outline and the odd blind spot. Fiddling around is essential in almost any setting, hardly ideal for a game that has the mainstream firmly in its sights. There are optimum conditions that minimise these issues, but how many living rooms feature flat monotone backgrounds and studio lighting?

If the technology doesn’t work spectacularly, however, it works well enough for purpose. The minigames have charm to them for the most part, helped enormously by a nasal voiceover that sits somewhere between Woody Allen and Joe Pesci. Whether you’re running away from a charging bull, banging drums to make a monkey dance or swatting wasps at a picnic the presentation is bright, colourful and easily understood.

There are too many running rounds, and you’ll see the same type of game cropping up fairly frequently – but You’re In The Movies is designed to be brought out on boring weeknights to amuse a group, not played obsessively by a single player, so it’s not a game-breaking issue.

The four rounds see the players performing in various combinations and mixes things nicely, but there’s a general lack of smoothness to how the game flows, with stop-start voice samples and loading screens aplenty. Slicker transitions between minigames and rounds would improve the 30-minute sessions of horsing around no end – something akin to Scene It? perhaps.

After embarrassing yourself, it’s time to watch the fruits of your thespian labour. There are a generous 30 movie trailers on the disc that cover most tastes, and while the scripting isn’t especially brilliant, the translations of your actions into their settings rarely fails to raise a chuckle. There are some inconsistencies between your posturing in the minigames and what the characters are doing, but the fast-and-loose nature of the game is part of its charm – it’s hard to tell whether it’s funnier to see two friends having a realistic fistfight or wildly jabbing in each other’s general direction.

They’re only a minute or so in length, which seems a little short, but any longer might risk repetition and tedium. If You’re In The Movies is a little clumsy, it’s also funny and quite unlike any other camera game on the market. The whole production’s chintzy Hollywood feel is just right, and there’s plenty to keep its target audience entertained. It might not be a great game, but You’re In The Movies is exactly the kind of software that the ‘new’ Xbox 360 needs.

6/10