The Buzz series has been a casual game favourite for years on the PS2. Families were buying up Buzz quicker than you could say “O for awesome”. Well, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, plus it’s a quiz game we are talking about here not some spin the wheel with Jason Gunn deal. Back on topic, and finally the Buzz series has made the transition to the current generation of game machines, appearing in all of it’s high definition glory on your PS3. I consider myself to be quite the Buzz aficionado, proudly displaying in the corner of my living room every Buzz game released, appalling “true” gamers everywhere. Will Buzz! Quiz TV live up to my high expectations???
Before I even get started with this review, I would just like to point out that Buzz! Quizz TV will not surprise you. There is nothing new here. What you will find however, is everything that made Buzz a household name on the PS2. Sure there are a few new features, but you all know the old adage: if it aint broke, don’t fix it. So, what exactly can you look forward to? The well oiled quiz machine you have come to both love and hate, Buzz and his annoying Australian accent, wireless buzzers and an honest attempt at an online component.
Lets take a look at the old first. All your favourite game characters reappear in Buzz! Quiz TV, looking a tad nicer in high definition of course. This goes for Buzz and we can’t forget Rose. Wait a minute. Where has Rose gone?! No! The only reason I kept all of those PS2 Buzz games and now they have gone and retired her. Maybe she fell ill after all that cosmetic surgery she has been having over the last three years, oh well. You get the same round types, Point Builder, Pass The Bomb, Fastest Finger, Pie Fight, Point Stealer, High Stakes and Final Countdown; with the addition of a new one (there seems to be a trend of adding one new round type for each Buzz game released) named high stakes. High stakes simply allows you to wager an amount based on your confidence in answering a given question.
Looking at the new, Buzz! Quiz TV comes of age, providing wireless buzzers allowing you to throw them across the room in a round losing induced rage without taking all the other buzzers with it. The one downer here is the need for 8 AA batteries to power them, but Sony are not that strapped for cash and have allowed the use of the standard wired controllers. No word on how long the buzzers last for on the AA batteries though. MyBuzzQuiz is an online portal allowing users to extend the replayability of Buzz! Quiz TV by downloading or creating new quizzes that anyone with the game or an Internet browser can play. This is exactly what I expected from an online related feature of the game and I am very impressed with what I have seen and played around with so far. Online multiplayer is a different story, but to be honest, if you bought this game for the purpose of playing people online you really need to get out more. Buzz games are best enjoyed with a room full of mates and a few cold bevies so you can all laugh and have a good time together.
Buzz sold a fair few PS2’s in his day, and while we are still early on in the life cycle of the PS3, when we begin to see the PS3 price point a little more affordable to families, Buzz will no doubt sell a fair few PS3’s also. While there are not a tonne of new features here, there is plenty of reason to pick up Buzz! Quiz TV, even more so if you couldn’t get your hands on a 60GB PS3 and parted with your PS2 Buzz games. Wireless buzzers, user created quizzes and high definition Buzz are good enough reasons for me to view this game as a keeper.
“not some spin the wheel with Jason Gunn deal” – the rhyming styles! You should be an english teacher not PE :-)
dam 8AAs!? the reason i love the sixaxis is that i dont need to have battries, just a USB to charge it.