Review: Buzz Quiz TV
A few weeks back I went to a preview party for the Buzz! trivia game for the PS3, Buzz Quiz TV. Tiny had raved about the PS2 version and how much he loved it so I figured I would go ahead and give it a try. I was a wee bit reticent at first since I had originally been into You Don't Know Jack series way back when but eventually the cheese ball host and lame narration turned me off. I was hoping this wouldn't be the case with Buzz and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't.
Buzz Quiz TV (brought to you by Relentless Software and Sony) has a lot to recommend it and offers many improvements over the PS2 original. The game play is fairly simple and follows the well known quiz show format. Up to four players pick a character and compete to see who knows the most in various categories. The game style changes throughout the game so it never gets boring. There are fastest finger questions, point stealing questions and even one set that has you throwing pies at the other players.
The categories cover the standard subjects: Music, Movies and TV, Sports, Brainiac and Lifestyle. Don't know much about sports? Buzz has the solution. Any category of questions can be turned off so none of those questions appear in your game. You can even get more detailed by turning of categories within the main categories. For instance, I wanted to keep the Music category but I know practically nothing about modern music. Going into the menu, I was able to turn off just the modern music sub category and still leave the rest. You can also of course choose just to answer questions form a single category. New quiz question packs will be available as DLC from the PlayStation Network and will come in packs of 500 questions for $5.99. The first three packs are Sci Fi and Video Games for the $5.99 price, and a National Geographic pack at $7.99, all of which are available for download now.
A great new feature of Buzz Quiz TV is the ability to create your own quizzes. Want to make a Simpsons quiz? Do it! want to make a quiz about your best friend for his or her birthday? Make it! Any quiz can be put online for either private or public consumption. You can even set your homemade quiz to only be accessible by people on your PSN friends list. And don't worry if you don't have a keyboard for your PS3, all quizzes can also be created online on the Buzz website.
At launch of the game you will be prompted for an update that adds several new characters and a host of new buzzer noises. My favorite of the bunch is the busty vampire lady, Aorta and her Bride of Frankenstein like hairdo. Go figure. But there are plenty of other wacky characters to choose from including a 60's British spy chick, a super hero, cheerleader and a Madonna-esque 80's gal to name a few.
The special wireless Buzz controllers are a great improvement of their wired PS2 counterparts. At this point, wireless peripherals for next-gen consoles are practically a requirement. Although I have more special game specific controllers than I really need, the Buzz controllers are practical, small and suited perfectly for the game. They also make it easier to bring non-gamers in who might have trouble adjusting to a regular controller.
Buzz Quiz TV is a great addition to your library, especially if you are apt to have groups of people over for game nights. I had a few friends over to play the other night and both gamers and non-gamers alike thoroughly enjoyed themselves. However, you can also play alone or go online to challenge folks in the "Sofa vs Sofa" mode. Currently, voice chat is not available for online mode which is a shame, but that will soon be fixed by an upcoming patch. PlayStation Eye support and trophies also add to the general fun. If you already own previous Buzz games you might find this a bit more of the same, but the new features, downloadable questions and wireless controllers make it well worth the upgrade.
9 out of 10
Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Reviews, Video Games on 25 September 2008
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