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Intro
The Playstation exclsuive game show Buzz hits two new platforms this holiday season. In a first we have the Playstation 3 version labeled Quiz TV and then the mobile edition called Buzz! Master Quiz. Hosted by the Max Headroom of trivia, Buzz provides thousands of questions that will test your knowledge on everything from sports and science, to an extensive list of music and movie based questions. Fire up your fingers and put your thinking cap on... it time to get buzzed.

Game
The developers of Buzz! Relentless Software has been busy in Brighton working on the latest variations of their Sony exclusive trivia game Buzz!. For the first time Buzz! finds itself being published on the Playstation 3 (PS3) and the Playstation Portable (PSP). Fans of the franchise will happy to hear both versions pick up the pace and gets the questions rolling like never before. You really can't go wrong with either version of Buzz! The home edition (Quiz TV) and the portable edition (Master Quiz). Both games are solid products and I surprised to see that the PSP version was more than a simplified port of the Quiz TV. Both games share a few similarities, however both versions take a different approach to the games delivery. Which one is better? Well that is a toss up depending on what you want out of your Buzz!

The Buzz! franchise is hosted by the ostentatious Buzz who is voiced by the returning talent of Jason Donovan. Jason does a good job keeping that over-the-top, wise-cracking tone that keeps Buzz! a step above its competition. In his splashy pinstriped suit Buzz can be a little outlandish, but thankfully his dialog doesn't get too annoying past the repetitive lines of dialog he can spurt out over time. Compared to a game like Fusion Frenzy 2 which is presented in the same light, Buzz leaves it in total darkness. Even if the Buzz starts to get on your nerves, the solid gameplay elements and production values should defuse any thoughts of turning off your Playstation. Buzz is a great asset for the game and helps make Buzz! feel a lot of larger than life.

Buzz! Quiz TV
Now that the formalities have been covered lets get into the dirt, starting with the Playstation 3 version Buzz! Quiz TV. Quiz TV continues to incorporate that TV game show feeling in its presentation and gameplay. Aside from Buzz! the characters that you can select to play the game have the same extravagant showy look to them. Buzz doesn’t have any real “normal” people as contestants, instead the roster is filled with cartoonish characters including vampires, super-heroes, British rockers, iconic warlords and more. These characters help to keep the fun rolling and the look great on the PS3 with a number of clothing options on hand.

Buzz! Quiz TV keeps the improvement rolling with tight HD visuals, improved wireless buzzers and the first PS3 game to support online Trophies (available on a patch). The upgrades continue the ability to share questions online complete with a Sofa vs. Sofa online game mode. The next evolution in Buzz only changes enough without ruining the experience gamers have come to enjoy since the games debut.  The only downside to all the innovations is a lack of questionnaire types. Buzz only features a handful of question modes that don’t hold your attention for long. For questions, Buzz! has an unlimited amount of variety, but this hasn’t rolled over into the delivery.

In Quiz TV you have the standard mode “Fastest Fingers’ which award more points to the contestant that can buzz in their answer the fastest. This mode is straight forward and perfect for Buzz; actually I liked it a lot more then the gimmicky questionnaires. Speaking of gimmicks, the next selection is “Pie Fight”. Pie Fight awards the player with the correct answer with the ability to throw a pie in another players face. The first person to be covered in sticky white cream pie is the looser. This gimmicky affair can back fire on the smartest player via suicidal pieings. The problem is that you have to time the button press correctly as the target redical rotates through all the players including your own. If your timing is off then you could pie and accidentally loose the game even though you answered all the questions correctly.

The last two modes comprise of “Short Fuse” and the “Final Countdown”. Short Fuse involves a juggling match between the contestants using a bomb like a hot potato. Correctly answer a question and you toss the bomb along, wait to long and bam! The bomb will go off causing you to loose points. The last mode is the finial stage in the game is the familiar Final Countdown. In the countdown questions will be fired at the players with a heightened importance on answering correctly and quickly. The countdown offers players who have fallen behind to catch up with fast correct answers, and the one who comes out on top is named the winner. Three modes (not including the final round) are simply not enough to keep Quiz TV interesting in long sittings. I’m not a huge fan on the gimmick modes in each round you play. I would have liked to see a little more development in this area, Microsoft’s Scene It? is a great example of a trivia game with a lot of variety.

5,000 questions are featured in Quiz TV which helps make up for the lack delivery. These questions are dispersed over six categories (music, braniac sports, lifestyle, TV and movies). The questions themselves range from easy to difficult which provides an adequate challenge for all braniacs who step up. The real kicker in Buzz! Is the ability to download and share new question sets online. Merged with the website MyBuzz! You can freely download new sets of questions with unlimited subject matters. If you’re interested in certain something there is bound to be a slew of questions already online. In a quick search I found topics like Family Guy, Advertising Slogans, Clockwork Orange, American Snakes, Aardvarks and that’s only scratching the surface. The ability to extend the game indefinitely is a real treasure and Buzz’s crowing achievement. The only pitfall to MyBuzz's integration is that it isn't built into the game. This forces you to jump out of the game and over to a web browser if you want to add new questions.

Sony has also been supporting Buzz with their patch that brought new characters and trophy support to the game along with a number of new question packs that have released. Be advice a price of an average of $6.00 has been stuck on the question packs making the addition of My Buzz that more valuable. I’m sure more downloads will be coming down the pipeline as we head into the holiday blitz.

Wrapping up Buzz! Quiz TV is Playstation Eye support. Using the eye you can take snapshots of yourself that can be used in the game to glorify you winning attitude. You can also export the pictures to XMB for further viewing. Using the Eye isn’t a impactful feature, just one that helps make the experience more personal. This function is best used when a group of friends are over and a few drinks are introduced.

PG2

Buzz! Quiz TV
Buzz! Master Quiz

Publisher
SCEA

Developer
Relentless
Softwawre

Genre
Trivia

US Release
September '08

ESRB
"T"

Platform
PS3, PSP

Features
1-8 Players
Multiplayer Vs
5.1 Surround
HDTV 1080i
HDTV 720p
D/L Content
Leaderboards