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Buzz!Quizworld

Intro
Buzzing back into the game, Buzz! Quiz World follows up 2008’s Buzz! Quiz TV with new questions, new rounds and more customization than before.

Game
If you have played the other Buzz! titles then you will know exactly what to expect in Buzz! Quiz World. Buzz! Quiz World is more of an expansion to the proven winning formula of Buzz!, rather than a brand new game. This makes Quiz World an easy recommendation if you still find yourself enjoying the over-the-top antics of Buzz and his crazy game show. Like they say, "if it's not broken, don't fix it".

Buzz! You Saucy Devil
Buzz, the host of Quiz World is an animated character that is very showy in that half-sleazy, half-comedic way. Buzz’s flamboyant personality is one that you will have to accept if you want to find enjoyment in the game because he is a major part of the experience. Aside from his big antics on stage, he also likes to throw out some verbal bashing, which could upset the more "sensitive" gamers. If you find yourself in the loser’s seat it is more than likely that you will get a few jabs from the host. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt-- right Buzz?! Trust me on this one, I have some first hand experience dealing with a depressed victim of Buzz and his foul mouth. However, I'm sure this is not the case with every gamer, and the game tries to keep a light-hearted feel that has its own unique charm... like anything it's not going to suit everyone's tastes.

Big Red, The Buzz-Buzzer
Keeping with the game show feel Buzz! Quiz World includes special “buzzer” controllers, which have one large button and four smaller coloured buttons in the following colours; blue, green, orange, and yellow. These buzzers are wireless and are used during the entire game and the coloured buttons correspond with answers on the screen. If you already have a pack of four from the first PS3 Buzz! Game you won’t need to pick these up again because they are the same controllers and can be used with both games. Activating the “buzzers” is extremely easy to do. All you have to do is plug in the supplied USB transceiver, and you are ready to go.

Buzz, Now Serving Eight
The matches in Quiz World usually are short affairs if you are playing with two players. This extends a little when you add more players, and even more if you go online. A new option in Buzz! Quiz World includes support for eight players online and offline. Having eight players makes perfect sense and a logical expansion for the game. Now owners of the first Buzz! can examine the option to pick up Quiz World with, or without the bundled controllers. Having more player support also makes Buzz! a fun alternative to all the music games that are currently dominating the "party game" market. Like most Trivia games, the more people playing, the more interesting games will be. So its only helps that Buzz! is very accommodating for a social atmosphere with its easy to set up controllers, simplistic menus and gaming mechanics.

Come on Down!
When setting up each player Buzz! is pre-loaded with a lot of names so you should be able to find everyone’s name, or persona they would like to take on. Along with your name, you can also choose a sound for your buzzer and an on-screen avatar. The characters are all outlandish in nature like a wrestler, a nurse, a cheerleader and more. Each character has three costumes you can pick from which are mostly colour variations. The characters also have unique animations should humour you for a little while, until they become a little stale from repetition. As you probably guessed the animations aren't too varied, so expect to get a little tired of some of the actions---- ah, like the wrestler jumping on the podium and gyrating when the camera goes in for a close of up of his private area... uh huh, it's all about the family fun.

Despite the gyrating wrestler Buzz! cleverly uses your avatar and selected name to spit out direct one-liners towards each player. This ups the immersion making the game feel more realistic (in a non-realistic way). Furthermore, the level of depth in seems more than skin deep as Buzz! will call up statistics from your profile an appropriate comment, or in Buzz’s case an inappropriate comment about your progress. Behind Buzz's one-liners you can expect to hear the typical game show sound complete with a comedic laughing track. Running in full motion Buzz! does an excellent job capturing the game show feel, so much that I could actually see the Buzz! formula working on prime-time television.

Worldwide Trivia
Extending the game to almost unlimited possibilities is the ability to create and download player-made quizzes from the PSN (Playstation Network). This makes Quiz World an interesting selection when you want to prove who knows the most about a certain subject. Think you are the number on Twilight fan? well prove it, in Buzz! To help motivate gamers to participate in the community and use this feature Quiz World has a number of trophy awards delegated to creating and downloading user-generated quizzes. Whatever works.. right?!

Furthering this integration is the use of the PS Eye that can take pictures to be uploaded to your MyBuzz! Page on the net. The Eye automatically snaps off pics while you are playing Quiz World in the beginning, middle, and end of the game. The best part is that some pictures will have a timer giving you a heads-up and others will be randomly shot. It’s fun to look over these and a good excuse to dust off that camera (unless you’re still playing Eye of Judgement). Quiz World can even be connected through PS Home like Quiz TV. This allows you to just into large multiplayer sessions with support up to 64 players. Both ideas are fun extensions on Playstation Home that give Quiz World some extra life.

Round Robin
Buzz has several game modes and round types to keep you amused. Each round involves a new scenario that usually keeps the mood light like getting dumped in a pile of goo in “Over the Edge”, or playing hot potato will a fuse burning bomb in “Short Fuse”. You should get a good laugh out the majority of the round types, they are a lot of fun when scores are close, and you are barely squeaking by. The modes include a standard - or randomly generated quizzes, selectable rounds, crazy rounds (all the rounds played back to back), serious rounds (no gimmicks), quiz packs (only DLC is used), time intervals (15/45 min games) and custom rounds, which let you select how you want to play. All these factors give the player enough selection to keep things interesting in a long sitting, and I’m sure this will only be expanded on as the series continues to develop.

Lowdown
Buzz! Quiz World delivers another batch of questions, new modes and added player support to test your trivia answering skills. Built on the solid foundation of Quiz TV, Quiz World is an obvious buy if you are a fan of the series. Even though Relentless Software played it safe with Buzz! Quiz World and it works. Buzz! Quiz World provides another fun, alternative party game that has unlimited value when you factor in its online community features.

The only negatives about Buzz! Quiz World is that it isn’t built around the single player experience, it is obviously included, but the real way to play the game is with friends. Also, Buzz! Himself might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I’m sure a lot of gamers would like a little less sarcasm from the big mouthed host. That being said, if you can get around his cynical attitude, and have a few friends who like trivia games, then Buzz! Quiz World is a knockout game can keep you happily buzzing for hours.

Gameplay:8.5, Graphics:8.5, Sound:8.0, Innovation:7.0, Mojo:8.0 Final: 8.0 / 10

Reviewed by Downtown Jimmy | 12.07.09
+
  • new questions and topics
  • ability to create and share user created questions
  • Buzz has a memory! great use of user profiles
  • supports 4 more controllers
  • PS Eye and PS Home support
  • dazzling HD graphics look sharper than ever
  • fun alternative to other social based games
  • ability to challenge gamers from around the world
  • the host can be annoying
  • some of the comments could be considered degrading
  • not suited to the solo gaming experience
  • character animations quickly become monotonous

Boxart

Buzz! Quiz World

Publisher
SCEA

Developer
Relentless
Software

Genre
Trivia

US Release
November '09

ESRB
"T"

Platform
PS3

Details
1-8 Players
Online 2-8
HD 1080i
16:9 Support
u/c content

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Lowdown