Buzz!: Quiz TV

If you’ve never played a Buzz Quiz game, I’d say you’ve missed out. The first Buzz game, Buzz: The Music Quiz was exactly what it said on the tin – a music quiz game that was presented in the style of a TV show, complete with an over-the-top presenter and a set of wacky contestants. It came with a set of four wired USB buzzers, each with a big red button (the Buzz button) and four other big coloured buttons, and all for the price of a normal game.

The entire game was played with these easy to use buzzers, which meant that literally anyone could play it. Your Dad, your Gran, the works. (They’d moan that there were too many questions on recent music, and not enough golden-oldies; but at least they could play it)

Bearing in mind that this was over a year before Nintendo “invented” the concept of video games that people who weren’t interested in video games could play, and it was pretty impressive – not to mention great fun and a favourite for after the pub. So, to the modern day…

What can I say about this, the first next-gen version of the PS2 Buzz Quiz games?

Well, like a lot of new versions of old games, it’s bigger, shinier and higher definition. Also added into the mix is some online functionality, so that’s most of the “next gen” boxes ticked. Oh, and this game actually features user created content, which is something of a rarity, but more on that later.

People who have played this before will also be greatly cheered to know that the most annoying part of the game has been gotten rid of, too. No, not the Jason Donovan voiced presenter, but the inevitable mass of knotted cables that you found when you tried to get out the Buzz buzzers after a few pints at the pub. This time around the game comes with wireless controllers and a USB dongle to connect them to your PS3, and again, all for the price of £40 at online retailers. Unfortunately, for this review we only got a promotional disc, so I can’t review the wireless controllers, but I can tell you that the game does work perfectly with the PS2 wired Buzz controllers. If you have one of the older PS2 games and can put up with all the tangling this means you can buy this game online without the new controllers for the bargain price of £18. Much cheapness!

As for the actual quiz itself, well, the name is somewhat misleading. It’s not actually a TV quiz, but it does contain TV questions as well as lots of other categories. Apparently the idea was that the old games (Music, Sports, Hollywood etc.) were all individual channels, and this game is the entire TV, covering all the subjects. To get a fair coverage of the different categories, the game always allows the losing player to pick the next category, which seems like a good way of levelling the playing field. I tested this game at home with my fiancee, who is also a Buzz veteran, and we sailed through it and enjoyed it. So, for a more challenging test, I took the game to a friends house and played it with a bunch of lads who had all had one or two (or more ) beverages. Their verdict was that it was good fun, but it was a little bit confusing knowing whether you were supposed to buzz in with the buzzer or just select your answer on certain rounds. (To be fair to the game, it does explain between each round but that tends to be when everyone reaches around for their can or bottle of beer and stops paying attention)

So, to the online modes. There’s an interesting mode called Sofa vs Sofa where you compete against another set of players somewhere out there on the internet, and all the usual leaderboards to see who’s top of the pops. A section called My Buzz! takes you to the user created content, which takes the form of quizzes that have been created by other users. I tried a couple out, a Simpsons Quiz and a Top Gear quiz. Once you have completed the quiz you get to rank it, so you can mark down stupid, rude or just plain wrong quizzes, to help prevent other people from playing them again. It’s also worth noting that there is a big “It’s not our fault, honest guv’nor” legal notice warning you that quizzes are not moderated, so you certainly might find a few swearwords. If you intend to play with kids, I’d vet any user created quizzes first.

I spent a while scratching my head and trying to figure out how to create my own quiz, Bluetooth keyboard connected and ready, but for the life of me I couldn’t find an option to create one. (To my shame as a geek, I found myself wishing that I had the manual, but alas, the promo copy was missing this as well as the wireless controllers)

So, to the Internet, and Wikipedia more specifically. It turns out that you create user quizzes by logging on to www.mybuzzquiz.com with your PSN ID and once there you can create as many quizzes as you want from the comfort of your computer desk. You can also play some of the quizzes on the website too, which could be fun for a lunchtime or stolen dull moment at work.

User created content aside, I still haven’t exhausted my old Buzz: Music Quiz from the PS2, and this game is bigger, so I don’t see this game running out of steam (or questions) in a big hurry. Like most quiz games, it’s much more fun with more people, but you can play just on your own if you fancy it. ( I *really* struggled to not say “You can play with yourself” just then)