If you're unfamiliar with the Buzz titles then the concept is incredibly easy to grasp. The game comes bundled with four controllers that plug into one USB outlet. The controllers have a large red button on them as well as four smaller buttons that are used to answer questions. The game supports up to eight players so if you purchase the game with the buzzers again then you can utilise all of them, although we assume that finding eight players could be a little bit difficult. The controllers are unique, and this means that Buzz has a lot of appeal to casual gamers, with my immediate family for one being thoroughly entertained by a round of Buzz.
Hitman: One of the new rounds
From the outset, the game feels immediately familiar to the first Buzz. There have been a few new character personalities added, such as a character that looks like Marilyn Monroe. If you prefer to play on your lonesome then you can play a single player game, but the core appeal of the game predictably lies with the multiplayer. All you have to do is select your character, name and costume and you're launched straight into the Buzz game show. Most of the rounds are the same as the ones in the previous game, but there have been new modes added, like "Hitman". If you prefer you can also customise which rounds you play, but there's no option to choose a short, medium or long game, which is a little disappointing.
Aside from the multiplayer options there are also a few other modes located in a party games menu, such as "Quickfire Quiz" and "Eliminator". The former lets you choose from 10 to 100 questions. The objective is essentially just to earn the most points, yet to be frank this mode really feels pretty tacked on - it's likely anyone wanting to play a serious round of Buzz! will just stick to the main game.
The game is still a lot of fun but certain elements bring the game down a little. A lot of the time the game will ask a question and you will need to answer by selecting a picture. This isn't as easy as it looks because even if you know the answer to a question you may not actually know what the person looks like, which is extremely frustrating. The game also hasn't been localised for Australia as well, which wouldn't necessarily be a problem but some of the questions are in UK currency and there are quite a few questions about the Royal family. How we're supposed to know which member of the Royal Family supports a UK soccer team is just beyond me. There were a lot of blank faces when this came up. Our UK readers may find this humourous, but if we asked you what football team Jeff Kennett goes for I'm sure there would be a few vacant expressions.
Hi, Im Buzz, a.k.a Jason Donovan
We also encountered a few problems that really should have been fixed before the game was released. There's a few spelling mistakes in the questions - at one point we saw "venom" spelt as "venum" - and for some bizarre reason there's also no way to quit a game once it's under way. Your only option is to reset the PlayStation 2. This is ridiculous because you also cannot leave the game to finish on it's own, you need to keep buzzing otherwise the game won't go on.
Visually the game looks pretty basic but this is to be expected. The game does a great job in making it feel like you are actually part of a game show which is something that should be commended. All of the menus are a lot slicker and the characters you can choose from all look very good. Buzz himself looks pretty similar to what he did six months ago, but even Rose got a bit of a makeover.
The sound is a little disappointing though. The questions are now read out by some guy who host Buzz occasionally refers to as Greg. The previous title didn't have anyone reading out the questions and was all the better for it. The man doing the voiceover is boring and slow. This is all going to come down to personal preference but personally we preferred being able to read our questions at our own pace. Buzz himself still has some pretty funny comments occasionally, but they quickly become repetitive. Jason Donovan is the man behind Buzz and he does a decent job, or at least he sounds a lot more enthusiastic than the man who's asking the questions.
The Buzz titles aren't really developed with masses of depth in mind. This means that this is precisely the type of game that you will come back too quite regularly, but won't play for an extremely lengthy amount of time. Also, it's probably more likely you'll play The Music Quiz more often, because as a title, it is a bit more enjoyable.
Some typical stereotypes here...
Developers Relentless Software laid the foundations with the previous Buzz! title and even though this doesn't really expand the experience that much, it's still a really enjoyable and unique game with friends. The questions aren't really focused though, so it would have been good to select a specific subject matter as well as short, medium or long rounds. Buzz! is a franchise that's definitely going to be around for a while; we just hope the developers don't rush the games out every six months with disappointing results.
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