PS3 Review: BUZZ! Quiz TV, UK Accent, US Funny

In case you weren’t aware there’s a Buzz! going around about this Quiz game.  It’s called BUZZ! Quiz TV and while this game was released last year, the constant add-ons make the questions fresh and new and the game never stays long enough in it’s case to collect dust.  Let’s begin where most reviews don’t.  The packaging of the game.  Buzz Quiz TV is a fierce looking box, for good reason.  Not only is the game included but 4 buzzers (1 big red button, 4 colored rectangles) and a USB wireless adapter.  You should know what you’re getting into when you see 4 buzzers on the box… yup 8 AA batteries.  But I prefer the wireless buzzers over the potential “rats nest” with wired controllers.

What’s on the Menu. Buzz Quiz TV is controlled with the aforementioned “Buzz” controllers.   For those wondering, if you hold down all four colored buttons on the wireless buzzer, you can actually pause the game and also quit the game to return to the main menu.  Questions are written above the character in question and the answers are listed in very clear and easy to read colored boxes.

Lights, Camera, Buzzers! I had the pleasure of playing Buzz with a group of 4, although Buzz can hold up to 8 players local and up to 4 online.  Whenever there’s a large group of people, you can bet that there will be talking.  Some complaints just upon startup during gameplay were “lack of instructions”.  The comedic host of Buzz with a UK accent, explains himself verbally but a written reminder would be helpful too.  When questions are asked, you can either hit the big red button or one of the four colored buttons.  Again, with a large party of talkers there should be an on-screen set of instructions rather than the host speaking them.

Quiz of The Year, Comedy, Horror, American Culture… Add-on’s you’ll want. The questions that come bundled in with Buzz are challenging and diverse in their respective categories.  The PSN Add-on bundles bring new questions in new categories.  Although the add-on questions were not easy to locate at first.  Buzzs’ add-on’s are mixed into the game.  How to find them: As you navigate through the main categories you’ll find the add-on’s as a sub-category.  For example, you will find comedy movie quiz add-on under “Movies and TV Only”, or safari add-on under “Braniac”.  Be sure to check out the American Culture pack where you’ll be asked question like; What date is the aniversary of the 1492 landing of Columbus in the Americas?

I Buzz, You Buzz we all scream for My BUZZ. My favorite portion of Buzz were the endless questions possibilities of MyBuzz, the online Buzz depot.  Logging into mybuzzquiz.com, anyone with a PSN network ID can create questions which are then uploaded into the MyBUZZ databank for immediate play.  As you’re creating the questions, bear in mind that other PS3 Buzz players will see, play, and rate your questions based on validity and originality.  Also you can choose to keep your MyBUZZ quizzes private or mark them for PSN friend viewing only. Navigating through different questions with the Buzzer was surprisingly easy.

Round for Round, one of the better Quiz games. The 5 rounds and a “Final Countdown” round make up Buzz Quiz TV.  Although many did not “Short Fuse”, a round where a bomb is thrown in your hands and as you answer the question correctly, you pass the bomb down to your next opponent.  We noticed sometimes that the bomb blew up before the question was read by the host.  One last feature, was the ability to use PlayStation’s EyeToy.  Customizing your character’s face with the EyeToy is a possibility, though we didn’t have an EyeToy to test that feature. 

It’s the Final Countdown. The last round where all players stand on a podium with the highest point getter standing on the highest podium down to the lowest podium.  Think of Olympic podiums where gold stands higher than silver and bronze.  When a question is asked the podium drops until you either enter a successful or incorrect answer.  To which, if you answered correctly and are the first to Buzz in you podium moves up.  Answering correctly leaves you idle, and incorrectly drops the podium.  Several incorrect answers drops your character to the floor, where a trap door opens thus dropping you.  Last man standing… wins!

Pros
- Easy to understand questions
- Fun customizable characters w/ Eye Toy
- MyBuzz Questions, customizable
- Questions were rarely duplicated (unlike other quiz games)
- Last place player chooses category, this avoids early elimination

Cons
- On-screen text instructions would be helpful with talkative parties
- Bomb detonates before questions are read in “Short Fuse” round

Buzz Quiz TV will be suitable for a broad age group, as you’ll find categories from “Toons” and “Oldies Music”.  I highly recommend Buzz Quiz TV and it’s add-on’s, due to the fun factor and competitive yet versatile set of questions that your friends and family will enjoy.  I’m hoping for a Buzz Quiz TV Christmas add-on for this upcoming Holiday season, which I’m sure we’ll see!

8.5/10