Buzz: The Music Quiz (PS2)

[babs]

Being a fan of Party-type games, I treated myself to this on the weekend. It's basically a music quiz presented as a game show, complete with presenter Buzz (voiced by Jason Donovan) and shapely sidekick Rose.

The game starts with you being ushered into the studio to make your choices about which type of quiz you want to play, how many are playing etc. Each player chooses a character from the available list and are represented by a 3D model in the gameshow itself. These are all stereotypes from fat Elvis lookalikes to Jamaican rasta types, wasted British rockers and everything inbetween. Each person can then enter their name for record keeping and choose a buzzer noise (we had a Bird Flu quiz last night, with Duck, Chicken and Turkey noises).

There are 8 different round-types in the game, from a straight-up choice of 4 answers to a song, to pass the bomb rounds and point stealers. You can edit your own quiz structures too, to leave out the rounds you don't like and add the ones you do.

The main selling point of the game though is the 4 player buzzer controllers that come with it. Everyone gets a handheld buzzer with a big red Buzz button on top (which flashes!) and 4 coloured buttons below it for choosing answers and navigating menus. It connects via USB and has a handy velcro cable tidy attached which is handy as it's a real mess of wires.

The game is good fun and can get really vicious after a few beers (especially on the point stealer round). Watching the outtakes during the closing credits for the 'show' reveals that there are more quiz discs in the offing, a General Knowledge 'uber quiz', a sports one and a movie one.

[Yoshimax]

I was contemplating picking this up - But my Sister/BruvInLaw have it already and they're bringing it up for Xmas so I dunno if there's much point.

I take it it really only comes into it's own with 3 or 4 people ? 2 would be a bit lame I'd imagine and I keep hearing that the cover versions of songs are so poor that they can be hard to identify although this may work in the games favour ?

[Dezm0nd]

how many buzzers do you get with the game? would love this for the halloween party this weekend.

Edit: It looks like you get four... as you say in your post. What a gimp I am.

[PeteJ]

Main worry abouth this game (and games of similar genre, videogame or otherwise) is the lack of questions. Nothing worse than playing a quiz with people that remember all the answers from previous nights!

News of more disks is pleasing...so long as they aren't expensive.

[Bassman]

To qoute Play.com...

If you've listened to the radio in the last fifty years and you know how to buzz, then you're all set to be the next contestant on Buzz: The Music Quiz.

Buzz brings the music game-show to your living room, testing your music trivia and buzzer skills. Included with the game are a set of four bespoke buzzers which lets four people play right away, and provides an interface that even a techno-zero would understand.

'Buzz' is your host, complete with an all-knowing smile, a catchphrase, a glamorous assistant called 'Rose' and his very own theme tune. You can select a playable contestant to suit your personal music taste, choose from 16 different characters including a pop diva, a rocker, a punk, an Elvis and a disco dude.

There are over 1,000 music clips - all international chart-toppers from the 1950s through to 2005 - and over 5,000 questions to test your knowledge, either by playing solo in a fast paced single-player mode or with your friends in the multiplayer game. You can choose to play in short bursts, or over a longer period if you want to. All wins and losses can be saved to memory cards if you need to refer to them at a later date!

Sounds like a decent number of questions.

[babs]

Yeah, granted we've only played 5 half-hour games and we've not had a single repeated one.

The songs are covers, and some better than others, but mostly it's just the tune rather than the lyrics you hear, and some of them are done in styles different to the original which, rather than detract from, actually add to the fun.

[Dezm0nd]

Got my copy yesterday only to find out only half the buzzers work!! DAMNIT. Back to woolies i go... i hope they have another one as the two player we played was quite a larf.

[Bassman]

Mine arrived Friday. Played a couple of solo games and Monday a short and medium 2 player. Great game. I also like the fact that you can use the four buttons to make your character react (first three positively and last one negatively).

I wonder when they will release some other question disks...

[babs]

next year, watch the closing credits all the way to the end

[Soi]

I played it last weekend at a mate's place -and very good it was too. We played a game that had loads of rounds and lasted 40 odd minutes. My other half loved it too, especially as she has a robotic knowledge of pop songs. We all thought the game was well made, and great for post dinner gaming with a large group.

I thought the GamesTm review was way harsh tbh.

[MikeRox]

General Knowledge Quiz? AWESOME! I was well gutted this one was on music (hardly a strong area of mine :P) I think it looks like a great game and when the extra discs come out I'll definately be getting it.

[MartyG]

Main worry abouth this game (and games of similar genre, videogame or otherwise) is the lack of questions. Nothing worse than playing a quiz with people that remember all the answers from previous nights!

News of more disks is pleasing...so long as they aren't expensive.

I bought this for my brother and his g/f for Christmas, and they visited this w/e so naturally I had to test it to make sure it worked

You really don't need to worry about lack of questions, there are over 5000 of them. It is all music related on this disc, but they vary from stuff like name the band to which movie was this from to what is this artist's real name.

The range of music is really good too - there will be something that everyone reckognises in there whether young or old, despite the tracks not being the originals. That's really not an issue though, because they sound pretty identical.

This is definitely a multiplayer game though. There is a single player mode where you build up time in the first round and then have a point banking system ala The Weakest Link in the second. Truely though, shafting your mates is most fun - especially the round where if you get the question right, you steal point from your opponents.

One thing I really liked was the quiz master mode, this then opens the game to whatever quiz questions you can conceive. Essentially, it allows you to be the quiz master and merely provides the means to host a quiz. So, you ask the questions, the contestents buzz in and you (on the PS2 controller rather than the buzz controller) decide whether the answer was right or wrong. It's a really nice addition.

The controllers really are very lightweight and plasticy, a real disappointment after the solidity of the mics in SingStar, I seriously doubt if they'd survive long if dropped on the floor a few times, something that's bound to happen if your contestents have had a few beers.

Longevity wise? Well, eventually I guess you'll hear all the questions, but this isn't a game that's going to be played day on day, hour on hour, so it will take a while to get through them all.

As a party game it really is a lot of fun, definitely worth the ?30 given there will be new quizes out next year, namely: General Knowledge, Sport and Movies.