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The BUZZ! series has been a phenomenal success
for SONY. With several outings on PlayStation2, and more recently a
PLAYSTATION3 release,
 it’s
now the turn of the PlayStation Portable to receive SONY’s Game Show
software.
Originally arriving at a time when having a peripheral solely for
use in a single game was still considered a hindrance rather than a
Unique-Selling Point – a change in market trends that, quite
obviously, we have Wii to thank for –
BUZZ! The Music Quiz followed the line laid by the
SingStar series, and thanks to a creative advertising
campaign – including a reasonable price-tag for the package
including the Buzzer Controller – the title,
released in late 2005, found itself being prime entertainment
for the family throughout the following Christmas season; as many
subsequent releases have since.
The formula here, however, has changed quite substantially. While
much of the game precedes in the same Quiz Show-inspired manner that
regulars players will be familiar with, the lack of a Buzzer
Controller may seem to make the title rather redundant. However, as
with the recent
Guitar Hero: On Tour, Relentless Software
have obviously endeavoured to recreate the BUZZ! atmosphere
without the aid of a direct interface with which the casual user can
easily identify as part of the milieu. For the most part, the simple
colour-coded Buzzer Controller Buttons are replaced with the
PlayStation Portable’s Face Buttons, an obvious realignment which,
in actual play, has little bearing on the game itself.
The Single-Player options have received a major overhaul, yet are
still limited to just one gameplay mode. In Solo Quiz Challenge, the
player is faced with a Map detailing different Challenges. Through
playing an Challenge, should the player answer enough questions
correctly, rewards of Bronze, Silver or Gold Medals are be
available, and Medals must be earned in Events to
 progress across
the Map. Solo Quiz Challenge is an entertaining distraction in
itself, but brief – featuring only fifteen Challenges - as is the
shortcoming of the genre. It’s the Multi-Player Modes in which
BUZZ! Master Quiz shines.
With three modes available, each tailored for either the system’s
fans, or the friends and relatives of those equipped with the
console, BUZZ! Master Quiz provides more than most Quiz-based
titles before its three-thousand question remit has been thrown into
the mix. Indeed, titles such as the recent NintendoDS
Telly
Addicts release simply don’t equate with the high production
values on display here. Pass Around is most likely to be the
dominant choice for play, and is well-balanced for such a
responsibility. The gameplay mode asks players to pass the
PlayStation Portable console amongst themselves whenever the player
in command changes. The player in command will answer questions,
select the next person to play or select an area of a picture on
which the next player has to answer a question, depending on which
Round is currently being played. Given adequate time for play as
well as a more than competently designed infrastructure for the idea
of having to pass the system across a room – or train carriage, for
that matter – Pass Around has been benefit of some exemplary
user-interface decisions.
Quiz Host Mode sees one player acting as the Host, and selecting
questions for the other players to answer. No doubt set to ignite
many an argument, the Host is entirely responsible for the scoring
system, which questions are asked and deciding who answered
correctly, or quickest. Game Sharing allows one player with the
software to play with up to three other PlayStation Portable owners
without the Universal Media Disc. With basic options concerning the
length of the game and which question categories may be included,
the Game Sharing option most closely relates the home console
variations of BUZZ!.
The aesthetic is very well recreated on the PlayStation Portable,
and anyone having played any of the PlayStation2
 releases will
immediately recognise the title. Much of it has been stripped-down,
to the extent where there’s no studio sequences included, however
the instantly recognisable player avatars are included, as well as,
of course, the sharp-witted Jason Donovan vehicle, Buzz himself.
BUZZ! Master Quiz may already have many gamers dismissing the
title, but BUZZ! Master Quiz’s target audience lies elsewhere
at any rate. With an appropriately reduced RRP signifying a
comparable price to a similar offering on NintendoDS, the title is
quite obviously a development to encroach on Nintendo’s much vaulted
casual market – those who may not have even considered buying a
PlayStation Portable system previously, and those who don’t own one
themselves yet have a partner/sibling/offspring that does. Tailored
inexplicably well for it’s handheld outing, BUZZ! Master Quiz
a very different BUZZ!, yet at heart, a BUZZ! game it
still remains.
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