The other night I sat in my favorite dive bar, drinking a beer after work, and a scrolling marquee would ask a question and then give you the answer 10 seconds later. I sat in the bar for a good hour trying to answer as many correct as I could. Although this type of quiz on the go is fun, I can only really enjoy it at the bar. However, the folks at Sony have given me a fine solution to my quiz needs on the go. The solution is Buzz Quiz World on the PSP.
The game starts off by showing a fat, bald, glasses-wearing man walking into a dressing room. After a girdle, wig and some swanky clothes, we have the Buzz we all know and love. The game starts by having you make a player profile, but then you can jump right into it.
Buzz has the traditional single player mode, in which you pick one of four stages: Yogi, Annabell, General, and Monster. Each stage has a unique boss that you face off against after all of the subsequent puzzles are complete. Also, every stage has a unique puzzle type, which adds a bit of variation to the game. As you play the stages, you can receive gold, silver, or bronze medals, which give you more time for the final challenge of the stage. The idea is nice; however, it can work against you at times, since not answering a question will cost you precious points. There were a few times where I would achieve the points needed for a gold and then lose my gold because of not answering a last question or just getting it wrong.
Buzz Quiz World is a game that does what it sets out to do well, but it doesn't do anything new. I was surprised, that after 5 hours of gameplay, how infrequent question repeats were; however, sometimes a repeat was nice after starting a really nice streak. The questions are extremely varied, covering pop culture, gaming, music, sports, etc. Buzz really made me feel stupid whenever a sports question came up, because I don't know a thing about sports, so a feature to turn off certain question types would have been nice, but I won't dock the game, since it is giving me exposure to things I wouldn't think about otherwise. It would have been nice to have the option to see the correct answer though.
There is a multiplayer feature for this game as well. There is a game sharing mode, in which you can play with 3 other PSPs and you only need one copy. Also, there is the pass and play mode which can be extremely fun and hectic. There is an online mode as well. The online for Buzz is fun, and it also got my girlfriend to game with me (plus for those guys that want to get there girlfriends into some sort of gaming). The game sharing mode is wonderful as well, because you can include your other PSP-owning friends without the need for multiple copies, it was fun, especially when it became a drinking-game.
The sound in Buzz is something that you do NOT need to experience, aside from a few music questions. In between questions, Buzz seems to get his jollies by insulting your intelligence. Also, in timed mode, his banter will eat away at your time, which is a pain in the ass. The music is what you would expect from a quiz game, it relies on many recurring musical themes that would allow for someone listening know what was going on without having to look. There is music for the start of a quiz, for the quiz, and for the end, and the background music is practically elevator music. Another problem I had was when in menus, Buzz would constantly prod you to pick a mode, which was a HUGE turn off for myself. Also, Buzz needs more phrases, because he repeats himself too much.
Although the PSP does not have a trophy system like the PS3, Buzz does have it's own trophy system. The trophies are achieved by answering quickly, beating a stage, or getting a streak (among other things). The implementation of a rewards system gives incentive to replay. DLC is available via PSN, so as long as Sony supports this title, there will be new questions. This is especially important because eventually you will hear most if not all of these questions multiple times. The ability to play other quizzes online is nice as well; however, in order for this to work, the community has to keep making quizzes. The quiz search could use some refining. Searching for quizzes was not a streamlined process, and it was one of the biggest letdowns.
Buzz Quiz World is a great game for anyone who wants a way to keep their brain busy while lounging. I would say that overall the experience I had with this game was positive, but it is a game with it's flaws, and those flaws are numerous. It would have been nice to see a bit more polish on this game. I am giving this game a 3, due to our scoring scale not having half stars, but I would give it a 3.5/5 if it allowed me to.
- Game: Buzz! Quiz World (PSP)
- Developer: Relentless
- Publisher: SCEA
- MSRP: $19.99
- Release Date: 12/17/2009
- Review Copy Info: A copy of this game was provided to DualShockers Inc. by the publisher for reviewing purposes.