Buzz! Quiz World is a PlayStation only trivia game that is making another appearance on the PS3. Returning is everyone’s favorite snarky game show host Buzz, who provides great commentary and some snappy one-liners to keep the game interesting and players laughing. Is a funny host enough to make this game a must have over your classic Trivial Pursuit? Let’s find out.
Buzz! Quiz World lets up to 8 players locally or online battle for the bragging rights of trivia supremacy and some crappy door prizes. Some of the questions have video or pictures while others are just text but all fall into a category which a player chooses at the beginning of a round. You get to create your own characters that interact with the audience and host which add to the fun. The avatars range from a mini swamp thing creature to a cheerleader to a masked wrestler and super hero, each with their own mannerisms and expressions. Also new to the game is that you can add in your name if it is programmed in and the announcer will call you by that name instead of just saying Player 1.
You can choose to play a short game or a long game. I typically chose the latter just so we could get more rounds in and by no means is the short game too short, in fact it felt just right. You compete in different rounds where each round aside from a category also has a special set of rules to score points. The first of the rounds is called Point Builder, where you answer questions to build up score and speed is not a factor, so you can take your time and it does not affect the other players. The rounds there after are random but here are some you can expect: Boiling Point, where players answer a series of questions to make your character boil the fastest to win the round. High Stakes is another round where you can gamble your points about how much you know the particular category before seeing the question. Stop the Clock has players competing to be the fastest to answer because the quicker you are the more points you get. The last round is dubbed Final countdown and all of your points turn into time and the players that run out of time are eliminated.
There are a ton of different categories such as sports, history, 80’s and 90’s music but then there are many custom trivia sets that users have created. MyBuzz! Quizzes which are user made quizzes allow you and others to play with questions that were user generated. You can also purchase additional Buzz! Questions if you blow through all 5,000 questions that come with the game and all the MyBuzz! quizzes.
Buzz! Quiz World is the ultimate party game for those times when you want to get a group of people together and just have a good time. You can play up to 8 people on the same PS3 in your own living room or go head to head in a new “Sofa vs. Sofa” mode that lets 4 players compete against 4 players online. Online play works smoothly just like the offline but it does take a bit to find a game as not that many people are playing. One thing you do want to make sure of is that you have the Buzz! Buzzers as they are required to play the game. The bundle includes 4 wireless buzzers which work really well and get rid of the hassle of wires.
Buzz! Quiz World is great for gamers that have parties or gather with others to play games, not so much for solo gamers as they will quickly get bored of it. Buzz! Is all about talking smack and racking up points with some friends and enjoying the host and his wise guy remarks. A solid trivia game for anyone looking for a good time and a great game to get everyone involved regardless if they like video games or not, the game is accessible to everyone which makes it great for holiday parties.
Title: Buzz! Quiz World
Developer: Relentless Software
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
MSRP: $59.99 (includes four wireless buzzers)
Release Date: Sep. 23, 2009
Review Copy Info: A copy of this game was provided to DualShockers Inc. by the publisher for reviewing purposes.