Review: Buzz! Quiz TV

Buzz! Quiz TV
SCEE, Relentless
Available for Playstation 3

Sony has finally brought the game show world to the Playstation 3 with the release of their newest instalment of the Buzz! franchise, Buzz! Quiz TV which combines fun and wackiness with trivia on your home console. So grab your buzzers and your useless knowledge, cause its trivia time!

Setup like a crazy game show with a muppet-like host, Buzz! Quiz TV pits you against real or AI opponent in a test of knowledge through several unique and goofy multiple choice question rounds. Games can be played alone against the computer opponents, with 3 local friends or online with 3 complete strangers. The game bundle comes with 4 wireless buzzer pads, so everyone in the house can start playing right away without having to buy more controllers. Also the game does have a parental controls to keep the questions family friendly for the younger players too, if need be.



At the beginning of the game, you can choose from several interesting stereotype avatars to represent you during gameplay like the bubbly cheerleader, the super hottie spy chick or the rock star and then you get to choose their costume type and buzzer sound. These avatars represent you during the game, so when you’re losing they’ll freak out or cry and if you’re winning, they’ll jump for joy or dance. Each character has their own unique reactions to what’s going on to the game.

No matter what type of game you’re playing, they each have a series of rounds that have a unique set of rules that you must follow to win points. “Stop the Clock” for example, awards the most points to the players who answers the question right the fastest and “Pass the Bomb” has players passing a bomb back and forth as they get questions right until finally the bomb blows up in someone’s face.

Online multiplayer games have several rounds that end on the “High Stakes” round which have players betting their points against how well they know the question topic (think final jeopardy but with several questions), while local multiplayer games have several rounds that end on the “Final Countdown” which has players boosted on platforms which heights are based on their point amount. Everyone must answer questions correctly and quickly to avoid falling towards the stage and being tossed out of the game. Last player to hit the stage wins.

Probably the coolest part of Buzz! is the new user generated content which allows you to go online and create quizzes based on topics of your choosing, which can then be played and rated by other players online. No naughty content though because those quizzes will just be censored or can be reported by other players as inappropriate and removed.

While the questions barely ever repeat even after 20 games, the developers plan to release add on question packs on the Playstation Network, so gamers will be able to play with other categories besides the original few that came with the game. A horror trivia add on has already been released for download for only $5.99 CAN.



The level of difficulty in the trivia questions is pretty main stream, so as long as you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 50 years, you should be able to get most of these questions. The topics cover everything from movies, music and TV to nature, famous people and technology, so this game has a little bit of something for everyone.

The fun and wacky 3D avatar are a hoot to play with and often make you giggle. The mime character even had my boyfriend laughing with his stupid “running into the wall” gag. The whole game has this shiny, high gloss look to it, almost like someone dipped it in baby oil. Each character except for the host is a wacky 3D cartoon character trying to represent some human stereotype or character from a movie. The host, Buzz looks more like a creation from the Jim Henson Workshop, than any human being.

The host is cute but he really does repeat himself a lot after a few games and it does get boring. The only way to avoid the same sound bites is to change up your avatars to get different responses and gags throughout the rounds. I personality liked the Cave girl and the Spice girl wannabe.

With the hype of the Nintendo Wii as the new party game system, I love to see Sony grabbing amazing games like this that appeals to the older party crowd. This is the type of game I could see my family sitting down and playing at our next get-together as opposed to me biting my nails as my sister swings my Wii remote around my $1800 flat screen TV.

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy it!