Buzz! Quiz World, the second game of the highly-successful Buzz! franchise to grace the PlayStation 3 has just been released in time for the holiday season. With so many games under the Buzz! name, what makes this one worth your purchase? We buzz in with the answer inside our full review…
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Buzz!, here’s a quick run-down of what to expect from the series. Buzz!, the comical, chop-busting game show host will ask you various questions, chosen from 10 “chief” categories such as sports, music, etc. To shake things up beyond your normal trivia, each round has a “twist”. One round has you tossing a bomb with a lit wick back and fourth in a question-answering game of “hot potato”. Another example has you trying to buzz in as fast as possible, and if you answer correctly before the other contestants you get to chuck a pie in their face; two pies and you’re out! You compete in these themed rounds until you reach the Final Countdown which puts you atop a slowly depleting pedestal until only one contestant is left standing.
Buzz! Quiz World at first seems like more of the same. However, this time around there is much more variety, not just in the questions themselves, but in the available game modes and rounds as well. There’s also new contestants and new buzzer sound effects (my favorite is “tequila”).
Along with your standard game mode, there are other modes that change up the way the rounds are presented to you. One such mode lets you completely tailor the experience to suit your desires. Another sets you up to play only the “crazy” game rounds. Once you select your preferred game mode, you’ll see another feature new to the series.
You’ll be asked to input the first letter of your name. From there you are allowed to select a name from a preset list of names. There is a reason for this preset list, as Buzz! will actually speak your name during the course of the game. Nifty feature right? WRONG! Immediately two of the people who I roped in to test the game with me were alienated as their names weren’t on the list. One person was forced to choose “babe” and the other “ziggy”. I was even unluckier thanks to my name, Anthony, being included on the list, which resulted in me being obnoxiously referred to as Tony for the entire duration of the game. This was annoying enough to keep me from choosing my own name on future games.
