Sony has
released several installments of their popular Buzz franchise over the
past few years and while the titles have been somewhat successful, they
haven’t created the excitement that more elaborate titles have achieved.
For the latest installment, Buzz: Quiz World on the PS3, the developers
haven’t strayed too far from what’s made the games so successful. The
included wireless buzzer controllers work nicely, and setting them up is a
relatively painless task. There’s a huge red buzzer on the top of each
controller, with four smaller color-coded buttons on the side that
correspond to the questions on the screen. This makes for an instantly
accessible game that almost anyone can play immediately. As you’d
expect, the visuals are slick and fun, with some humorous animations and
lively banter from the eponymous host Buzz. Most of the questions are
presented in a straightforward manner, though some have visual aids to
keep things interesting.
The gameplay structure in Buzz is relatively straightforward and unfolds
in a traditional quiz show format. At the start of each round, players can
choose one of several different avatars to play through a series of quiz
games. These generally take the form of multiple choice questions, each
with four answers. Using the supplied buzzer controllers, players can
choose their answer and hope their opponent will miss the question.
Several different modes of play are included in Quiz World that allow you
to play several rounds in different styles. There are standard modes,
where you answer questions and try and rack up the highest point score,
along with more challenging timed modes, called Fastest Finger, where you
gain more points for answering correctly quickly.
Players
looking for more of a challenge will probably want to check out the On The
Spot mode, where your opponents decide what the questions or worth, or the
Short Fuse mode, where players toss a bomb back and forth, by answering
questions, with the player holding the bomb losing points when it explodes
at random points. These are fairly traditional quiz modes and while
they’re entertaining, an endless series of questions would make for a
dull game in itself.
Fortunately,
Buzz breaks things up and tweaks the formula a bit with some more humorous
modes, such as a pie-fight mode where an incorrect answer gives you a face
full of pastries. Other modes have losing contestants dipped in vats of
goo. In most multiplayer matches, you go through several rounds until you
reach the Final Countdown. Once you reach this mode, you’re points will
be converted into time, and you’ll have to answer as many questions as
you can before it runs out. Winning the game means you win some cool bonus
prizes as well. There’s an abundance of more than 5000 questions and
content on the disc, but the game allows you to either download question
packs online or create and share your own sets, which adds a community
spirit to the game. Obviously, Buzz is more enjoyable as a party game and
while its probably not the most taxing game on PS3, it’s a solidly
entertaining title that’s an excellent choice for gatherings who don’t
want to do any heavy lifting.
Wii
owners won’t be left out of the fun with Ubisoft’s decent rendition of
the 80’s classic game show Press Your Luck. It might seem a little bit
strange that a game show that hasn’t produced a new episode in nearly 25
years would merit a release, but its developed a cult over the years and
still remains a staple on cable. This version of the classic game is
largely faithful to the original and starts with three players trying to
beat the big board and avoid the whammy. As in the original version of the
game, the basic premise is set in two rounds. In the first, players answer
a series of four questions, each one correct gives the player spins, 3 for
buzzing in and 1 for correctly choosing from a multiple choice.
The Wii edition then moves onto the spin round, where players face
off against the big board. It’s a series of squares randomly displaying
prizes and money while lights bounce around the squares. By waving the
wiimote down, the player stops the board and is awarded that prize.
However, as in the original game, some squares have Whammy characters who
lurk inside. When the player hits these, they lose their accumulated score
and have to rebuild it from zero.
If the player hits four of these creatures, they’re automatically out of
the game, which is a sad fate. However, players who want to play
strategically can pass their spins on to their opponents, which they then
have to use. The passed-to player must keep spinning until the run out of
passed spins, or hit a whammy. In this case, the spins go to the other
side and the player can use or pass them.
The second round is very much like the first, with players
answering an additional four questions and going back to the big board a
second time, except the money on the big board is larger and there seem to
be more whammies on the board. The player with the most
money/points at the end of this round wins the game.
It’s presentation takes a very straightforward approach and does a
fairly good job of mimicking the classic show’s look and feel. The
rendering of the big board is faithful and the boxes and light patterns
move like the original show. The slightly modified theme music and an
announcer who channels Peter Tomarken, does a fairly good job of keeping
the Press Your Luck feel consistent with those reruns. The question rounds
can become boring, but its worth sitting through them since the big
board’s excitement level increases towards the end of each round. The
character avatars are fun to look at, but they’re occasionally
unbelievably stupid in the question rounds. Unfortunately, the game falls
a bit short in one key area. There’s only one prize on the board, a
generic trip to an unnamed destination. That’s it, there are no others.
It seems like a really odd thing to do and makes this version feel a bit
cheap and rushed. Going back and playing through it a few times makes it
feel a bit tedious, even as you unlock additional rivals to play against.
However, most fans of the series will find the production values, such as
the funny Whammy animations, make up for these problems. While the Wii
version is more entertaining in short bursts, it shares this fault with
the original show, which is great fun in small doses. Despite a few
problems, this remains a fairly decent version of the classic gameshow and
might be a fun novelty/impulse purchase for nostalgic gamers.
- Michael Palisano
