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 | Buzz! The Music Quiz Playstation 2 Relentless Software  The PS2 extends its armoury of peripherals with the release of 'Buzz! The Music Quiz'. Simplistic in its approach, 'Buzz!' wields a huge amount of entertainment power, especially for those of us with a love of trivia. Focussing on music, the game pits up to four players against each other in a battle not only of knowledge, but also speed. Tactics also play an important part, allowing players to steal points from others and forcing their opponents to answer the more difficult questions. 'Buzz!' has built up a strong following among my circle of friends, which I'll be lucky to keep if I continue to beat them mercilessly. Yes, I am the Undisputed King of Buzz; although I do admit that I have suffered a few defeats, proving that 'Buzz!' is the great leveller and can be played by anyone with even a passing interest in music. The controllers are very easy to use. There are five buttons in all: one giant red button and four smaller, different-coloured buttons. The controllers are lightweight, comfortable and can be controlled with one hand, leaving the other free for eating, drinking, smoking or whatever takes your fancy. Their light weight suggests the possibility of easy breakage and thus the suggestion that only one overly petulant player lies between four player fun and having to buy a new set of controllers. However, I am merely hypothesising and only time will tell if the controllers can survive a full-blown tantrum. The game's line of questioning consists of playing a short snippet of a song (all re-recorded in order to avoid lawsuits) and the players responding with their controllers, depending on the round being played. The rounds vary from simple point building to the nasty 'Point Stealer' and 'Pass The Bomb'. The developers have also been canny enough to change the format of the questioning; some rounds are multiple choice, others are a test of speed. The one player mode consists of two rounds, both involving the answering of multiple choice questions and makes for a decent enough time waster. There are over 5000 questions and roughly 1000 song clips and although some questions are bound to be repeated, the game moves at such a fast pace that it's difficult to commit them to memory. After many games I am still coming across questions for the first time. There are two types of multiplayer games (not including the host-your-own feature) but the structure is rigid and doesn't allow for very much variety (for future reference, Relentless, a design-your-own-game feature would be brilliant). Speaking of the future, the host (who is also named 'Buzz' and is played by Jason Donovan!) tells us that there are more 'Buzz!' games in development: 'Uber Buzz!' (general knowledge), a sports-themed game and a film-centric 'Buzz!', and although certain questions will become outdated, there are plenty more to keep people entertained.  | |
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