Saturday 29 January 2011

Buzz: Ultimate Music Quiz 2011 Review


Unfortunately, announcements about various new handheld consoles from Sony and Nintendo over the last fortnight has meant that our hands-on with this game was unintentionally delayed. Nevertheless, the Mini Gamers blogsite has now tried and tested Buzz: Ultimate Music Quiz (PSP) in order to bring you the good and bad points of this music-themed game.


Firstly, fans of the Buzz series of quiz games will quickly notice that this game has been given a snazzy makeover from the previous PSP games.



The game features several different quiz rounds to test your music knowledge and two different single-player game modes - Chart Climber (in which players have to play several different quiz rounds in order to win points and gain their place at the top of the charts,) and Quick Quiz whereby players have to play a random quiz from one of the rounds in the Chart Climber section.


There is also several Multiplayer modes to be had in this game. As well as the usual Pass Around and Player-to-Player Wi-Fi modes, there is also an Online Multiplayer mode so that players can now test their musical knowledge with other people from all over the country.


The quiz rounds themselves are quite varied, and range from general knowledge about all diferent types of music,  to naming music stars or identifying various tunes, and even trying to beat the clock in timed quizes.

Buzz himself has also had a bit of a makeover. See the irrepressible host don a number of hairstyles throughout the quiz, from an Elvis-style Quiff, to a J.S. Bach wig. Buzz has the lot!



The usual Bronze, Silver and Gold awards have also been changed to Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum records, and the way they work has also been changed. Now, the awards are also given a points multiplier, which range from 1x to 4x your original score. The faster you correctly answer questions, the more of a multiplier you will gain.


One of the most impressive features in this game is Buzz's personal commentary, which allows Buzz to call you by name. This was originally featured in the Buzz: Quiz World game, but the names which were featured were very limited and meant that many people were unable to choose their name from the list.

 In Buzz: Ultimate Music Quiz (PSP) the 'Personal Commentary' feature has been enhanced, and it now features a wide range of nicknames and unusual names to choose from. Hearing Buzz call out your name at the end of the quiz is really satisfying and makes the game much more interactive.


So, what are the bad points?

Actually, there are relatively few bad points in this game. The main problem with quiz-based video games in general is that the questions can be repeated after a while. However, we played twenty different rounds of Chart Climber and only had three repeated questions during that time, which is a lot better than some other quiz games we could mention.

Online Multiplayer was also a bit of a problem as we couldn't find anyone to quiz with, dispite searching for players on five different occasions, nevertheless, this may not be the case for everyone.

Overall, this is a very entertaining and interactive game. The new format and style changes are very impressive. If you are a fan of quiz games, then this is definately the game for you. Overall rating: 9/10.

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