Let's Get Buzzing!
Buzz: The Hollywood Quiz gives Tinsel Town buffs 5000 new ways to geek out.
Published: March 16, 2008
Here at TotalPlayStation, we pride ourselves on offering at least mostly comprehensive reviews of games, but there are a few categories where prattling on for 1500 words just doesn't make any sense (read: most Dance Dance Revolutions and especially the SingStar series).
Relentless Software's Buzz! franchise is another one of 'em, mainly because like fellow Sony franchise SingStar the core parts of the game are largely unchanged; you've still got the marginally insane/borderline creepy host Buzz and his vapid-sounding Vanna wannabe Rose assisting, still got a handful of clever round types that have you balancing quick responses with quick recall (and a few others that let lagging players even the score or everyone to gang up on the points leader), and still have five thousand questions that test your knowledge of the categories.
This time, however, the focus is squarely on Hollywood, so movie buffs are obviously going to be at an advantage here. The Hollywood Quiz does a fantastic job of mixing questions about actors and flicks from just about every decade, from silent movie stars to current teen sensations to consistent box office draws. The questions, not surprisingly, are well-written and so long as you've got a memory card plugged in (or are running the game on the PS3 -- which, it should be noted, seems to support The Hollywood Quiz without the little quirks of The Mega Quiz), you can avoid seeing repeat questions.
There are a few minor tweaks to the categories, including new game types that have you concentrating on just a single movie star, pondering whether a statement is true or false (it's far more interesting than you'd think) and something called Rollover where players pick a category and then take turns answering questions on their chosen subjects with the points from wrong answers being added to a pool that the next correct answer banks in full. It's a less direct way of stealing points, but it can make all the difference in pulling ahead points-wise.
And really, that's about all that's new. A re-dressed "set" and a few new movie-themed characters like a vampiress and an Arnold/McBain clone round out the more subtle changes. In short, it's Buzz's take on movies, simple as that. And, just as simply, it's a great little game show, packed with a ton of questions and a round-by-round style of play that's just begging to be turned into a drinking game (trust me, the TPS office has never really recovered from our last round of Buzzed Buzz). If you liked the first game and you like movies, this one's an absolute no-brainer.
Relentless Software's Buzz! franchise is another one of 'em, mainly because like fellow Sony franchise SingStar the core parts of the game are largely unchanged; you've still got the marginally insane/borderline creepy host Buzz and his vapid-sounding Vanna wannabe Rose assisting, still got a handful of clever round types that have you balancing quick responses with quick recall (and a few others that let lagging players even the score or everyone to gang up on the points leader), and still have five thousand questions that test your knowledge of the categories.
This time, however, the focus is squarely on Hollywood, so movie buffs are obviously going to be at an advantage here. The Hollywood Quiz does a fantastic job of mixing questions about actors and flicks from just about every decade, from silent movie stars to current teen sensations to consistent box office draws. The questions, not surprisingly, are well-written and so long as you've got a memory card plugged in (or are running the game on the PS3 -- which, it should be noted, seems to support The Hollywood Quiz without the little quirks of The Mega Quiz), you can avoid seeing repeat questions.
There are a few minor tweaks to the categories, including new game types that have you concentrating on just a single movie star, pondering whether a statement is true or false (it's far more interesting than you'd think) and something called Rollover where players pick a category and then take turns answering questions on their chosen subjects with the points from wrong answers being added to a pool that the next correct answer banks in full. It's a less direct way of stealing points, but it can make all the difference in pulling ahead points-wise.
And really, that's about all that's new. A re-dressed "set" and a few new movie-themed characters like a vampiress and an Arnold/McBain clone round out the more subtle changes. In short, it's Buzz's take on movies, simple as that. And, just as simply, it's a great little game show, packed with a ton of questions and a round-by-round style of play that's just begging to be turned into a drinking game (trust me, the TPS office has never really recovered from our last round of Buzzed Buzz). If you liked the first game and you like movies, this one's an absolute no-brainer.