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Author Topic: Buzz! The Mega Quiz  (Read 3714 times)

JasonA1

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« on: March 07, 2008, 01:38:50 PM »
When I first read about "Buzz! The Mega Quiz" for PlayStation2, I was excited. A multiplayer trivia game with buzzers that my computer can address through a USB port? Score. Right as I'm scouring Amazon to get a price, I get an e-mail from the company. They just so happened to stumble over my website. They offered up a free copy of both new Buzz! releases in exchange for a review. After a couple e-mails back and forth, I was ignored and gameless. Despite that, I still bought the game and wanted to give anyone else thinking about purchasing it a heads up.

The four buzzers are all hooked to one hub and connect to your PS2 in one USB port. As I said above, and as was covered in another thread, they're easily recognized by your computer as well. There's plenty of slack on them - the hub went from my PS2 to the middle of the living room, and the individual buzzer cords reached the various pieces of furniture so everybody could sit comfortably and still play. If you've read anything about the game, you probably know you can connect two hubs and make this an up-to-8-player experience. I've played with groups of 3 and 4, and found that the more people you have, the better it is. The game is simply more competitive and even.

The game itself is a mishmash of all sorts of trivia concepts, with so-so scoring. The final round makes up for these discrepancies somewhat and brings it back to a straight up contest. I'll try to explain each round as succinctly as I can. Keep in mind, you can customize the game to feature these rounds in combinations that better suit your fancy, but this is what you get if you play the standard game on standard length.

The first round is called Point Picker. Each player gets to pick one category from a wheel of eight (Music, Sports, "Bizarre," Animals, etc.). Two multiple choice questions are asked in a category for 250 points a pop. Speed is not an issue.

The second round is Winner Stays On. The (slightly irritating) host presents you two pictures, and you pick the one that fits his statement - i.e. "which football player made their pro debut first?" or "which is taller?" Right answers mean you get to stay on through the rest of the question and score more points. Picking the correct choice on the first pair scores 50 points, 75 on the second, then to 100 and finally 125 points. There are two or three of these type sequences in the round.

The third round is Fastest Finger, which is multiple choice again, but first in with the right answer gets 400 points, the second 300, and so on. The first half of the round uses pictures to aid the questions, and the second half uses music.

Pie Fight is next, where the first to click in the correct choice stops a moving target to "pie" one of their opponents. Get pied twice and you're out. The last player standing earns 1000 points, 2nd place 500 and third 250.

The Mystery Challenge is the "halftime" game. It changes each time you play, but I've seen games that involve a four-card monte, picking a horse to win a virtual horse race, or simply True or False questions.

Globe Trotter follows this, where a question is asked about a specific country. The scoring from Fastest Finger applies, but the first in also gets the next choice of country.

Best Rank is what Millionaire calls Fastest Finger. Each correct sequence of answers nets you 300 points. (Seem a little low to you too?)

Point Stealer is pretty fun. Picture questions are asked. The photo starts off pixelated, scrambled, or comes on in pieces. The choices also spell themselves out letter by letter. Whoever can buzz-in and pick the right choice gets to steal 500 points from the opponent of their choosing. The format discourages early buzzing, which is a plus, and the material isn't knowledge based, so it gives laggards a chance to catch up. Plus, a wrong choice by a buzzer isn't shown, so there's no winning by default (unless your friend blabs what button they pressed).

Finally, after 8 rounds, you reach The Final Countdown, complete with Europe-style muzak. Your points are transformed into bars on a clock that ticks down as you answer. First to be right is a bonus of extra time; wrong answers get bars taken away. Whoever's left standing with time wins the game.

In short, it's fun enough to justify a $40 purchase, and the rounds have enough variety to keep people interested. A game as I described above takes about 45 minutes. I suggest picking the Quick Game option to skip the customization of your avatar, unless you just HAVE to see your first name on the screen, or hear a bicycle horn each time you ring in. The process is cumbersome, especially if you try to get non-video-gamers in on the fun. I also didn't have a memory card handy to prevent repeats. As such, we had about 3 questions a game from the previous one.

And as a quick aside to this War and Peace-level post, I've used the buzzers to play Todd's Feud game, Jeopardy! MC, Press Your Luck and the Jeopardy! CD-Rom, and all have been fantastic. After seeing my Quizzard beat to shreds over the years, it's nice to have something a little more professional.

-Jason
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Brig Bother

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2008, 05:28:52 AM »
Ooh, that's quite interesting - the Buzz "brand" if you like has been hugely successful over here in the UK for the last three years or so with new editions coming out every six months (Music, Big Quiz (another general knowledge one much less refined than the Mega Quiz), Sports, Mega Quiz, Hollywood and there's a new Pop Quiz out just next week, in fact) which along with SingStar (karaoke and brilliant) has been part of Sony Europe's whole social gaming idea thing.

I really like The Final Countdown round as basically I'm amazing at it, to the point where my friends don't really like it all that much because the points : time ratio doesn't seem quite right so it only takes two or three questions before I keep the lead. I can accept that as a barrier to fun, if you like, it'd have been nice if there was an option to play the game without the Final Countdown (which now features in all new editions) as in the previous editions.

In France they turned Buzz: The Music Quiz into an actual television show featuring the graphics from the game and having all the contestants dress up as Buzz characters.

Does Jason Donovan still provide the voice of Buzz? Does anyone in America know who Jason Donovan actually is?
« Last Edit: March 08, 2008, 07:12:18 AM by Brig Bother »

vtown7

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2008, 09:54:18 AM »
To your last questions, Brig: Yes, he does, and I'm not sure, I know I don't.

I believe that Buzz: The Hollywood Quiz has just been released over here (along with Singstar 90's).  Are there any clips of the French Buzz tv show floating around?

Ryan :)

Hastin

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2008, 01:02:35 PM »
[quote name=\'Brig Bother\' post=\'180516\' date=\'Mar 8 2008, 02:28 AM\']
I can accept that as a barrier to fun, if you like, it'd have been nice if there was an option to play the game without the Final Countdown (which now features in all new editions) as in the previous editions.
[/quote]

I'm the same way, in that I can snipe from Last to First in the Final Countdown. However, there is a custom play option where you can turn on/off specific rounds.

I love the character of Buzz himself, just because he's so demeaning. There's some serious satisfaction when a player takes forever to pick an answer, and then Buzz calls him out on it ("Player three, what part of 'fastest finger' do you not understand!?").

As for picking the characters/name, I think there's a serious amount of fun in it, and having the quirky buzzer noises makes it very lighthearted. If you hook an EyeToy up to the PS2, they will (inbetween rounds), put your image up on the video board behind the contestants. Another aspect that I love is the "Mystery Challenge", a game picked out by Buzz, which is totally across the board (Fact or Fiction, Duck Hunting, Horse Racing, etc.).

Overall, there's a ton of questions (5000+), and with a Memory Card, I haven't seen a single repeat. They will use the same pictures for multiple questions, however.

Oh, The Hollywood Quiz hits US shelves on the 12th. Can't wait for it!
-Hastin :)

MikeK

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2008, 01:11:52 PM »
I played Buzz with my younger cousins at their house during Xmas.  It's a fun game, even though the challenge was limited since my cousins, 7 and 4, were more interested in the characters, graphics, and random pounding of keys than the game itself.  I'm passing on it for now since I have fully neglected my PS2 since September, and I rarely play multiplayer games on the PS2.

Brig Bother

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2008, 03:13:51 PM »
[quote name=\'vtown7\' post=\'180518\' date=\'Mar 8 2008, 02:54 PM\']
To your last questions, Brig: Yes, he does, and I'm not sure, I know I don't.

I believe that Buzz: The Hollywood Quiz has just been released over here (along with Singstar 90's).  Are there any clips of the French Buzz tv show floating around?

Ryan :)
[/quote]

There was definitely a full episode up on Veoh late last year but I can't find a direct link for it.

Jason Donovan was famously an Aussie soap star (Neighbours, where he was Kylie Minogue's boyfriend), pop star, actor (he was Frank N Furter in Rocky Horror for a bit) and early 90s heart throb who had a bit of a drug problem about ten years ago, but sorted himself out. He won I'm a Celebrity... a few years ago, and he made a PA at a nightclub I was at about two years ago and was completely awesome. Right this very second he's judging a barbershop quartet challenge on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and recently he's been part of UK high-concept comedy/drama Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach.

Jason Donovan, there.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2008, 03:14:32 PM by Brig Bother »

MrGameShow

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2008, 11:04:01 PM »
[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'180427\' date=\'Mar 7 2008, 01:38 PM\']
And as a quick aside to this War and Peace-level post, I've used the buzzers to play Todd's Feud game, Jeopardy! MC, Press Your Luck and the Jeopardy! CD-Rom, and all have been fantastic. After seeing my Quizzard beat to shreds over the years, it's nice to have something a little more professional.
[/quote]

I'm curious on how you've used the BUZZ buzzers on the PC? Are they all key-emulated?

clemon79

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2008, 11:13:43 PM »
[quote name=\'MrGameShow\' post=\'180576\' date=\'Mar 8 2008, 08:04 PM\']
Curious on how you've used the BUZZ buzzers on the PC? Are they all key-emulated?
[/quote]
Here's the thread where we discussed it a little while ago:

http://gameshow.ipbhost.com/index.php?show...c=14510&hl=

Nutshell, the BUZZ buzzers enumerate as a USB game controller, and there is a small utility that can be used that will take game controllers in Windows and translate their commands to keyboard keystrokes. Between the two you can make them work with damned near anything.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2008, 11:14:25 PM by clemon79 »
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MrGameShow

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2008, 12:13:12 AM »
And silly me has been sitting here with them stowed away in a box waiting to play them again on the PS2, while all this time I could have been altering software to play games with them! lol

clemon79

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2008, 12:20:58 AM »
[quote name=\'MrGameShow\' post=\'180583\' date=\'Mar 8 2008, 09:13 PM\']
And silly me has been sitting here with them stowed away in a box waiting to play them again on the PS2, while all this time I could have been altering software to play games with them! lol
[/quote]
Yep :) It's always interesting and often surprising to see what happens when you plug anything with a USB connector into a Windows box. Very VERY often, it ends up working. My Guitar Hero controller works very well on my PC (which means I can play Frets On Fire!) as well.
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Hastin

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #10 on: March 09, 2008, 12:29:01 AM »
[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'180584\' date=\'Mar 8 2008, 09:20 PM\']
My Guitar Hero controller works very well on my PC (which means I can play Frets On Fire!) as well.
[/quote]

It should...because Guitar Hero III for the PC uses / comes with the Xplorer.

Another cool useage, is to pick up Scene It! for the 360 (also a fun game too). It has Buzz like controllers, but they are wireless. The IR reciever works great, and it's a generic USB HID device (but you've got to do some driver INF editing).
« Last Edit: March 09, 2008, 12:49:07 AM by Hastin »
-Hastin :)

clemon79

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2008, 04:29:09 AM »
[quote name=\'Hastin\' post=\'180586\' date=\'Mar 8 2008, 09:29 PM\']
Another cool useage, is to pick up Scene It! for the 360 (also a fun game too). It has Buzz like controllers, but they are wireless. The IR reciever works great, and it's a generic USB HID device (but you've got to do some driver INF editing).
[/quote]
What, is there an echo in here? :)
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mcsittel

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Buzz! The Mega Quiz
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2008, 11:54:03 AM »
[quote name=\'Brig Bother\' post=\'180536\' date=\'Mar 8 2008, 03:13 PM\']
Jason Donovan was famously an Aussie soap star (Neighbours, where he was Kylie Minogue's boyfriend), pop star, actor (he was Frank N Furter in Rocky Horror for a bit) and early 90s heart throb who had a bit of a drug problem about ten years ago, but sorted himself out.
[/quote]

He also did a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".  I can't recall now if the soundtrack was released here or not... I have it, but don't recall how I acquired it.  His first album "Ten Good Reasons" was also released in the US, but I don't think "Too Many Broken Hearts" even cracked the Hot 100, this after being a #1 UK hit.  That was back when hearing the UK hits was difficult... thankfully it's a lot easier now!  (Anyone remember the syndicated radio show "UK Chart Attack"?  Oh and "Joel Denver's Future Hits, 80-something" with their UK Top 5 review)

Matt

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