I’m a sucker for trivia games. After You Don’t Know Jack graced PCs in the 90s, I became a sucker for trivia-based videogames. Unfortunately, there’s still not a very big market for the genre, with only a handful of titles out there worth their weight in salt. Thankfully, we have a series like Buzz! which regularly delivers fun quiz show action through our home consoles.
The latest installment, Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz will be familiar ground to anyone who’s played any Buzz title before. You start off by selecting how many players are going to compete (up to 8 on a single PS2), then select which avatar you want to use, and which of their costume choices you want to see for the duration. There’s a nice variety complete with their own unique taunts to use between rounds, and while it’s really not integral to the game at all, it’s a nice little extra.
What is integral to Buzz is the questions, and in The Hollywood Quiz once again we’re shown why the series is unquestionably the best trivia game since YDKJ. With a set of questions related to movies and utilizing all sorts of stills and clips, both casual and hardcore movie goers will have plenty to enjoy. (Especially since you can pick if you want the casual or extreme mode.)
In each game of Buzz, you progress through a series of rounds featuring different gimmicks. Some are just pure “Answer your questions right the most!” ones while others include things such as a pie fight (an elimination style event), point stealer (where you can steal points from people by getting questions right), and fastest finger (where you’re rewarded for getting the right answer buzzed in the quickest). At the end of each match point totals are converted to bars on a vertical timer during The Final Countdown stage. Answer right, and your time freezes or moves up if you answered first. Answer wrong and your time gets penalized. The winner is the last person remaining, and they’re rewarded with a nice movie-themed prize.
When it comes to the trivia and having fun with multiple people, Buzz delivers. It’s a blast to play with a group of friends, and if you own a PS3 it’s a very welcome addition to the lackluster library of party games. If the game suffers in any area, it’s that Buzz and his co-host are as annoying as ever. Thankfully, you can skip her as she tells you how to play each round even if you’ve played the game hundreds of times. Unfortunately, you can’t always skip Buzz and you’ll get to the point where you’ll see his same song and dance routine so many times you can reenact it in your sleep.
Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz is my favorite Buzz title yet. As a big movie fan, it offers a trivia game on-par with Scene-It. While the two have strengths and weaknesses their own, together they create a great one-two punch for any film loving gamer. If you own a PS2/3 and love movie-based Trivia, The Hollywood Quiz is a must-buy.
