Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz Review

Feb 14, 2008

When it was first introduced, I wasn't a big fan of the IGN comment-on-an-article system below. It's not that I don't want to hear your opinions, but I feared the comments would quickly turn into a ranting and raving place where IGN readers would just insult us and scream their fanboy-isms. Don't get me wrong, that's what the majority of the threads turn into, but one comment changed my mind on the system -- it was the first one posted to my 8.0 review of Buzz! The Mega Quiz.

"GET OUT," the reader posted. "Its good?"

Yes, Mega Quiz was good -- or impressive if you're using IGN adjectives -- and it was thanks to a plethora of modes, questions, avatars and character. Thankfully, Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz keeps all of that and tosses in a ton movie trivia to boot.

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Jumping into the new title is simple whether this is your first Buzz! or if you're a Mega Quiz champ. This game casts you as a contestant in the grand-daddy of movie trivia shows, and all you need to compete is the USB device that wires the game's four controllers -- you can buy Hollywood with the controllers for $40 or without them if you already have the devices for $30 -- and a general knowledge of the movie scene. No matter your experience level, the buzzers in Buzz! should feel like second nature. The one-handed device feature a big red button at the top and four colored buttons below. For any given round, you'll need to push one -- or a few -- of these buttons.

Admittedly, I was worried coming into Hollywood. I enjoyed the first U.S. Buzz! title -- there are a ton of these things in the United Kingdom -- and was set to be pretty disappointed if the same sets, vocal quips and characters were used.

Luckily, Sony didn't go that route.

From the moment the game gets to the main menu, you can tell Relentless Software worked this title with a specific style in mind. As you select from playing a full game or one based on points, the show's assistant Rose stands at the ready in a gold evening gown and an award show motif of flashbulbs and red carpet plays behind her. When you jump into the game, the fearless host named Buzz enters with the fanfare of a revamped Oscars -- ladies with fans dance about, there are a few giant golden statues on stage, and an enormous auditorium filled with fans sits before the showcase. Buzz quotes movies, you appear as one of 15 different characters, and each player chooses his or her own buzzer sound.

From there, you jump into the competition.

Broken up into eight possible rounds, Hollywood tests your mastery of moving pictures by using still frames, quotes and general info from a ton of flicks to make up more than 5,000 questions. Now, some of the rounds will be familiar if you've picked up the Buzz! controller before. Pie Fight! still rewards the fastest correct answer with the ability to hurl a pie at an opponent to eliminate the foe's lives and become the last contestant standing; Fastest Finger gives you a photo clue as well as a question and the quicker you answer the more points you get; and Point Stealer lets the fastest correct answer steal -- you guessed it -- points from whichever player you like. New in this version are Fact or Fiction (Buzz reads a movie tidbit and asks you to decide if it's true or false), Top Rank (use the colored buttons to arrange movies and film-related events chronologically and such) and Hollywood Stars (pick a subject and answer trivia about it).

Don't like one of those categories or one of the others I didn't bother to list? You can customize your game to exclude your black sheep.

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Obviously -- as part of Sony's PS2 casual gamer attack -- Buzz! is best when played with a group of friends. You can break into teams, go head-to-head with up to seven folks, and create your own questions while using Quizmaster to keep score and decide who has buzzed in first. Now, you can play solo -- a single-player game has you answer a plethora of questions that translates into time in the Hot Seat and more points -- but beyond practice and a high score list, there's no incentive to really devote time to the option.

Is that a bad thing? No -- figuring out who played Jamie Lee Curtis' boyfriend in My Girl, which Bruce Willis movie is narrated by Charlton Heston, and what the hell Bridge to Terabithia is about is way more fun with a band of buddies than sitting in your apartment all alone.

What qualms do I have with this game? Really, not that many. In my last review I said the settings were bland, Buzz was annoying and the characters were jaggy. Now, the award show set pops, Buzz just uses movies lines and can be pretty funny, and … well … the characters are better, but there's still a bit of jag.

Clearly the visuals of the game are going to be held back a bit by the PlayStation 2, but the technology actually causes the elimination of something somewhat surprising in this film game -- there are no extended movies. Yes, in a game that's asking you a million questions about what you might see on the sliver screen, you never actually get to see a full-on clip from your favorite film -- just snippets. In all honesty, I didn't even notice the exclusion until I was writing this review, but I'm sure it'll be red flag for folks who have been racking up achievements and watching extended sequences in the Xbox 360 version of Scene-It.

Closing Comments
I feel like this review is wrapping up early, but I really can't tell you too much more. Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz is just as deep and fun as Mega Quiz, and it is a bit more polished in terms of its award show presentation and smoother textures. If you have friends over who like to go toe-to-toe in movie game shows, Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz should be a welcome addition to your repertoire.