Video Games : Buzz! Pop Quiz - Solus (PS2)

Rating: - A significant drop in Buzz standards!
What a disappointment!
Having played the Big Quiz and Hollywood versions of Buzz I was expecting a polished and enjoyable party game. Unfortunately after just a few games and an awful lot of grumbling and head-scratching from all involved the disc went back in the case where it is destined to stay.
There are two serious flaws with this game. The first is that except for a very small number of exceptions none of the music is the original recording...and some of the versions are just terrible! On a number of occasions all four competitors sat around looking at each other wondering what on earth the song was meant to be - even when we had just four options to choose from! It really is that bad.
The second problem is the very narrow selection of music on which the questions are based. Forget playing this with the whole family - only those between the ages of 12 and 25 need apply!...which is a serious shame because the Big Quiz and Hollywood versions are so inclusive - even my 78 year-old Grandad enjoyed them.
My advice - stear clear - spend your money on some party sauasages and invite everyone round to play the previous incarnations instead!

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Rating: - I love Buzz games but there is room for improvement
I've always been a massive fan of the buzz games owning all of them (except the junior ones) since they were introduced. Normally i'd give a buzz game five stars as they provide that much entertainment but I feel this version of the game has made some improvements but also some things that affect the game play.

I have to say i've been looking forward to a new music quiz game as it's been quite a long time coming. Any Buzz game has alot going for it with the voice of Jason Donovan as the quiz show host and some well desgined characters that have gone through or been introduced during the series. One thing that could have helped this game is maybe introducing a few new characters as it's always fun to see what there like.

In comparison to the first music game released about 3-4years ago the quality of the music is much better. This is in that some of the original songs are used on the game rather than some difficult to make out instrumental covers on the original. The introduction of music videos (which have been used on subsequent buzz games) is another strength of this game over the original Buzz game.

One of the major things with the game is that the questions and answer options are in quite a small font (I don't have any sught problems but it is a real struggle). The questions are squashed into a third of the screen space which seems to have been partly done to show new animations of the characters dancing along to the music (which is pretty funny). But even though the new animations are a nice introduction I could have been a useful setting on the game to have an option of larger questions fonts.

The problems with the question font sizes isn't helped by some of the questions being a bit wordy. For example `this song was on a number one album released in 2006, what was the albums name?' The problem with some of the wordy questions are that by the time you've read the small font writing the time has run out before choosing an answer option.

Obviously my review is based on making comparisons with the previous Buzz games which are well worth a purchase. Don't feel that the game is all bad the actual rounds themselves are really good which includes the final round which is much better than the `final countdown' round on more recent Buzz games. Overall If you are experienced Buzz player you may have a few disappointments but if you've never seen the format before I'm sure you'll enjoy it.