Buzz! Master Quiz PSP Review

Buzz! Master Quiz, a $20 PSP game based on Sony's quiz franchise, is a multiple-choice trivia show. You're given four choices to a text-based or picture question that appears on the screen. Your job is to get the correct answer as quickly as possible or risk losing mega-points. If you score the right answer quickly enough, you'll add to your total and get on the fast track to becoming the Buzz-worthy champion.

There are two ways to play Buzz! Master Quiz, either by yourself or with multiple players. Obviously, playing with others is a better option. There are three multiplayer games in all. Two of them consist of passing around a PSP and inputting answers to questions and seeing who scored the most points. The third is done through hooking up multiple PSP units using a copy of the game, although it's frustrating. Sometimes answers are read wrong, and other times they take forever to get put in. You're better off sticking with pass-around, although the nature of the game remains relatively unchanged.

In single-player mode, you pick an avatar to represent your character and answer questions presented by the big-mouthed host, who we swear is a distant cousin of Guy Smiley from Sesame Street. He's charming enough for his hosting duties, but he's all you get in the game's transition to PSP. The game show set is gone, the beautiful co-host is a no-show and you can't even see your fellow contestants. All you get is a board with the host's face and your questions.

Over 2,000 questions are available, separated into categories and providing a certain degree of challenge. However, you'll see repeates only 30 minutes into the game. We can understand if a trivia game has an occasional repeat question every now and then after a few weeks of play, but a half hour? Furthermore, there's no word if the game will get any downloadable question packs like the PS3 version.

Sony did the right thing pricing the game at $20, and those who admire trivia, either by themselves or with the kids, will probably get their fill of it. That said, a slicker presentation, better multiplayer, more question variety and the ability to download question packs for a small fee could've made this the next great game show. Instead, all this one earns is the gong.