Buzz! The Sports Quiz Hands-On

Sony's Buzz! created a new genre of game show-based video games, and thanks to its innovative controllers and playful presentation, the series is now in its third iteration. With themed packages based on music and general knowledge, it's not surprising that sports is the next genre to be tackled.

The game's developer, Brighton-based Kuju, has been in charge of this latest Buzz! and applied the sports concept to every part of the game. Most importantly, it has created six new rounds to add to the old favourites, including risk, estimation, spin, world of sport, finish line, and expert. The new rounds add more variety in terms of visual representation as well. For example, the world of sport round sends your character around the globe answering questions specific to each region, while the game's finale has your avatar running on a treadmill and advancing only when you answer correctly. While there are certainly a lot of changes for Buzz! The Sports Quiz, the exuberant style of presentation isn't one of them. Jason Donovan reprises his role as the show's host, chipping in regular put-downs and even doing the occasional dance routine. If you watch closely offscreen, you'll see him showing off, performing the New Zealand rugby team's Haka routine, or even doing one-handed press-ups.

Thankfully, the game also retains the features introduced by The BIG Quiz, most notably eight-player support and questions based on videos and images. The total number of questions in The Sports Quiz comes to about 5,500, with 600 images and 150 video clips also stored on the DVD. While the images were repeated quite frequently in our play test, we didn't see any duplication of the questions during this time.

Buzz! The Sports Quiz is split into single-player, multiplayer, and team game modes. The single-player option is arguably less exciting than playing with friends, and with only two rounds, games are over in a matter of minutes. Having said that, this mode's hot-seat round is an enjoyable take on The Weakest Link, where a string of correct answers will provide you with more points to place in your bank than a series of one-offs. Therefore, the multiplayer mode is the main attraction of Buzz! and provides plenty of options to try out with friends. You can choose to set up your game with easy or difficult questions, as well as making it a short, medium, or long experience. The length determines how many rounds you'll play, with each step up increasing playing time by about 10 minutes. It's worth noting that while the short and medium games can be pretty good fun, the 40 minutes or more it can take to complete a long game will interest only the most diehard sports fans. Thankfully, you can also create a custom game to focus only on the rounds you care to play.

The game's multiplayer mode supports up to eight people, although you'll need to have two sets of controllers hooked up to the console. Each player chooses an in-game avatar, many of which have appeared in previous Buzz! games, in addition to a sports-themed buzzer noise (such as a Formula One car or a horse).

A few bonus modes should keep you occupied once you've played through the main game a few times. In quiz master, one person takes the Dual Shock 2 controller and poses verbal questions to contestants holding a buzzer. If that person answers the question correctly, the quiz master confirms this by pressing the triangle button; if they answer incorrectly, the quiz master presses the X. The question is then opened up to everyone else until anybody answering correctly is awarded 500 points. Quiz master doesn't do much apart from keeping track of the scores, and unless you have an immense sporting knowledge, you'll probably need to bring along a prepared set of questions.

The other bonus mode is the quick fire quiz, in which players compete with each other over 10 to 100 questions. The person who answers correctly in the quickest time earns the most points, but there are no penalties for a wrong answer. Finally, a demo of Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party is also included, where up to four people can play four minigames from Sony's new children's title.

The breadth and variety of questions in Buzz! The Sports Quiz mean that even the biggest sports fan is bound to be stumped sometimes. The questions cover about 50 different sports from around the world and range from 1960's Olympic venues right up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals. While the Buzz! format is becoming increasingly familiar, Kuju has worked hard to create new game modes, and the number of questions will certainly keep sports fans busy for a while. The Sports Quiz is set to launch this Christmas at a budget price for existing Buzz! owners, with the full price release also containing four buzzers.