The Buzz! series finally makes its debut on the PlayStation Portable with Master Quiz. It’s a rather obvious move, considering that Buzz! has been one of Sony’s biggest franchises, especially in Europe, and was one of the cornerstones of the PS2’s highly successful campaign to capture the casual market during the previous console generation. It is, however, also a somewhat surprising move. Buzz! has always been first and foremost a social game, designed to be played by a group of friends or family members in front of the TV. With its snazzy presentation, great quiz design and buzzer controllers, it’s been offering players the closest possible experience to participating in a game show short of actually going on TV.

The PSP has certain obvious limitations here: a small LCD screen that’s not really suitable for viewing by more than one person at a time, and no portable equivalent of a buzzer controller. Clearly the existing Buzz! formula would not work in the portable format, and the developers have had to take quite a few liberties with the design. The result is that Master Quiz offers a rather unique interpretation of the franchise’s strengths, but doesn’t offer the same experience.

As a PSP game, Master Quiz is more focussed on providing an engaging single player experience than a multiplayer one. The core of the game is the Solo Quiz Challenge, a more or less linear series of fifteen quizzes that players progress through. With both established and new quiz types, the experience is quite diverse and boredom doesn’t ever set in. As with its main console brethren, Master Quiz offers consistently excellent quiz design, with virtually every quiz being built on a fresh and more enjoyable alternative to simply answering straightforward questions.

Each quiz is not limited to a specific handful of questions. Master Quiz comes with a total of 3000 questions, rivalling the content base of that of the main console games. In each specific quiz in the solo challenge, the quiz type and sometimes the topic will remain constant throughout attempts, but the actual questions will change every time. While some question repetition will inevitably set in after an hour or so, it’s infrequent enough to not be a significant concern.

Question content needs to be commended as well. The questions have been drawn from a wide range of topics, with everything from geography and history right through to recent television and sports. The content is also very recent and up-to-date, with some even covering events from late 2008. Some questions are enhanced with pictures or video clips that are consistently of a high quality.

Major trivia fans who end up spending substantial amounts of time with the game will begin to encounter ever-increasing question repetition after a while though, and this can obviously diminish the game’s lasting appeal and replay value. Hopefully SCEE will counter this by releasing add-on packs of new questions or quiz types as they have with the PS3’s Buzz! game.

Part of the single player campaign’s charm is the use of medals and trophies. In each quiz, players can obtain either a bronze, silver or gold medal, depending on their performance. Pushing oneself to try for gold on every quiz quickly becomes a compulsion, and it’s a great way of gauging and improving one’s progress as well. In addition to that, there is a set of trophies that apply to the whole game, awarded for specific achievements such as answering a certain number of questions in a row, or answering a question quickly enough. It’s quite addictive, and trivia buffs will find themselves spending hours trying to unlock every trophy.

The presentation is one of the game’s weaker aspects. While it’s crisp and colourful, it doesn’t succeed in really conveying the sense of participating in a game show, feeling more like the player is playing a web-based quiz game. It’s unfortunate that the developers couldn’t have been more creative in this regard, as Master Quiz subsequently loses out on one of the series’ biggest strengths.

The single player campaign itself could have also benefited from a more creative approach. During the solo challenge, players simply select a quiz from a menu, but a more involving campaign that somehow ties the different quizzes together in a more meaningful way would certainly have been welcome.

Master Quiz offers several multiplayer options. A “fastest fingers” competitive mode for up to six players is available, and provides the game’s closest approximation to the authentic Buzz! experience. This does, however, require each player to have their own PSP (although game sharing from one copy of the game is supported), so most players will find that they very rarely make use of this option due to the impracticalities.

A multiplayer mode is available, again for up to six players, that allows one PSP to be used and passed on from one player to another. While this is the most practical multiplayer option, it comes nowhere near offering the engaging social experience that the main console games do. At any time only one player can see what is going on in the game, resulting in players taking turns to play, rather than playing together. It’s an interesting option for passing the time with a group of friends, but it’s not a whole lot of fun. The last multiplayer mode allows one player to operate the PSP and serve as the quiz master, asking questions to the participants, but this is pretty pointless.

Buzz! Master Quiz is an interesting and engaging option for trivia fans. While it doesn’t equal the experience of the main console entries, it does offer an experience more enjoyable than doing a trivia quiz in a book or on the Web. For multiplayer trivia fun, gamers are definitely far better off with the PS2 or PS3 instalments, but fans of trivia games in general will find Master Quiz to offer a surprisingly enjoyable way to pass the time.

Pros: Great quiz design; good question content; medals and trophies provide incentive to keep playing.

Cons: Not a great social experience; doesn’t really feel like a game show.

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