Hands-on: Buzz! Master Quiz

It's a rather difficult challenge to write hands-on impressions for a game like Buzz! Master Quiz. Sitting all lonesome on a table at Sony's E3 booth, it went by unnoticed by many that simply passed it by. Perhaps the lack of enthusiasm comes from this simple fact: Buzz! Master Quiz can be summed up rather succinctly -- a portable version of the popular quiz franchise, Buzz!

Progression through the game is rather simple. Simply partake in a variety of themed challenges. Perform well on one, and you'll earn a medal which can help unlock other challenges. Considering the quiz select screen fits on one menu, we're a bit concerned that the amount of content on the disc will be on the light side. With thousands of questions programmed in, we're certain these concerns are unwarranted.

Buzz! Master Quiz doesn't need to push the PSP hardware in any way, and that's exactly what we're getting with this simple, easy to look at game. At the very least, the presentation appears to have all the trimmings of its PS2 brethren.

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And yes, for those that are wondering, there are trophies in the game. You can access these trophies by pressing Square at the main menu. However, these trophies don't appear to be integrated into the OS in any way. The tasks needed to unlock the trophies are similar to other console's achievements: if you get a certain number of gold medals, for example, you may unlock a trophy. The trophy screen told us exactly what was needed to unlock them. These trophies may transfer to the PSN, but in its current implementation, it looks to be there just for fun. Take that as you will. (We have a feeling including PSN trophies will increase sales of Buzz! quite significantly.)

For anyone that's played a Buzz! game before, Master Quiz should come as a familiar experience. While there are multiplayer options, for many players the PSP is largely a solo experience played while on the go. Considering Buzz! is best played with a large group of people, we're unsure how successful Master Quiz will be when it debuts on PSP later this year.