Based around the premise that inside all of us is an unquenchable desire to appear on a quiz show, Buzz! is in fact an opportunity to enter into surprisingly heated quiz battles with multiple friends/family members/enemies, with the help of some superbly designed, light-up buzzer peripherals. The game is hosted by stylised Antipodean cartoon gameshow host Buzz, who is arrogant, cocksure and incredibly irritating. Looking and acting like a cross between Shane Warne and Terrance & Philip, it is only when the red mist has cleared that you realise he is actually voiced by Jason Donovan, which makes him even more smackable. Joining Buzz is his assistant Rose, who is as leggy, attractive and charming as a pixellated videogame caricature can be (i.e. not very). Unfathomably, the abhorrent hosts actually enhance the enjoyment of the games, as the hatred and abuse directed at the screen becomes part and parcel of the gameplay. When you sit back and conclude that you actually begrudgingly respect Le Donovan and that it isn't 1989 any more, it is fair to say that the characterisation he lends to the Buzz role is well-realised and the lad is a class act. Annoying though he can be at times, some of the dialogue, particularly during the front end or in the credits that roll when you finish a game, is knowingly saucy and chucklesome. You would still plant one on Buzz if you could, mind...

The human players are able to choose from a number of on-screen avatars to represent them during the quiz. These consist entirely of horrible, stereotyped comedy misfires, such as an overweight Elvis impersonator, a Bob Marley-a-like Rastafarian, and a Scally concoction of Gallagher/Brown/Ashcroft. Thankfully, the buzzer peripheral itself makes up for the lack of charm in the contestant characters. With a big ol' red buzzer button, and four satisfyingly clicky coloured buttons, this is a multiplayer USB triumph, even if the leads do get tangled up a little too easily. The game also offers a selection of different sounds that can be used to signify a buzzer press, such as a quacking duck, air horn, or a whinnying horse sound. Funny sounds never fail to amuse in life generally, and here is no different.

Once you have entered a rude name, selected your favoured character and wacky noise, and cracked open a lager, the quiz can begin. A series of less than inspiring rounds are played through in turn, with all television show bases covered. Fastest finger, rounds where you can steal points from others and a nervy affair with a ticking bomb are all present and correct. In the Music Quiz, the questions revolve around moody song clips, none of which are from the actual songs, and some of which sound radically different from the originals. This smacks of cheapness and gives the game a budget quiz DVD feel, particularly when compared to the world-class official song-dom of SingStar. With tension levels high, the unpredictable song renditions can lead to mistakes and ill feeling; with pride and points at stake in front of your missus and her mates, it is soul destroying when you wrongly buzz one in as an Ozzy Osbourne number when it is in fact “I Wanna Sex You Up”. If you disengage serious quiz mode, and set criticisms aside, these at-times hopeless music snippets unwittingly provide plenty of entertainment. Think of a comedy appeal reminiscent of Vic Reeves doing his club singer lark, and you will get the picture.

The Big Quiz, an add-on available with or without the buzzers, and with an eight player mode available, was wheeled out earlier this year. This time general knowledge is order of the day, but unlike The Music Quiz, where you could select a category of music to suit the players (albeit simply older music, newer music, or a mixed bag), it is a case of taking whatever is thrown at you. The game length cannot be varied here either, meaning that plays are regimented and always last for around a quarter of an hour. Annoyingly, you cannot quit once you have started a game, unless you turn off the console and start all over again. Content-wise the quiz mixes questions, music clips and pictures, the latter of which is incredibly frustrating, as often the pictures can be unidentifiably small or bear a tenuous link to the question itself. The picture questions are also infuriating in another respect in that the answers are not revealed afterwards. This can mean that if you are simply not able to identify the person/object/place/whatever from the shot, then you probably never will.

Perhaps the biggest problem of all with the two Buzz games is an inexcusable amount of repetition. Players will find questions being repeated within two or three plays if they are unlucky, and particularly in the case of the Music instalment, crap music clips can be easily memorised by their rubbishness. Considering how much information can be pressed into a PS2 disc, you would have thought that the question database could have been doubled or even tripled. Maybe the developers got fed up with commissioning God-awful cover versions of MOR songs, or researching pictures on the interweb that they could use safely without infringing copyright.

So, what we have is a fundamentally poor couple of quiz games, which share the same saving graces – a top-notch buzz controller, and oodles of appeal to the post-pub and family gaming set. The slightly superior Music Quiz takes on a new meaning when facing off against three friends, particularly if you all fancy yourself as a bit of a muso. There is nothing more satisfying than Passing The Bomb to your know-it-all rival, or seeing someone answer horrifyingly wrongly and then blame it on not being able to make out the colour of the buttons. As multiplayer quizzes go, Buzz is about the best currently available. If anything, it will provide you with plenty of laughter (and tears), and is something you can do with non-gamesplaying mates, who you can guarantee will be impressed with the shiny wee buzzer with its entrancing, mystical red flashing light. What else is there quiz-wise on yer PS2? Repulsive harpy Anne Robinson has tried and failed with the synapse-shatteringly bad console Weakest Link tie-in, with ghoulish, lifelike characters that make those in Buzz seem infinitely likeable in comparison. And the less said about the many appearances of the lizard-like Tarrant, the better.

In a theme concurrent with much of Sony’s “Fire It Up” campaign, Buzz is best enjoyed en masse, preferably with the addition of alcohol or for those who don't dabble in such illicit substances, something with lots of E Numbers in it. Which I guess is exactly what SCEE intended. As a novelty title best experienced in moderation, Buzz! is extremely enjoyable. Just don't go playing it too often to keep things competitive and fresh, as you will soon discover that over-familiarity rears its ugly head, and some of the basic flaws become overly apparent.