While the United States enjoys a strong gaming industry, Europe is usually the third wheel in the timeline of video game production. A large quantity of video games are developed in Japan, translated to English to ship to the United States, and then they’re translated into several more languages for a European release. If a game doesn’t reach a level of popularity in the States, the chances of it being augmented for shipment in Europe is close to nil. Still, there are exceptions to every rule – Europe took the bullet for us when it came to the horrendous Altered Beast remake, and it also created a fantastic trivia series by the name of Buzz! Several titles have since flown across the pond to America, so let’s take a look at some of the latest.

Buzz! Mega Quiz

This is the ultimate collection of trivia topics, if the title doesn’t tip you off. The ultimate selection of questions for any group of gamers that would rather not delve into obscure music or entertainment, Mega Quiz instead rewards he who is somewhat knowledgeable in random topics, from sports to technology to geography to history, among many others.

For $40 you can get Mega Quiz with four special "Buzzer" controllers, which feature one big red button and four colored ones. You can get a second set and double the amount of players. Players get to choose from an assortment of characters and color swaps, and each avatar has their own sayings and quirks. The only complaint is that there are few question rounds that require you to buzz in before answering. Instead, most of the time everyone gets to answer, and the contender that answers the fastest gets more money than the others – the big red button will be used rarely. Each round has its own gimmick, like the Globetrotter round that allows the player to choose what country the next question will be about. Pie Fight! Allows the first to answer a question correctly to throw a pie at an opponent and knock them out of the round.

In the end, there is the usual "no matter how far behind, you can still win" final round. The money is turned into a timer – correct answers add to and stop the timer, wrong answers cut the time down considerably, and the timer runs until a question is answered. So while those in the lead will have an advantage, the game truly isn’t over until everyone is knocked out. There is even a snippet of Europe’s "Final Countdown," which is played when the round is being introduced!

Overall, the game does exactly what it sets out to do: be a fun party game. The solo experience is dull and not really what Mega Quiz should be bought for – all of the Buzz! Games should be acquired for multiplayer sessions, in fact. If there are no big music, movie, or sports fanatics in the group, then Mega Quiz should handle everyone’s interests.

Overall Score: 8 out of 10

Buzz! Hollywood Quiz

If a film buff wants to prove his or her knowledge to a group of friends, Buzz! Hollywood Quiz should fulfill those needs. While Sony could have rested on their laurels and just pumped out a new question set, they instead added new characters to choose from and new audio quips from the host (he likes to quote movies in this one, naturally).

There are a few things that hold Hollywood Quiz back, though. For one, the age is beginning to show in the Playstation 2’s graphics, as the characters and text are very jaggy. Also, since the game is on a DVD and not one of the larger discs being used by current generation’s systems, gamers will only see very short bits of movies instead of the full clips they can watch in an Xbox 360 title like Scene It?

Overall Score: 7 out of 10

Buzz! Junior: Robojam

After a night full of trivia, someone could easily be ready to take a load off the knowledge section of their brain and instead focus on the reactionary area. Robojam is a Buzz! title that features no trivia questions but instead uses the unique Buzz! controller for two dozen minigames. As the name suggests, it features robots pitted against one another. Many of the games will ask a player to press one of the colored buttons when that color appears on the screen. Whoever pushes it first gets a point or gets to punch another robot.

Robojam is made for kids, but even they will be bored after a few competitions. The games are very similar in play style, and in some cases the same game with different graphics. While it isn’t very deep in terms of gameplay, Robojam is another good use for the Buzz! controllers if you already have them from one of the trivia titles.

Overall Score: 6 out of 10

Review by Casey Johnson
Starpulse.com Community Director, Staff Writer