Buzz! Junior – RoboJam
Not what the school board is recommending
Tags: Buzz - Quiz Game Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 25th, 2008
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Buzz - Quiz Game (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Party | No | ||
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I had the hardest time writing my review of Buzz! Junior – RoboJam not because the game was bad and I was having trouble articulating why, but because the game isn’t what it should be. What is it? A collection of minigames that uses the Buzz controllers. There is no reason for this other than to simply justify having these controllers.
What should the game be? It should be a quiz game much like the versions for adults, only with questions that would be more age appropriate. What do we get? A mini-game collection. How many of those do we have? Too many. How many quiz games specifically for kids do we have? None.
Unfortunately, that’s not my only issue with the game. The presentation irritates me as well. Just because the game is a collection of mini-games it doesn’t mean that the whole attitude of the game needs to be juvenile. It almost feels as if the developers were forcing a game that doesn’t necessarily need to be oriented towards children that way. Yes, the argument can be made that this is a “family style” party game, but then why put it under the Buzz banner?
 |
If this were a kids collection of mini-games, a juvenile party game simply titled RoboJam that could be played with the Buzz controllers optionally, then I don’t think I would have as much of a problem with the game as I do. It isn’t that hard to come up with a series of questions that are age appropriate. As a matter of fact, there could be a whole line of educationally appropriate games in the Buzz! Junior lineup. Think about it – Buzz! Junior Learning To Read, Buzz! Junior 4th Through 6th Grades (questions about geography, basic science, math, spelling) Buzz! Junior High School Edition (with harder questions in a greater variety of subjects) or even Buzz! Junior SAT Prep.
Rather than (and here is the word that I am having trouble with) pandering (and I know that’s not quite right, but I’ll stick with it) to kids base desire, and simply putting out another game that misuses the brand, I would like to see Sony release a game takes the notion of what the regular Buzz! games are about, and simply gears them towards a younger audience. There isn’t a need to artificially create a kid’s environment for a quiz game, the regular Buzz! games are juvenile enough. Just make the questions appropriate and make it available and see what happens.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + A fun collection of mini-games | 4.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Do we need another collection of mini-games? - Where are the quiz bits from the rest of the Buzz! franchise? |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Sony - I challenge you to make a proper Buzz! Junior game. | |
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Tags: Buzz - Quiz Game
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 25th, 2008 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
