DVDfever.co.uk - Buzz! Brainbender Sony PSP reviewDVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of Blu-rays, DVDs, Games, CDs, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more
There are many Buzz! titles available, but this one is a PSP exclusive
Buzz! Brainbender features various tests of Observation, Memory, Analysis and Calculation - each of them
with four tests available to complete. The main part of this title will test you on them at random, although the first
time I completed a set of tests it told me I had the mental capacity of a remote control toy :)
The tests include the following: Compare amounts of items onscreen; identify the silhouttes from the objects that appear
compared to the shapes you can see; Power Struggle - "which vehicle has most in the tanks", i.e. which is the strongest
one that is pulling more weight; Sound Chain - remember the chain of sounds from various animals (this last one is very
much like a game of 'Simon').
A more complex one was to fill in the missing part of the picture when you get various mathematical shapes crossing over
each other such as circles and triangles.
You get positive noises from the Buzz guy when you do well, and he'll take the piss when you don't, so neither helps,
really.
The other sections of this title are:
Brain Battle: Two or more players get to try the above tests at random.
Challenge: Once you've done training on each type of test, eg. the Observation Streak Challenge, where you have
to complete 20 hard Pattern Match puzzles and get the longest and quickest streak of correct answers possible without
the clock being against you; Observation Survival Challenge, where you start with 20 seconds and have to solve as
many puzzles where you match shapes to silhouettes as possible, answering quickly to gain extra time; and Observation
Endurance Challenge, where you endure all the observation games in a 4-minute marathon.
Boffin Awards: Just a screen showing you which levels you've completed and how well you've done in them.
Overall, this is fun for a while but longevity depends on how you feel about this sort-of title. Plus, the phrases the
Buzz guy comes out with are so repetitive and said with the same pseudo-enthusiasm as Richard Hammond on Total Wipeout.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
You get positive noises from the Buzz guy when you do well, and he'll take the piss when you don't, so neither helps,
really.
