Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Buzz! Master Quiz is the PSP incarnation of the popular casual trivia game. Test your pop culture and general knowledge with some questions that will give your mind a workout.

What's Hot
The concept is simple and focused, you have to answer a slew of questions accurately and quickly from a variety of topics. While it might sound dull, the game keeps a fast pace and quickly changes modes to keep you on your mental toes. In addition to standard beat the buzzer type modes, there are six modes created specifically for the PSP. They include unscrambling pictures, getting questions right to uncover puzzle pieces and Master Quiz makes use of the forgotten "Game Share" mode that PSP games can use.

Master Quiz has some top notch presentation value for a quiz game. The screens are bright and colorful and move quickly as you fire through questions. There questions aren't limited to text as there are picture and video questions to round out the game's question base to keep you guessing.

The game will show its value when you play with friends. Passing the PSP like a hot potato is sure to make the owner of the system nervous and not because it might drop but because they might lose. Master Quiz is the definition of a party game that fits snug into the casual game market while still being fun for the core gamers as there are questions that cater to all groups.



What's Not
For solo play, there isn't the same level of fun. In fact, the fun isn't in the same ballpark. The way the game is designed, you need to be a Cliff Claven to find the singleplayer compelling to play more than once through.

The other thing sadly missing from Master Quiz is that online play is not available. It would seem like a perfect fit that you could have a portable party anywhere there is a Wi-Fi hotspot. Without it, the game centers more around people being available to play in person. With that, if you pass the PSP around, if you are not answering the question, you'll need to have some other sort of entertainment because sitting around waiting for your turn on a portable machine isn't ideal.

Final Word
Master Quiz is a fun party game. Taking a game like this and fitting it to the PSP was a great idea but some of the kinks were not worked. Like waiting around without something to keep you engaged with the questions as others answer questions. The trivia well could have run deeper but you won't find another portable party quite like Master Quiz.