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Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam
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Graphics & Sound:
Back in October, the first Buzz! Junior game, Jungle Party was released. You might have read my review on it then. Well now, the Buzz! folks have been kind enough to provide us with a second one, Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam.
The graphics in Robo Jam are the same cartoon style as Jungle Party except this time, instead of all the games being set in a jungle, they're set in a futuristic scene with metal and robots everywhere. Your characters are robots now. They're very cute little robots, which remind me of the little helper droids in some of the Ratchet and Clank games. You get your choice of an Orange, Blue, Yellow, or Green robot. If you decide to play a Standard Game instead of a Quick Game, you will be able to swap out your robot's head and body so you can decide how you want to look.
The robot that's giving you instructions on what to do and when to do them sounds very much like a drill sergeant to me. All your game sounds are very futuristic and sound like machines. They did a really good job matching the sounds and graphics to the robot theme of the game. |
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Gameplay:
Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam gives you a few different options to play. From the Main Menu, you can choose Play Game to just jump in and go. You'll be given the choice of Quick Game or Standard Game. Quick Game just starts you right on with the default names and you play 5 rounds. In Standard Game, you'll then be given the choice of Short, Medium, Long, or Marathon Games. Short Game is 5 rounds, Medium is 10 rounds, Long is 15 rounds, and Marathon lets you play all 24 of the mini-games.
After you choose what length game you want, then you'll choose your character. Next, you get to choose the intelligence level of your opponents (Easy, Medium, or Hard). Next, you'll get to enter your name, and then customize your robot. The different heads and bodies are quite adorable, so look through all the combinations and create your perfect robot.
Each round is a mini-game. There are 24 total mini-games to play and all of them are unlocked from the beginning, so there's no worry about not being able to play your favorite from the beginning. In fact, you can choose Custom Game and decide which of the games you want to play. If you don't like one, you don't ever have to play it. You can make as long or as short of a game as you want with Custom game. You can then save your Custom Game and play it as much as you like.
If you just want to work on one particular game, you can choose Practice from the Main Menu and play whichever mini-game you want to. To change any of the game options, choose Options. You also view your high scores from there.
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Difficulty:
We found Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam to be easier than its predecessor. Jungle Party was obviously meant for kids, but the games were fun for adults too. Robo Jam seems like it is geared towards an even younger group. While that doesn't necessarily mean it's not fun for adults to play, this one just isn't as much fun for adults as the last one.
There will always be four players in your game. If you're playing alone, you'll just have 3 computer players to play against. If you choose Standard Game, you'll be given the option of Easy, Medium, or Hard. Easy is quite simple to beat the computer at, even for beginners. Actually we didn't find Hard to be very challenging, except on a few games.
Since you can play with up to 4 people total though, you can make the game as easy or as difficult as you want it to be, just choose your opponents wisely. If you don't want to play against the computer, you can always just tell it you've got 4 players and just never actually play with that buzzer. It might make some of the games a little boring, but you won't lose (I hope not at least!). |
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Game Mechanics:
The mechanics of Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam are very easy to play. The entire game is played using the Buzz! buzzers. A majority of the games only require you to push the big red button on top. For the ones that do require all four buttons (and possibly the red one on top), it is explained very clearly before the mini-game what you're supposed to do. The Buzz! buzzers are quite durable too. I'm still using the ones I got in October now for all 4 Buzz! games and even though they've been dropped, thrown, and shut in a recliner, they're scratched, but still work perfectly fine. That's very impressive for controllers, if you ask me. Also, they work great with USB extension cables to give you however much extra room you need.
If at any point you need to pause the game, you're supposed to be able to do so by pressing and holding the blue button, the orange one, the green one, and the yellow one all together while you're playing a mini-game. Unfortunately it might have an unintended consequence when you press the first one, but being able to pause the game when you need to is quite nice, especially when you're playing a long or marathon game. I never could get it to pause, though.
With so many mini-game games on the market right now, it's hard to see why you should get a new one. Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam stands out simply because you play it with the buzzers. Given the buzzers' ease of use, Robo Jam (and Jungle Party) are perfect for younger children to play without worrying about all the extra buttons on a controller. Plus, they're entertaining enough for older kids to be able to play with them. If you're trying to entertain teens or adults, you probably won't get much out of it. However, if you're looking for family fun, then Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam is the game for you! |
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
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