The Day My Husband Went Splat : Buzz Jr Jungle Party Playstation 2

When I was told that we were getting a copy of BUZZ JR JUNGLE PARTY for PLAYSTATION 2, I was interested, but not over excited.

Back in the day when internet was more of a specialty than a household past time, I used to beta test games and software for three different companies. Most of them were games.

My family used to spend many a day on the computer playing games together and seeing if we could solve adventures- like Myst, King's Quest, Tex Murphy, Sherlock Holmes- well, you get the idea.

Those days have long gone and I have found myself staring longingly at the games I have yet to play and also at those which I would love to play again, but that is about as far as it gets many times.

It just so happened to be over Christmas break when for the first time in a long time, my husband, son, and daughter and I were all home for an entire WEEK!

Wow, it has been so long since that happened, that we were in heaven.

That is when BUZZ JR JUNGLE PARTY GAME arrived.


WHAT IS THIS GAME LIKE?

Well, to those of you who live on Playstation, I imagine that this will not be as interesting to you as it is to me.

BUZZ JR JUNGLE PARTY comes with four controllers all connected by a single wire where they conjunction together that plugs into the Playstation.

The controller has four colors on it and a huge red button that lights up when you can press it or when the instructions are indicating something to you about the button.

Each person's button is sensitive to touch so if the game is progressing from screen to screen in set up, anyone can press and it will take the command.

If your family is equally respectful it can be fun, but if you have a control freak who loves to be first at pressing a button, that could mean some stress.


GAME SET UP

You have the option to play
MULTI PLAYER
SINGLE PLAYER
PRACTICE MODE


Here is the OPTION SCREEN:

Save/Load
Screen
Alighment
Widescreen on/off
Play Intro
View Leader Bar (who holds what scores so far)


ONCE YOU HAVE PICKED A DIRECTION TO GO

Options are:
MARATHON (goes on indefinitely)
SINGLE PLAYER
SHORT GAME (8 games chosen by Playstation)
MEDIUM GAME (10 games chosen by Playstation)
LONG GAME (12 games?- I will edit to correct if needed)


Then you have to choose:

QUICK START (by pass all of the set up stuff)
STANDARD
CUSTOM ( set up with the games YOU want to play)


WHAT GAMES ARE IN THIS PACKAGE?

My son the game enthusiast says that this game is a lot like Mario Party 3, but I have not played that yet.

I will simply list the games available, and then give a summary afterward as some of the games are the same process as others just in a different context.

The game menu is as follows.

TOTEM POLES
WHACK A SQUIRREL
WHEEL RUNNING
BALLOON BATTLE
BRIDGE OUT
BUBBLE BATH
CARD COUNTING
ELEPHANT BASEBALL
FREE FALL
HIGH VOLTAGE VOTING
ISLAND WAR
JUNGLE HURDLES
KEEP IT UP
LEAPING LILY PADS
LION TAMING
MONKEY BOMB
MONKEY BINGO
MONKEY CATAPAULT
MONKEY SLIDE
ODD ONE OUT
PIMATE PENALTIES
ROCKET RIDERS
SIMIAN SHOOTOUT
SPLAT


WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CHOOSE A GAME TO PLAY?

Once you have chosen the game you want to play, it is a matter of setting up your monkeys. Any amount of people can play, but we always wanted to play with all four of us.

Each monkey can put in up to 8 letters for your name.

Then you have the opportunity to dress your monkey with whatever head you want, a body, and then feet.

There are lots of fun choices for funky looking monkeys. Lots of bright colors and outfits make this delightful.

After you have assigned the monkeys to their identities, you are told what color you are depending on what controller you are holding.

You can save this information, but in our case, we always have to reset it up- perhaps we have not done something right.

At the beginning of the game you choose, the game is explained and each person is given a quick chance to absorb the information. This might be challenging for those not avid gamers or younger gamers, but there is a practice mode you can choose if you want to familiarize yourself with the game.


WHAT ARE THE GAMES LIKE?

I don't want to ruin it by going into great detail about the games individually, so I am going to do a general discussion of the games.

There are a lot of challenging games with all kinds of skill levels.

There is a LOT of color which makes you keep attention- it is very motivating and exciting to look at.

The music is not at all annoying, and it adds greatly to the fun of the game.

The buzzers work very well. Response time is equal on all of them, and at this time no one has complained of theirs not working as well as others.

The games range from skill of shooting things, to knowing when to pull your head out of the lion's mouth. You have to press color buttons to eliminate blocks in a tower on one game, and on the next, you have to hit a color button if you want to be the first to choose a correct answer on something.

What I really love about this collection is that each game calls upon a different skill so each person has chances to win something. The game moves along at a pretty good clip so it might be difficult for people who think carefully about things to get the hang of this at first.

At the end of each game, there is a little celebration with each person getting points, and they are usually in the form of bananas.

A few times in the game, you will see your monkeys dressed in your choices doing crazy antics to celebrate their wins or losses.



HOW APPROPRIATE IS THIS GAME FOR CHILDREN?

Here is what the manufacturer says about this game :

Developed by Magenta Software Ltd, Buzz Jr.™ Jungle Party will captivate the young and casual gamer through over 25 competitive mini-games. Each mini-game offers a variety of fun fast paced gameplay of skill and speed that will appeal to the entire family – from the young to the young at heart. The gameplay experience is enhanced by a unique jungle environment, hilarious characters and solid gameplay for up to 4 players. The Buzzer is cool to use, easy to control and enables the experience and makes it accessible to everyone.

KEY FEATURES

* Multi-player mode delivers rapid-fire gameplay of skill and speed for two to four players.
* Easy accessible pick-up and play gets you right in the action. Just choose your monkey, enter your name and you are ready to test your skills.
* The Buzz buzzers are easy to use for consumers of all ages.
* Funny and engaging characters are enhanced with graphics and animations that are spot-on hilarious.
* Choose from your favorite games to develop short, medium, long or custom tournaments and let your friends compete nose to nose in your favorite mini-games.
* Single-player mode offers a simplified version of multiplayer, enabling gamers to practice skills and earn higher scores.



After playing this game with people from ages 8 to adult, I have to say that there is very little in this game that I did not like.

The only thing that I did not like was Voltage Voting where you have to electrocute a gorilla and I felt that it was too sadistic. It is just a cartoon, I realize that, but I did not like the sadism that it fostered on being really mean to a living being for entertainment.

Other than that, there are some silly things like flatulence of an animal under water, and things like that, but it is handled with a good balance and not Simpsons cartoon style humor.

Other than that, I find that BUZZ JR JUNGLE PARTY is a delightful game for all ages, and it meets the challenge of engaging all ages and skill levels at the same time. As a teacher, I know how difficult that can be to do.


FINAL COMMENTS

This game is well worth the $40 price that it costs in most stores. It is fun, addicting to play- from one end of the family to another. We played this on a PS3 and it worked wonderfully.

It is competitive and challenging without being boring at any level. It fosters fun instead of stress. BUZZ JR, leaves you laughing and having a good time, not scowling at each other because you did not win.

Even though Dad did go splat more than anyone in a few games......


MORE INFORMATION

For more information you can access the official site

http://www.us.playstation.com/Buzz/

I have seen this game at Best Buy, Amazon.com, Gamestop, and several other stores that carry software.

It is one of the best games- computer or PS2- that I have seen in many years.