Buzz! Junior: RoboJam - Solus (PS2)

Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam takes you into a futuristic world where cheeky robots dodge missiles on a firing range, dance with a giant alien octopus and try to make the grade as crash-test dummies. Up to four players can grab a buzzer and battle it out in Robot Academy a contest of 25 whole games in which players compete for points in the form of nuts. Collect the most nuts overall and you`ll carry off the Robot of the Month award. It`s a high-octane, high-value formula for excitement.
A whole new galaxy of Buzz! Junior fun: buzz your way through a brave new world of teleporters, lava lakes, black holes, rusty conveyor belts and bad-tempered robot chefs.

Don`t have four players? Don`t sweat it Buzz! Junior: RoboJam comes with all-new SmartBot artificial intelligence. Your PlayStation 2 will make up the numbers if you`re short. Even if you`re playing on your own, you can still enjoy the full complement of players to battle against.

It`s a sociable experience - players interact positively while tackling hilarious tasks, making Buzz! Junior: RoboJam a game that parents can feel good about buying.

And do you know what? It`s so easy even Mum and Dad can play.

• 1-4 player buzzer-bashing fun
• 25 brand new games with ten specially-created Team Challenges: kids will come back for more time and time again
• A brand-new world, light years away from Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party - but the same awesome Buzz! Junior style of play that kids love
• Build Your Own Robot feature: players can customise the colourful boy/girl robots to suit their own personalities
• Forthcoming releases in the Buzz! Junior series make the Buzz! controllers a great investment
• Great for kids but the adults won`t be able to resist getting involved
• Requires Buzz! Buzzers to play

As part of the PlayStation 2’s holy trinity of casual gamer friendly franchises, which also includes EyeToy and SingStar, Buzz! is one of those rare cases where being a one trick pony is exactly what makes it so appealing. The initial games were simple interactive quiz games, whose big gimmick was that they came with a set of special game show buzzer controllers instead of relying on the traditional DualShock controller. The Buzz! Junior games though are a slightly different affair – you still use the simple five button buzzers, but to play mini-games not answer questions.

As a sequel to Jungle Party this actually does pretty well, with a much more consistent range of mini-games than the original. There’s no separate single player mode any more though, with computer controlled opponents simply filling in the gaps. There’s also not much of a plot either, as you simply compete with other primary coloured robots at the Robot Academy. Thankfully this doesn’t involve a two hour maths exam, but instead mini-games like rhythm action variant Octo Beat, hammer throwing (but with robots), Whack-A-Mole with aliens, and cybernetic basketball.

Few of the mini-games are genuinely original, and there are only twenty-five, but they are at least all entertaining. The only caveat to all this is that, unlike things like Mario Party, this is strictly for very young children. No one with an age in double digits is going to tolerate it for very long – but then that’s largely the point, since so few games are aimed at very young kids nowadays. Particularly if you’ve already got the buzzer controllers from a previous game (or aim to use them again) this is actually quite an effective form of interactive child quietener.
Harrison Dent