Buzz Junior – Robo Jam - Review

Buzz Junior – Robo Jam
Ages: Everyone

Don't let the "Junior" in the title mislead you. This is a fun game for everyone. Ten different challenges – all unique, all have you manipulating your robot by the colored buttons on the Buzz Buzzer. Playing a game with only 5 options for control takes some getting used to, such as pressing and holding all the buttons to pause the game, or using blue for up, green for left, orange for down and yellow for right. The red button returns to the options menu and acts as a confirm button. As you probably figured out by now –this is not a game for the color-blind.

The games are clever enough to occasionally want a first time play through to familiarize yourself about what's what. The Coach guide in the game has a great gruff voice – brooks no nonsense but is generous in praise and encouragement.

The challenge titles prepare you for what is to come; Basket Eye-Ball involves timing shots so that eyeballs appear in the robot heads, Pillow Fight, lights out, robots mix it up, lights on – smack the right colored robot. Other games have robots matching, shooting whacking aliens, teleporting and jumping. They are all too clever by a half. To make it even nicer – you can pick only the games you want to play by creating and saving a custom game set.

The humor is almost too good for kids. The screen/buzzer controls have been worked out but still no option for controlling music volume which drowned out some of the amusing comments. You can play from one to four players. For the single player, the computer will play the other three robots and the computer is no slouch. I liked not naming the robots and letting them take the color name. That way it felt more personal when the Coach said, "Good show orange" or "Get with it orange".

The game requires the use of the Buzz Buzzer so buy the first game with the buzzers bundled with it and thereafter you can just buy the standalone game.


Fun Factor: Amusing and inventive games
Female Factor: Robots have no gender
Player Friendly: Automatic saves

Reviewed by: Editor - 04/08

  • Buzz Junior – Robo Jam
  • © Sony Entertainment Network
  • Platform(s): PS2
  • To Order: PS2 http://www.amazon.com/ $29.99