''Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam'' is a 2007 family game for the

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

, and is the second game in the Buzz! Junior series of games. Gameplay comprises multiple mini-games, each quite simple and straightforward to play using the four Buzz! controllers. It is primarily aimed at the family market but offers appealing entertainment to almost anyone of any age. Simple game play allows young children to participate while still being entertaining enough for older children and adults. The game is similar in concept to Jungle Party, with robot based mini-games in a space-themed environment. One of the main differences between

Jungle Party The Jungle Party ( fa, حزب جنگل, Ḥezb-e Jangal; also translated Forest Party) was a secessionist party active in northern Iran during 1940s. The party was founded by armed rebels and some of Mirza Kuchik Khan's old associates who tried to ...

and Robo Jam is the introduction of AI, allowing players to play against the computer. Unlike Jungle Party there is no solo game mode. A full game can be played with only one human player and three computer players. ''Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam'' won the 2007 Children's Jury Giga Maus award.

Gameplay

Gameplay comprises multiple

mini-games A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...

, each quite simple and straightforward to play using the four Buzz! controllers. It is primarily aimed at the family market but offers appealing entertainment to almost anyone of any age. The narrator (Phil Hayes) introduces each minigame and describes how to play the minigame. Simple game play allows young children to participate while the minigames are still entertaining enough for older children and adults. The game is similar in concept to

, with robot based mini-games in a space-themed environment. One of the main differences between ''

'' and ''Robo Jam'' is the introduction of AI, allowing players to play against the computer. Unlike ''

'' there is no solo game mode. A full game can be played with only one human player and three computer players.

Development

Robo Jam was co-developed by

Magenta Software Magenta Software was a video game developer based in Liverpool, England. History It was founded in 1994. In recent years it has specialized in the production of Buzz Controller-based party games. These games have proven successful winning severa ...

and FreeStyleGames. Magenta supplied the engine and nineteen of the twenty five mini-games while Freestyle supplied the remaining six mini-games.

Cohort Studios Cohort Studios was a games development and interactive entertainment studio. It was based in Dundee but closed its office there in May 2011. Formed in 2006, by Lol Scragg, Darran Thomas and Bruce McNeish, Cohort's first project involved being ...

developed a

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

version of the game that was released on the PlayStation Store on 14 May 2009 which included trophy support and added support for Sixaxis and/or Dualshock 3 controllers.

Reception

''Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam'' received generally mixed reviews from critics, holding a score of 67.53% on

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

based on 17 reviews. Greg Miller of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

gave the game a 6.5/10 and said that the game "isn't beautiful or deep, but it is a solid game for families to occasionally gather around. Chad Sapieha of Common Sense Media however, gave the game 2 stars and an on rating for ages 7 and up, and said that "the mini-games are, by and large, well executed and fairly fun", the game was criticised for its lack of mini-games and that the game contains "no unlockable bonus activities, no art galleries, and no secret characters.". ''Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam'' won the 2007 Children's Jury

Giga Maus Giga ( or ) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of a short-scale billion or long-scale milliard (109 or ). It has the symbol G. ''Giga'' is derived from the Greek word (''gígas''), meaning "giant". The ''Oxford English Dic ...

award.

References

External links

U.S. Website

{{Buzz! video games 2007 video games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Network games Party video games Buzz! Video games about robots Video games developed in the United Kingdom Multiplayer and single-player video games Cohort Studios games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Magenta Software games