Party game paradise as Singstar, Buzz updated (+ photos)

Buzz is back, as smarmy as ever and still with the voice of Jason Donovan.

While the Wii has grown to be the home of party gameplay, Sony is topping up the PS2 darlings - karaoke hit

SingStar

and trivia quiz game series

Buzz

.

Fans of either franchise can never get enough of these titles. SingStar was a bit slow to get updates in the early days, and we were all sick of wearing out the same old songs.

Now, everytime you blink there's yet another edition - just as well there's the 'other disc' option.

The latest release is

Singstar R&B

(PG) - a genre that is not always so easy to define - but I think the playlist caters to a mix for those songs that span generations and the newest tracks from the past decade.

There's Amy Winehouse's

Back to Black

, Christina Milian's

AM to PM

, En Vogue's

My Lovin'

and

Bootylicious

by Destiny's Child.

For old skool Motown fans there's

Baby Love

by Diana Ross for people who can reach that high pitched opening,

War

by Edwin Starr for people who can shout grand and Four Tops, I am amazed by guys who can just dance around in white suits.

All good fun though. The great news is that Rhythm and Blues does not mess with the winning formula.

Even people who don't know all the songs will have fun picking up a mic and "singing a thousand kisses from you is never too much never too much never too much never too much" (Luther Vandross

Never Too Much

and who could ever forget Salt-n-Pepa's

Push it

On that subject, were the lyrics always this bad? "Push it good P-push it real good Ah, push it Get up on this! Boy, you really got me going You got me so I dont know what Im doing Ah, push it".

Ahh, those were the days.

On the Buzz front, there's

Buzz: the Hollywood Quiz

(PG) and

Buzz: Monster Rumble

(G).

Again in the king of quiz games, Buzz: Hollywood remains pretty much the same formula - and Jason Donovan is still the main man.

If you speak another language like Spanish, try it as it has always been - clear and fluent versions with their own jokes. But sometimes jokes don't come off so well in another language.

Hollywood could be the best yet as most of us are passionate about the movies we like and have some trivia knowledge. I can't wait for the family arguments to break out.

And finally for the young 'uns there's monster mayhem with a package of fun mini games they'll love.

You are competing against monsters - escapees from a mad scientist's laboratory - where you must compete for the prized eyeball awards by winning 25 mini-games.

It's four-player fun in the monster house with a nice feature of designing up your own rambunctious monster. Let the monster madness begin!

The gameplay is fun rather than too simplified - which can be a problem with this type of game - parents will enjoy engaging their children over a game of memory skills or just with PS2 AI players (children against the machine).

Overall: MadGamer's ratings 8.5 / 10