There are nine modes in the game. A single-player game consists solely of three rounds of Stop The Clock, where the faster the player answers a question, the more points are awarded, provided that the answer is correct.
When playing a local multiplayer game with up to four players a game consists of seven rounds. These are:
Point Builder - Each player is awarded 250 points for each correct answer; six questions are given, allowing for a maximum of 1500 points in the first round.
Pass The Bomb or Short Fuse - One player is selected at random to be given the bomb and must then answer a question correctly to pass the bomb to the next player. The player holding the bomb when it explodes loses 300 points.
Fastest Finger - The player who answers the question the fastest receives the most points and each subsequent player who answers correctly receives less points; in a 4-player game, the first correct answer is worth 400 points, the second is worth 300, then 200 and 100 if all 4 players answer correctly.
Pie Fight - The first player to answer correctly gains control of a cream pie and must then press their buzzer as a target passes over the player they want the pie to hit. Each player can be hit twice, after which they will be knocked out of the round. The last player standing receives 1000 points in a 4-player game, 2nd gets 500, 3rd gets 250 and 4th (first player eliminated) gets nothing.
Point Stealer - A series of pictures are displayed, and the first player to press their buzzer on the correct image selects another player to steal points from, taking 300 from the selected opponent's score and adding it to their own.
High Stakes - A brief description of the topic the next question will be based on what is displayed on-screen. Players must then decide how many points they bet (50, 100, 250 or 500) that they will answer the question correctly.
The game ends with The Final Countdown. Here, each player is on a raised podium - the higher one's score going into this final round, the higher one's podium is at the start of the round. Once the round starts, as each question is asked, everyone's podiums start constantly moving towards the ground until an answer is selected. Once all have selected answers or run out of time, the correct answer is revealed. The fastest correct answer grants the player's podium a lift bonus, while incorrect answers cause the player's podium to drop slightly. Once a player's podium reaches the ground, that player is out. The winner is the last player left on their podium.
A multiplayer round of more than four players follows much the same structure, except the Pie Fight and Pass The Bomb rounds are not played.
Online multiplayer gameplay features the Stop The Clock and High Stakes rounds, in addition to All That Apply, where players may select as many answers as they like out of the four options. Players gain points for each correct answer given and lose points if they select an incorrect one or miss a correct one. The online servers were switched off in August 2013.[8]
For user-generated content, players were able to create their own quizzes via a website called "MyBuzz!"[9] David Amor, the creative director, in an interview with IGN stated that users would be able to freely create their own question packs which will be completely moderated by other users via user ratings, and a special "report content" button will flag inappropriate packs, as well as a parental guidance monitor to prevent free downloading by minors. Each user created question pack has eight questions, and individual packs can be linked consecutively.[10]
Two updates were released. The first was released on 6 August 2008 and introduced compatibility with the PlayStation 3 Trophies system.[11] It also allowed up to four controllers to be used in Sofa vs Sofa mode meaning multiple players on the same console could share a character and all answer questions in an online match. The second was released on 9 September 2008, with the addition of four new characters, new costumes for every existing character, ten new buzzer noises and support for the PlayStation Eye.[12]