Interactive games have really hit a stride over the last decade, from the Sega Dreamcast’s fishing rod through to the Nintendo Wii.

Games and accompanying gadgets (with ensuing levels of fun) are seemingly essential for a games console to sell units – but what about on DVD players? Fingers On Buzzers is looking to take the humble home entertainment unit into fairly un-chartered territory, whilst incorporating the elements of Playstation 2’s Buzz series.

The accompanying four controllers for contestants are similar, with four coloured buttons to answer questions and a big red button at the top, although it’s on a dramatically reduced scale – think more Maoam than man-sized. It’s all fairly simple to set up too – within minutes you should be selecting the amount of players involved.

Just don’t try and play the game in a large room though, as you could well find that you need to shuffle closer to the receiver box due to the modestly sized cable you’re attached to. So far though, there’s not too much to complain about.

The game itself is split into various topics that will please people from most age groups. From mathematics to reaction tests, there’s a chance for underachievers and academics alike to pick up points. It’s even more likely when you discover that you can not only take points from people, but also put the scoreboard on its head, with the ‘Shake Up’ round available to completely reverse participants’ scores.

It’s not an entirely justifiable system, especially when playing with younger children who may find the system tough to take, and subsequently storm off. More baffling is the level that allows you to not only take points off other contestants, but also yourself.

There’s a good chance though that they’ll be back participating soon enough though when they get involved in the ‘guess the noise’ section – and for the record, an elephant eating sounds nothing like a lawnmower, even though an un-named person who tried the game thought otherwise.

As a stocking-filler, it works well, with its cheery exterior and easy interface meaning that it’ll pass short periods of time easily – especially with a short and longer edition of the game available, which last between 15 and 30 minutes respectively.

Due to its DVD upbringing, it does have a few features that can test ones patience. The repetition of the introduction movie between rounds is a little irksome, and the gaps between loading screens when you already know the scores can be a little monotonous, but you have to take a bit of the rough to go with the smoother price tag.