The Jackbox Party Pack
A whole (insert unit) of fun. Get your friends together for some fun. I guess I’ll be like everybody else and break the 5 games down one at a time.
Word Spud:
The general consensus is that this game is bad. There’s a reason for that, it’s because it is bad. You’ll play it once and then it’ll turn into a Bad Rats-style joke. The game I played devolved into my friends and I typing “gay Alexis is gay” over and over. 2/10 standard rating 10/10 from IGN.
Lie Swatter:
A mediocre game that you won’t play much. True or false gets boring after a few rounds, even with categories like “Shaq rap lyrics” and “butt holes.” (Those were the actual two final round topics I first got.) 5/10 standard 10/10 from IGN.
– Real player with 22.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Party Casual Games.
I bought this game on a Steam Sale, but, trust me on this, the Jackbox Party Packs are worth the full $25. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve packed my laptop to a house party JUST FOR THIS GAME, I’d have enough money to buy the trilogy. You just need your laptop and an internet connection to start it up. Listen, the game uses your phone as the controller, which means literally every single person you ask to play with you immediately have a frame of reference for how it works. That’s priceless. No teaching controls, no explaining mechanics, just “look at the TV, go to that site, enter the code.” I don’t care if you have an Android, iPhone, or cheap knockoff iPad; if you have an internet browser, you can play this game. The games offer the prompt, then your phone’s browser lets you submit your response. Super easy. I’ve seen socially reserved people suddenly become the funniest f***er at the party, not because they’re social butterflies, but because they were witty with their lies on Fibbage.
– Real player with 22.7 hrs in game
YOU DON’T KNOW JACK Vol. 1 XL
To make this clear, this is not for the 2011 game. Instead, it covers the original 1995 game. For those that are not familiar with the series, how the game works is that the host will read a question and give four possible answers. If you think that you know the answer, buzz in and answer. While this sounds like your typical trivia game, this is far from the truth.
One thing unique to the game is that the players receive screws. If a question appears that it looks like another player does not know, you can use the screw to “screw your opponent” forcing them to answer. If somebody has the lead, using them is a good way to try to catch up. However, if they know the answer, not only will they gain money, but also you will screw yourself and lose money instead. They may be screws, but that risk make them double-edged sword instead.
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Party Casual Games.
I bought this game along with the others since I just happen to love the You Don’t Know Jack franchise in general, including the ones in Jackbox Pary Pack. I didn’t necessarily grow up with it, but I did play a demo of Headrush on an old PC as a kid and found it to be entertaining.
Since this is the very first game in the franchise, you’re getting quite literally the bare minimum of where it started. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but just don’t expect to get exactly what you’d expect from the newer Jackbox games. Also, like others have said, this game was released in the 90s, so the pop culture in this can be a tad bit outdated, but it isn’t too bad at least with this game. In fact, not all questions are even pop-culture based at all for that matter, so it shouldn’t be too intrusive.
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game
ACT IT OUT XL! A Game of Charades - Designed for Twitch
I originally bought this on the Wii U and one feature that was missing there (but is here and in the PS4 version) is the connectivity to Twitch, Mixer and YouTube.
Let me just say first of all. This is great fun with friends and family and works as a brilliant couch-play / party game.
But for me, the real fun is being able to stream it. Casually making a fool of yourself is what the internet is all about and I’m pleased to say that I had a great first stream with this. The viewers were engaged and having a good time, and playing the game is easy, easy, easy.
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Party Family Friendly Games.
connecting through settings doesnt work so you wont get notification problems but you can still play live with chat. It was awesome. I was having issues so I reached out to the team that made this on facebook they responded quickly honestly and helped me figure it out!
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
The Jackbox Party Pack 2
DISCLAIMER: This review is written by a European player. My opinion might (and probably will) differ from a player from this game’s target audience: The American player base. Please also note that this review was written in 2020, as though several other packs have released after that.
Do I recommend the Jackbox Party Pack 2?
- Yes, absolutely.
Individual game review:
Fibbage 2:
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A classic of the Jackbox Games.
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Better than the 1st one.
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Possibility to trick your friends to win.
– Real player with 58.3 hrs in game
Ah, Party Pack 2, Easily earns the #1 Spot in order of favorite pack out of the three. This pack’s filled with gems, and honestly, there are more games that I’d give a higher rating here than in 3 and 1 combined. Each and every game in this pack gets a high rating from me. Let’s begin, shall we?
Bidiots - 9.3/10 - Bidiots is my 3rd Favorite Game made by Jackbox, with first being Tee K.O, and 2nd being You Don’t Know Jack. Bidiots is an absolutely hilarious take on art auctions. I have no clue what I’m doing, and neither does anyone else I play with, but it is oddly very competitive and addicting. Draw 2 Drawings based on silly prompts you’re given (much like Drawful), and then let the auction commence! Each person has an art professional on their team that will tell them three paintings worth a big sum of cash. But since this is Jackbox, you’ve gotta try and guess which of those paintings you’re seeing at the moment, or if you’re not seeing a valuable one. Are they saying the beer bottle painting is worth a good sum of cash? Haven’t seen a beer bottle and you’re over halfway done? Shucks man, that beer bottle you’re looking for could’ve been that penis-looking painting you didn’t bid for 10 minutes ago! We’re not done yet though. The host has a hilarious British accent, this game takes the Screws from You Don’t Know Jack which you can use once per game, forcing the person you use it on to bid on artwork. Best of all, there is a loanshark company in this game with the catchiest jingle you’ve ever heard. Dammit Jackbox, I played this game for the first time in December, and I still have the Predatory Loans Jingle in my head! Anyway, this is an absolute masterpiece, and it takes the cake for this pack with Earwax JUST behind.
– Real player with 39.5 hrs in game
The Jackbox Party Pack 6
As per usual, this party pack follows the trend of a couple amazing games and a few forgettable ones.
That being said, the good games in this pack are really fucking good.
Trivia Murder Party 2 is an overall improvement from the original. The kill rooms are more unique, the questions are harder, and the race at the end was made just a tad more difficult. Is it better than the first? Up to you, but mostly, yes.
Dictionarium is… boring. It’s a game about words, you make definitions, then you make new words based on the definitions. It’s like a literature nerd’s take on the game Telephone, but it just doesn’t make the cut.
– Real player with 154.0 hrs in game
Yes. Yes. Yes.
The Jackbox Party Pack 6 nails everything perfectly. The perfect trivia game, the perfect word game, the perfect deceit game, the perfect joke game. Everything about this pack is bliss. I’ll go over each game individually.
JOKE BOAT - The joke spewing comedy club, Joke Boat. Good visuals, fun music and host. Only drag to this game is it’s length, but it depends on the crowd you play it with. Overall pretty good and funny.
TRIVIA MURDER PARTY 2 - The long awaited sequel to the long beloved game. This sequel balances out the imperfections of the original by making Killing Rooms easier to survive and more fun to play through. Sometimes I hoped to get a question wrong to play! The music, visuals, style, and feel make this the perfect sequel to a perfect game.
– Real player with 41.3 hrs in game
The Jackbox Party Pack 3
This pack is my Close 2nd Favorite Jackbox Party Pack, with Party Pack 2 being #1. The trailer is right, this pack is truly INSANE. From Designing Custom T-Shirts, to Trying to stay alive while answering trivia questions, to answering silly prompts such as “An item on every pervert’s grocery list”, this pack is bound to thrill you, make you laugh, and get hours of fun worth! This pack is definitely worth all the money! This pack is home to Fakin' It, Quiplash 2, Guesspionage, Trivia Murder Party, and Tee K.O.
– Real player with 72.1 hrs in game
Since there are 5 party games in one game I’m going to be reviewing them all and thankfully for me, I have tried out all the games whether that be sacrificing my friends' time to play some of these games or playing it with my family members.
Let’s first start off with Quiplash 2: Whether it be family members, college mates or steam users this game is crowned as the best thing in existence. This just like the first predecessor is really fun and enjoyable, there are lot of new things that haven’t been introduced in the first game, such as the fact that you can create your own prompts, I have so far 2 episodes I made with a lot of crazy prompts such as “help! A gargoyle stole my cheese pizza”. There’s also new weird characters that you randomly play as such as a weird turqoise cat or a gray vampire coffin or a yellow (demonic voiced?) star. They also changed The Last Lash level, instead of getting a prompt you’re given either an acro prompt, a comic prompt or a word prompt and not only that players award the answers in medals so that is something new.
– Real player with 48.1 hrs in game
The Jackbox Party Pack 5
Mad Verse City: 10/10
Patently Stupid: 9/10
You Don’t Know Jack: 7/10
Split The Room: 6/10
Zeeple Dome: 3/10
Price: 25 USD / EUR
Verdict: Amazing game for parties or with friends online,
Grab it on a minor sale or even full price
What is the Jackbox Party Pack and how do I play it?:
Each edition of the Jackbox Party Pack contains five minigames. To play, only one person needs to own the game. That person needs to either stream it on a monitor if you’re playing with friends in the same room, or stream it via Twitch / Discord Screen Share etc. Players then watch the stream while entering answers to prompts via the website jackbox.tv on their mobile device or pc browser.
– Real player with 76.5 hrs in game
Ooh boy, here we go. A party pack with a MIXED review? Well, lets dive in!
YOU DON’T KNOW JACK: FULL STREAM: (1-8 players)
The game with High culture and Pop culture collide! Not to sell out to Binjpipe or anything, but I had a bunch of fun with this game. Being my first dive into the YDKJ games, I had fun with most of it. The questions are weird, the few times I had other people in game the screws get super wacky, and Dis or Dat is a pretty fun question type. Which leads into the worst thing about it: question types. Most of them are good, except for one. The flickerpiss nosecum gibberish question. God damn I hated this so much. It was just super annoying, and after 20 of these fuckers, I FINALLY got one right. (Wont feta bread slugs fight: Don’t let the bed bugs fight) And another problem I had is that most people don’t really do JackBox for the Trivia games anymore. I mean Trivia Murder Party was pretty good, but that’s as far as most people will go with short attention spans. Good thing it supports 1 players, since that’s the majority of my time playing this game was with myself.
– Real player with 75.6 hrs in game
The Jackbox Party Pack 4
DISCLAIMER: This review is written by a European player. My opinion might (and probably will) differ from a player from this game’s target audience: The American player base. Please also note that this review was written in 2020, as though several other packs have released after that.
Do I recommend the Jackbox Party Pack 4?
- Yes, get it ASAP.
Individual game review:
Fibbage 3:
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A classic of the Jackbox Games.
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Very cool visuals
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The main mode is as fun as the other games with a definitely better 3rd round.
– Real player with 93.0 hrs in game
You know the drill, lets take a deep dive into each game individually and check it’s strengths and weaknesses.
FIBBAGE 3: (2-8 players)
Its Fibbage, but super duper swanky. In case you haven’t done this before, you get a fact with a part missing and you type in a lie to hopefully fool everyone else into picking it over the correct answer. But back to the visuals: Seriously, in the party pack it missed it got a HUMONGOUS visual overhaul. Gone is the super duper gray style of 1 and XL and the green and light purple of 2, in 3 it goes for a 70’s look, and its very pleasing on the eyes. You may also get a random question in between games. So far I’ve gotten Russian Fibbage, Celebrity Social Media, and Time to Look at this. These questions provide a unique twist in the questions seen in the game. Russian Fibbage has you learn new Russian phrases, Celebrity Social Media (yes i sang the tune in my head as i typed it) is predicting whatever Kim Kardashian says that she can do now, and Time to Look at this involves a picture in the question, usually an obscure art piece. It provided me with a much better experience than Party pack 2 did.
– Real player with 54.1 hrs in game
Fibbage XL
A really simple game to get working. You can have up to eight players (on phone, pc, tablet - all at the same time). You just need one copy of the game and access to internet. A real hit for parties and lazy evenings in. Cheap at the price i’d say. :-)
One tip if you can: Hook up your main pc to a television with an hdmi cable (or some such). Get the narrator and the questions up on the big screen and everyone else can sit round on their devices to play. We even had one of them answering questions from upstairs whilst they were looking for something.
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
Fantastic party game - am yet to find a group of people that haven’t enjoyed it! The optional parental controls are a nice touch too, so know of the family are left out (although just because the questions are family friendly, doesn’t mean the answers stay that way…)
– Real player with 22.8 hrs in game
The Jackbox Party Pack 7
Word Spud.
Lie Swatter.
Civic Dodole.
Zeeple Dome.
Joke Boat.
They’ve been waiting for a year for their new member.
They will have to keep waiting.
There are no bad games here.
Champ’d Up is a real treat for people who love to draw, and even people that only draw black and white stick figures can join in and stand a chance. So much unintentional humour - and a lot of fun to be had by trying for some humour if you can guess your opponent’s prompt and make a deconstruction of it. You get to keep your drawings for the next game if you play with the same players, too! Compared to Tee K.O., it feels like a better flow because you draw two things at a time and every drawing is used at least once, possibly more because there’s four drawings and six rounds per person (and again, they can be used in the next game.) Also includes the best part of Bracketeering with none of its bad.
– Real player with 43.9 hrs in game
No disclaimer about the fact that I’m European this time around. This Jackbox Party Pack has a Filter for US-Centric content, to make it accessible to the broader audience around the world. Definitely a welcomed addition. You might still note that all of those games were played with the aforementioned option turned on.
Do I recommend the Jackbox Party Pack 7?
- YES, GET IT AT ALL COSTS!!
Individual game review:
Quiplash 3:
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A classic of the Jackbox Games.
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The best of all.
– Real player with 30.1 hrs in game