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| The Jackbox Party Pack 1 poster. |
Every year, Jackbox Games releases a party pack with around five different games on it, varying from quiz games to drawing games to general party games. These are massive on websites such as Twitch and I've seen many people on YouTube such as Achievement Hunter play them too. And each time, I find myself enjoying them more and more. I mean, what's not to love about them? They're funny, entertaining and varied, and I always enjoy listening to the hosts of each game talk as well.
By now, they've already released six of them. And they'll be releasing the seventh one this year, with Quiplash 3 already announced earlier this month.
So I thought that to celebrate the upcoming Party Pack 7, despite the fact that we have to wait until October for it to be fully released, I will post some quick reviews of every single game in each previous Party Pack, with each pack being reviewed as soon as a new game announcement for the upcoming one comes out. The majority of these reviews will be very positive - some may be a bit mixed and one review will be somewhat negative. But most of them will be glowing reviews. That's how enjoyable I find the games to be.
Okay! Time to start with Party Pack 1! :D
You Don't Know Jack 2015.
This is definitely my favourite one of the pack. You Don't Know Jack is pretty much the flagship franchise of Jackbox games (it's how they got their current name!) and this is just one of the latest installments. Fan favourite Cookie Masterson (as voiced by Tom Gottlieb, a longtime Jackbox games member) hosts this game, presented as someone who has already given up on the bullshit going on around him, including incompetent interns, a manic ventriloquist dummy who loves to troll him at every opportunity and an elderly stagehand (known by others as Old Man and voiced by Jackbox's music composer Andy Poland) who's always forgetting something and frequently screws things up for Cookie. And yet the show must go on, so he presses on with his job anyway, albeit with a sarcastic and jaded personality that we can't help but love anyway.
Rather than straightforward questions, the YDKJ games tend to ask rather ridiculous ones that require you to think outside the box, usually giving a "what if?" scenario. This game is no exception, and it brings back classic rounds such as "Dis Or Dat?" and the notorious "Jack Attack" final round, as well as new ones such as "Foggy Facts With Old Man" (where the forgetful Old Man describes something and you have to help him remember what it was) and "Kangaroo, Peanut, Einstein Or Uranus?" (where these are the answers provided to different questions).
As a sequel to the YDKJ reboot from 2011, it follows the same "choose an episode" format along with the "wrong answers of the game", which are sponsored by outrageous products such as the Vegan Cannibal Supply Company. Whilst I'm slightly disappointed that they weren't able to bring back "Nocturnal Admissions" (which is dream-themed) to this game, I love the new rounds that they have on offer. Cooke may not enjoy his hosting duties, but we can easily enjoy this game.
Fibbage.
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| The logo for the extra-large version. |
Turns out that Cookie Masterson is so popular with Jackbox fans that they had to have him twice in the pack! He does the same deadpan delivery we know and love, though this quiz game takes a different route. In Fibbage, you have to guess the answers to questions about strange world facts, but everyone has to write down a fake answer as well. If people accidentally choose your fake answer, you gain points, with the score increasing the more people you trick.
This quirky game premise also comes with a quirky art design which matches it well. It's recommended when playing that, like with Jack Pattillo from Achievement Hunter, you try and make your answers both normal and strange, so that more people will be duped. Overall, very fun and entertaining.
Drawful.
Drawful may appear to have a similar format to Fibbage at first, with players also writing fake answers to deceive other players, but it takes it in a more artistic direction. Players are given a prompt which they much draw a representation of (such as "nightmare fuel"), and then other players must guess what said prompt was.
My older brother loves this game, and the same goes for me too. I've always liked drawing so that's already a plus in my opinion, but some of the prompts get really crazy and that adds even more charm to it. The best ones are the ones that are so absurd and literal that everyone gets confused by them, though you'll be wanting other players to guess the correct prompt for your picture if you want to earn points yourself. Add a somewhat sarcastic but still warm and friendly host (voiced by Catherine Rich) and you'll definitely be having fun with this game.
Lie Swatter.
Now this is a curious one. The premise is that you are given statements, each from different categories in the first two rounds and all from the same category in the final round, and you have to guess whether they are true or false. Now audience participation can be fickle on this one. This game offers the most placements for players (100 places), but only a small amount of people can actually join the audience and play along, otherwise the game can crash. Additionally, people watching can't necessarily be sure about whether you got your answers in on time as the only signal for that is a counter at the top left corner of the screen. Compared to the first three games, it doesn't stand out too much.
However, there are some perks about Lie Swatter. The facts and lies are genuinely engaging and crazy, and it will give you more facts on a particular statement if it turns out to be true. The host is voiced by Phil Ridarelli, who has worked with Jackbox many times in the past and does an amazing job with his delivery in this game, very formal and straight-to-the-point. The art design is also good - the flies look genuinely cute and wacky, though I do feel sorry for them when they get swatted (luckily, they will come back to life if the statement was true). Overall, a pretty charming and simple game that has its flaws, but is able to make up for them in several ways.
Just a quick comment on the host though. I know some sources believe that Josh "Schmitty" Schmitstinstein from the past You Don't Know Jack games and Quiplash hosted this one, and I believed so too. Watching the "Phil Ridarelli And #IDARB" livestream that Jackbox held to celebrate the game's release though, I found that this wasn't the case. Ridarelli actually based the host on a newsreader character that he portrayed in some of the parody commercials in You Don't Know Jack. I assume this means that the host of Lie Swatter therefore is the fly in the top hat that appears on the main menu screen and before the final round. Doesn't matter. Ridarelli's just as brilliant at the job as he always is. :)
Word Spud.
Now this is the game I was warning you about when I said that they'd be one negative game review coming up. The one game that Jackbox mocks when it looks back on it. The premise is that a word will come up and you must find a way to expand on it, with other players voting on whether they think you came up with a good response or not. For example, if the word "hit" comes up, you can respond by making it into "hitman" or "hit and run".
I can see where the main problems are. For starters, unlike the other games that Jackbox releases, there is no host for this game. Additionally, the "spud" theme only pops up as one potato image in the corner of the screen. Otherwise, the background is simply grey and the design overall looks kinda of generic. And finally, the gameplay can get a bit repetitive after a while. The flaws of the game have gotten to the point that whenever Jackbox wants to make fun of one of their games in a later one, this is the one that they pick.
That said, it can still be very enjoyable depending on who you play it with, and the music is pretty good too. I'm very much of a word person myself and word games like these do appeal to me.
So overall, a pretty good party pack with three solid games, one decent game and one somewhat below-average game. As soon as the next game for Party Party 7 is announced (or if they decide to make another April Fool's Day video like they did last year), I'll write down reviews for the Party Pack 2 games. Geez, I'm already excited for Party Pack 7, and it's not even close to October! XD
