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| The Jackbox Party Pack 3 poster. |
For the upcoming Jackbox Party Pack 7, the third game Champ'd Up has been announced. And with every new Party Pack game announced comes a new Party Pack review on this site! It's time to review Party Pack 3! :D
This is definitely one of the strongest party packs that Jackbox has released. None the games on this pack could really be considered to be "weak", thus making it the first party pack to have a consistent level of quality throughout. Anyway, here are the games!
Trivia Murder Party.
One of my favourite Jackbox games of all time, along with it being part of my all-time favourite Jackbox series. Despite not normally being a fan of the slasher genre (mainly due to the same old tired cliches associated with it such as the "final girl"), I love the way this game pays homage to it and not only that, it features my favourite host of all of the Jackbox games. Plus, it has some really cool music.
A twisted serial killer (often referred to as [REDACTED] by fans and Jackbox staff) has kidnapped a group of players (or sometimes even one if you're playing solo) and is forcing them to take part in "trivia night". These players are represented by adorable little dolls representing the Deadly Sins. If players gets the answers to the questions wrong, they are forced into a variety of mini-games (ranging from a rock-paper-scissors game called Arena to memory-based games). Those who fail are then "killed" and are turned into ghosts. Whilst they are still in the game, it means that they did not get a head-start in the final round. The overall winner of the final round escapes the killer's house and lives to fight another day. The rest are consumed by the shadows and lost forever.
Unlike many of the other party pack hosts who are voiced by Chicago-based comedians or voice actors who were part of the original You Don't Know Jack series before the reboot in 2011, [REDACTED] is voiced by Spencer Ham, one of the major writers for Jackbox games since 2011 and later on director of Survive The Internet, Split The Room and Joke Boat. His voice has been pitch-filtered to sound much deeper (kinda like Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas), which makes it all the more hilarious when he moves on from being all creepy to suddenly geeking out over music, movies or whatever. Oh [REDACTED]. He tries so hard to be menacing (and he actually succeeds on many occasions), but his geeky enthusiasm for trivia as well as his more vulnerable side (who'd expect a serial killer of all people to start crying over the infamous beginning of Up, for instance?) certainly endear him to many people like myself, even the ones who disagree with his killing streak.
Overall, the minigames are challenging and fun and the questions are varied. The best questions are definitely the ones that try to trick the player (the Up question being my favourite one for this reason) with the unusual way they are formatted - it really takes me back to the YDKJ games. Add a crazy and enjoyable host with a memorable voice and a nerdy side to himself and you end up getting one of the most effective slasher parodies out there.
Quiplash 2.
I thought the first Quiplash game was already bright and colourful, but this one goes even further with the spiralling backgrounds, additional colour palettes and even more quirky characters. And like the first game, it keeps the outrageous nature of the prompts, leading to equally outrageous answers from the players.
Like with Fibbage 2 and Drawful 2, I don't really need to explain too much about gameplay here except for the fact that there are even more hilarious prompts and the audience now gets to play along too by answering prompts from the previous game. Additionally, if you have any annoying trolls (like, I don't know, Jacksepticeye's girlfriend? Are they even dating anymore?) who are trying to offend or insult the other players, the VIP can now manually censor them for the rest of the game.
Additionally, this sequel makes major improvements on the final round. This time, either a key word, an acronym or even a comic book panel is given to the players who must then answer the prompt associated with them. Gold, silver and bronze medals are then given out by the other players to each prompt. Overall, very different to the first game's final round - which was like the other rounds but with everyone answering the same prompt - and definitely more varied.
Fun fact: This was the first ever Jackbox Party Pack game to be localised to other countries, which happened this year. It comes in French, Spanish, Italian and German with a different host for each one. It actually got released earlier than it was supposed to in order to keep people entertained during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a rare instance of something getting released earlier rather than later due to said pandemic.
Tee K.O.
A particularly fascinating drawing game with a fun theme to it. Guided by the Tournament Master, a mysterious and quirky old mentor voiced by Shaun Bowers, players must come up with images and slogans that can be used on T-shirts that either they or other players can use. Once they think they'd found the perfect combination of images and words, they must then pit their t-shirt up against another one, with players voting for their favourite t-shirt in each round.
What I particularly love about this game is the reference to the "yokai" from Japanese mythology, supernatural creatures associated with the Shinto religion. All of the player characters are types of yokai ranging from a karakasa (an umbrella with one eye) to two oni twins (one red and one blue). The game is set on an island with East Asian themes, which helps to emphasise the yokai theme even further.
In general, it's such a fun game with an interesting theme, and it's particularly fun seeing some of the crazier t-shirt designs for the first time.
Guesspionage.
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| The title for the Live edition. |
Each player gets a chance to answer a question (e.g. "How many people have taken a ride in the back of a police van?") and makes an estimate on the percentage of people that may have complied with said question. Other players must then guess whether the true answer is higher or lower than what the chosen player guessed, and more points are dished out to those who made the correct guess. The final round involves people answering the same question, making guesses as to which is the most popular film, most popular band, least popular talk show host, etc.
Despite the usual negative connotations of maths and numbers, this is yet another Jackbox game that handles its subject well. The fact that many of the online gamers I watch have played it more than twice is already a good sign with how well it went over. The spy theme is also an interesting add-on.
Another fun feature is when you're waiting in the lobby for other players to arrive. During that time, you can hear the government members having their own discussions (mainly to do with their jobs). Not only does this give you something to listen to whilst not playing the game, but many of these conversations are very funny. Definitely one to check out.
Fakin' It.
At first I was somewhat confused by the inclusion of Cookie Masterson. Sure, he's very popular with Jackbox fans, but now he's presenting a "Simon Says"-esque game rather than a trivia game? Luckily, his dry wit remains and is a great addition to said game.
In Fakin' It, players are given prompts to follow, such as making a funny face or pointing at someone. However, the "faker" is not given the same prompt as the others and must simply try and fit in. The players then have three chances (or two, if only three people are playing) to uncover the faker.
I particularly like the retro aesthetic for this game. It has the same look to those old timey-wimey board games you may have played when you were younger, only now in a video game format. The real highlight of this game though is seeing some of the different answers that players come up with and how some fakers make themselves extremely obvious - especially in the "Text You Up" challenge at the end.
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| I mean, I guess some people do have a thing or two for Willy Wonka. (Note: This screenshot was taken from Jackbox Games' debut livestream of the game, which can be seen here.) |
The only real problem with this game is that you won't be able to play it online with a livestream audience because of the nature of said game. Nevertheless, it's always nice to see a game like this that operates differently to others, similar to Bomb Corp.
Overall, I would say that Trivia Murder Party and Quiplash 2 stand out the most, but the other games are brilliant in their own right. One of my favourite party packs from Jackbox and definitely one to check out.
[Note: Due to conflicts with coursework and Masters dissertations, this post was uploaded after the announcement of the fourth Party Pack 7 game. More on it will be explained in the Party Pack 4 review.]
