Jackbox Party Pack Review

"A Series of Questions, Mishaps and Hilarity"

Campaign

Back awhile ago I had covered Fibbage (Read here) which was a hilarious party game that I spent far too many hours on with my family laughing at the many quirks it had to offer. I was also tipped off that there would be something else like that in the future which got me quite excited as I had burned all of the original Fibbage game out.

When the trailer was released I was blown away by the package offering which has a total of five fun party game including an XL version of Fibbage! Each game is played primarily on your mobile devices though anything with an internet connection can play. The party games vary in numbers required and how many people can hop into the match, but Lie Swatter in particular can allow you to have up to a hundred players.

The magic of allowing devices instead of controllers is great for both parties and having regular people jump into your game. A favorite thing of mine is to host online Twitch streams so people can play from anywhere in the world, it's quite something. So here was a quick overview of the basic game and I'll go over each of the games in the pack below by title.

You Don't Know Jack 2015 Edition

Hosted by Cookie Masterson which is hilarious throughout has us answer a series of questions throughout each episode in the 2015 edition. With fifty episodes you will guess, screw others and try your best to stay in the positives.

All the questions have a close connection to the modern times with some retro aimed ones as well. You get a good variety of how these questions are presented from straight up, to the weird and obnoxious dummy to the dull old man being foggy. The Jack attack is also really crazy with words flying towards you as everyone frantically try to match them to the topic.

Each episode is a ton of fun to play and very entertaining for everyone. All of these episodes are fairly long at times, so some may have issues paying attention, but this is a well rounded game filled with hours of entertainment. Try your best to win and out play the others, but don't forget about the wrong answer of the game!

Drawful

Easily my favorite of the package, Drawful has you attempting to draw with your best efforts whatever twisted set of words pop up. The host of the game is also quite funny and I was surprised anyone other than cookie would be tasked with doing the commentary. After drawing your in-game avatar, everyone will engage in a couple rounds of word drawing.

After each drawing round players will attempt to guess what others drew by writing their own comments and finally guessing from within that pile. The responses vary as these drawings are usually far from master pieces and hilarity always follows. The more people you have, the better when it comes to Drawful as the wide range of drawings and choices creates a far funnier atmosphere.

Fibbage XL

Fibbage has returned in an extra large package featuring a vastly new amount of questions for you to lie your way through. In the past I loved the game and just burned through it so I am very happy to see its return with a slew of new questions.

In Fibbage you're tasked with coming up with a lie in response to a question brought up on the screen. From there everyone guesses which is the truth and points are distributed after that. Fibbage is also hosted by the legendary Cookie Masterson for even more added value to your matches. We got a full review on Fibbage here

Word Spud

Easily the strangest of the pack, Word Spud has you completing words and parts of words that are left over from the previous player. The word play gets thrown back and forth between everyone until it eventually gets voted on by each person.

Points are then given, but it's easy for players to be rather harsh and just give negatives. I like the concept of creating words based on bits of each previous word, yet the game doesn't seem to play out.

Lie Swatter

Lie Swatter is the game which allows you to have a total of a hundred players if you can somehow manage to get that many players into the match at once. Statements pop up from a random assortment of categories that have you guessing whether it's true or false.

All the questions run from this basis and it's really simple for anyone to play. Players can also join into the game at any time from going to the site and typing in the room key. After a few rounds you move into a final sort of section where you match a series of questions to a certain topic.

The Conclusion

The Jackbox Party Pack is essential to your party experience on either next generation consoles and provides countless hours of hilarious gameplay to enjoy in small groups or large parties. I love the applications this game has for the streaming space and it's simplicity of allowing anyone to play with a device that they most definitely have on them.

It allows anyone to play without the issues of learning controller buttons and works well on all devices/browsers. Most of the games were great, but I did find Word Spud to be really boring and not as fun with how the point system is scored. You Don't Know Jack; Drawful and Fibbage are the clear winners for your time in this pack and Lie Swatter is an alright game.

Yet again like Fibbage the price for this pack versus the gameplay you get is outstanding. There's a ton of YDKJ2015 questions alone with the other modes being filled with replay value. Finally, Cookie Masterson is ever entertaining whenever he narrates and one host for Drawful was also quite funny.

Jackbox Party Pack Review on Xbox One
Review Code provided by Sandbox Strat

Rating Overall: 8.2