Beginning in 2014, the Jackbox Party Packs, a collection of cheeky party and trivia games, appeared out of nowhere, giving plenty of fun and funny multiplayer romps. Yet, since the early 1990s, producer Jackbox Games has been churning out, You Don’t Know Jack, the crazy trivia game that started it all.
The company has developed on the original and attractive idea of You Don’t Know Jack and crafted a variety of fabulously enjoyable and amusing party games with six Jackbox Party Pack bundles now available for PC, consoles, and even streaming devices.
These games include everything from basic trivia to bomb-defusing to goofy T-shirt designs. The ability to utilize your mobile device as a controller adds to the fun and allows for quick, easy-to-play romps that anyone can enjoy.
Earwax
This hilarious entry from Jackbox Party Pack 2 is an excellent choice for those looking for a simple game to pass the time.
Players will be required to choose from a succession of often goofy, cartoony sounds to summarize a given subject in the audio-based Earwax. The Judge will award votes to those who can produce the funniest and/or most innovative sounds. With its variety of animal and body noises, it’s a terrific method to bring out your inner immature child.
Blather ‘Round
This game is a simplified, reverse version of the popular trivia game “Taboo” from the most recent Jackbox. Instead of avoiding terms to describe a prompt, players will be forced to choose from a limited number of words that will be fed into a pre-made statement.
This can provide some exciting and challenging games, as players will be timed and given clues and descriptors that aren’t necessarily the best. Although it may appear difficult, folks in the audience will have an endless number of chances to respond.
Mad Verse City
This one is perfect for improv actors and free-style rappers to train with, and it’s also a lot of fun. Mad Verse City takes the Mad Libs format and amps it up by forcing players to come up with spontaneous rhymes, which are then humorously performed by robots.
It’s a smash worth checking out because of the amusing visuals and the gimmick of the monotone voice singing wacky, risqué rap lines.
Bracketeering
Bracketeering is a game that combines the competitive structure of a collegiate basketball tournament with a range of bizarre suggestions.
In an elimination-style tournament against other players, participants must put their answers to the test. Those who come up with the most powerful, amusing, or imaginative ideas will be able to fight another day. The game delivers interesting curveballs by swapping out the prompts and matching them with other responses, typically eliciting some smiles. What’s even better is that up to 16 participants can take part in this epic battle.
Joke Boat
In a smart twist on cracking jokes, this amusing minigame feels like a training simulation for inexperienced stand-up comedians.
The plot revolves around you, an up-and-coming comic, obtaining a job on a shabby cruise ship. The best part is that you’ll come up with a slew of funny words and phrases to pass along to your teammates. You’ll then use the keywords/inserts provided by other players as weapons for your own hurriedly written gags. It’s a game that’ll make you giggle while showcasing your sense of humor (or lack thereof).
Dictionarium
The attraction of the Jackbox Party Pack is mostly due to its assortment of lighthearted and humorous games. “Dictionarium,” a game that experiments with the concept of generating your own ridiculous sounding words and explanations, is one of the newest party games that is a highlight of Jackbox 6.
You’ll be given a few of randomly generated words to come up with synonyms for and then the far more pleasurable task of creating definitions for them. It’s a basic concept, yet it gets the creative juices flowing while generating fun.
Tee K.O
This drawing-based exercise is difficult to beat among Jackbox’s games with a more creative or artistic bent. “Tee K.O.” combines cooperation and competitiveness, as users use their mobile devices to create a variety of wacky slogans and sloppy doodles.
Players will then be entrusted with putting together the most amusing combinations of words and images from others, which will be printed on t-shirts. The game deftly marries visual aesthetics (if that’s a phrase) with witty wordplay.
And sure, if you’re brave enough to wear this ridiculous exhibition in public, you can buy real, tangible versions of these shirts…
Bomb Corp
“Bomb Corp.” is a clever puzzle game that, as the name implies, throws you a series of bombs laced with color-coded wires that you must diffuse using a variety of subtle hints.
Because different players will be given various hints as to which cables need to be cut, the game uniquely emphasizes communication and teamwork. For instance, you can be ordered to “treat red wires as yellow wires,” whereas another player is told that yellow wires must be cut.
It’s essentially a jumbled-up set of logic problems that, when put together, allow you to reach a conclusion. Because the timer keeps ticking while you play, you’ll want to be organized but speedy.
Guesspionage
Have you ever been intrigued by seemingly insignificant, irrelevant facts on groups of people? If that’s the case, “Guesspionage” should be right up your alley.
The game entails players guessing a series of often bizarre statistics, such as “what proportion of people have picked their nose in public?” Players will then estimate a percentage and get points based on how close they are to the target.
Later on, double-downs in the style of blackjack might be employed to spice things up. It’s very straightforward, but this is a party game that’s more entertaining for its silly statistical data than for its genuine competitive gameplay.
Champ’d Up
This one is like a more animated — and frequently much goofier — version of Tee K.O. Players will be charged with concocting ridiculous, typically bad fighter designs based on ambiguous topics or adjectives. These will then be matched against an opponent in a certain region, with players voting on the most amusing or appropriate fighter.
Seeing your pals’ amusing drawings is fun enough, but having them (mostly) animated in real-time offers Champ’d Up an added boost.
Fakin’ It
“Fakin’ It” might be for you if you consider yourself a decent liar or want to develop your poker face. During each round, this inventive party game coaxes a slew of humorous revelations and ridiculous faces, resulting in a lot of chuckles among family and/or friends.
The goal of the game is to figure out who among a group of participants is the “faker” who has been alerted by their mobile device to just “blend in.” Other players, meanwhile, are asked basic questions like their preferences, the number of times something happened in their lives, and so on.
The players will next be given the duty of searching the room for the “fishiest” looking replies. This is followed by a final question, for which the faker will receive their own version with some overlap. It’s a fascinating brain teaser as well as a fun party romp that makes you question everything.
You Don’t Know Jack / Full Stream
It’s difficult not to rank the original trivia game in the upper echelon of Jackbox party games. This competitive trivia game is just as entertaining as it was in its earlier CD-ROM incarnation as a PC game in the early 1990s.
The most recent version, which is included in Jackbox Party Pack 5 as the main game, has been expanded even more while staying as accessible as ever. The game provides for easy streaming and up to eight “audience members” in addition to up to eight participants.
The game offers multiple-choice questions that appear to be straightforward, but they’re frequently written in innovative, cheeky twists that require you to “think outside the box” a little.
Trivia Murder Party
The two incarnations of “Trivia Murder Party,” especially the more robust sequel, make YDKJ seem tame in terms of themes and off-the-wall minigames. The core of the game is simple trivia, which is more random and covers a wider range of topics than YDKJ’s entertaining focus.
But it’s the gloriously corny horror elements that make this experience so enjoyable, aided by a host who manages to seem both frightening and ridiculous. The “killing floor” sections of “Trivia Murder Party,” which activate after a question is missed, contain activities ranging from rapid-fire math problems to memory puzzles.
Quiplash
This funny series of prompts is as easy to follow as it is entertaining, making it one of Jackbox’s all-time favorites. It’s the game that friends always seem to turn to when they’re looking for a fun, informal game to play at parties or family gatherings.
Each player is given a few sentences or instructions, which they must respond to or finish with the most amusing “quip” they can produce. After that, everyone in the game will vote on the funniest and/or most innovative response, with two players set against one other. Schmitty, the colorful emcee, adds some flair to the encounter with his humorous voice work.
The “Thrip Lash” round, included in the most current edition of Jackbox Party Pack 7, ups the ante by awarding triple the points for three quick responses.
Fibbage
While “Fibbage” doesn’t have the same free-wheeling “laugh out loud” quality as “Quiplash,” it is the most creative and amusing. The game takes the foundation of the popular board game Balderdash and tweaks it to make it more appealing and fast-paced while also adding its own twists.
After reading a generally strange/obscure fact or historical event, the idea is for each participant to come up with a plausible-sounding lie for others to fall for.
The third and final incarnation of “Fibbage” is the best of the three, with its humorous ’70s themes and new aspects, including the more personal “Enough About You” option.
