It's been over a decade since the very first Jackbox Party Pack was released, at the time it was pretty innovative - if you have the Internet, you have a controller (play with a phone, tablet, laptop, your desktop whatever!)
And since then they have made over 50 games across 11 party packs, with a few spin-offs as well.
However, my current fate has left me to what the mainstream media is calling "Male Loneliness Epidemic" for essentially being a caregiver and not being able to really do much else online.
I'm sure a twitch streamer with thousands of followers, or somebody who has collabs constantly would be an ideal person to review this kind of game, somebody with a big audience to take advantage of the audience....
But I'm essentially off-air at the moment.
So how do you review a party game when you are by yourself? Well, good news....
How good is it by yourself
Playing it with strangers on twitch
How do others play the game/value
If I can play a game by myself, like the loner and rebel that I am, I will get to try it.
Otherwise, if somebody is playing this on twitch, I'll try and jump in and play along, even if I'm not a subscriber or friend, just a complete stranger, this also helps when it comes to one of the tools of which it was meant to be an ice breaker at parties.
And finally, how others play it in general - I'm not living in a hype house, I'm not in a big gaming website (please ignore the fact this is giant bomb)
I'm just one guy wanting to play party games.
Here's what I found with Jackbox Party Pack 1
You Don't Know Jack is a return to the irrelevant quiz show party game from the 1990s and reboot in 2011. In this version, you are given 10 questions and a jack attack with a Internet-Era "Time is Money" approach where the faster you lock in, the more at risk. If you're wondering, this concept was also used in The Guy Game, just with thankfully less boobies, just booby prizes. This is the only game available for 1 player (besides Lie Swagger) and it follows the exact format of 2011. It's a really good quiz game however, given the jack attack is reflexes, it's not a good game for twitch streaming or possibly Group Chat on Discord with that split second delay. However. It's a brilliant game 4.5/5
Fibbage was originally a stand alone title for PlayStation and Xbox, the idea is there is a prompt with a blank, fill in the blank with your answer to bluff the others (or guess to just figure out if you're on the right track) and then everybody else plays a multiple choice weapon, get it right, you earn points, get it wrong whatever you chose goes to your opponent. It's easy peasy. As you can't play this game by yourself (it requires lying and bluffing) it's better spent on stream or group chat. As you get multiple answers. However, the audience doesn't serve much other than a Thumbs Cup help. While it's another quiz game in the pack, you can tell this would be part of the seed that would become Quiplash. A big problem with this game is the questions are VERY limited and you might have repeats after just two games. That being said, it's a classic in the series and you can still have plenty of fun with this 4/5
Drawful is essentially just the Fibbage formula for pictionary, you get a weird drawing prompt like "Pretzel wearing a Top Hat" and then you draw it, but you can't erase anything, and sometimes it glitches out in you at it looks like shit. Again, no single player component on this game, however depending on who is playing, you might have a fun chaotic stream with artists, or it just becomes "everybody draws a penis and guesses randomly". It's a really cute game that I feel should be the first game on your Jackbox journey. Given you have friends who are willing to write silly prompts and play along. 4/5
Word Spud is the joke of the party pack. I think it's a joke in the community about "Where is Word Spud 2?" because it's just loved... somewhat. The game isn't a single player experience, but it's also not that fun of a multiplayer experience. Because they don't really explain the rules to this game. The best way to describe it, (hopefully) you get a word and then you can type in a word or phrase to finish, then you continue that chain, kind of like a "Before & After" on Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy, however your friends are the judge to accept/deny that suggestion and if it fails, they just keep going with a new word and you don't get a point. I think it's meant to be a Hot Potato style game. But it's more of mashed potatoes. Or maybe Hash Brown Noise Down The Street Fighter Turbo Button Mashing Potatoes that's not what you say fuck you. I think the lo-fi vibe would later be used in the Survey Scramble, but as a title with no clear goal, you could just be negative and "win". 1/5
Lie Swatter was originally a phone game for iPhone, and this is a retooled version of the game. The idea is simple there is a category, you determine if it's a Truth or Lie, those of you who are You Don't Know Jack die-hards will know this feels like "Bug Out" from You Don't Know Jack 5th Dementia - a YDKJ game that never came out in the Classic Pack (or Louder Faster Funnier or Off-line)
A cool feature is this game can be played by a single player, or 10,000 people which might be ideal for a holding queue at a convention, or if a streamer needs to take a piss break, and wants something for the audience to do. It's a very straightforward True or False quiz and while there isn't much in the way of comedy, and is ALSO a trivia game in this original party pack, it's still an okay game to play. However, I don't think this will be a game you would want to play over and over. 2.5/5
By now you saw my scores and I am going off my 5 point scale with quarters, as I do on my Game Show podcast.
0-1 avoid
1-2 bad
2-3 average, okay, not missing much
3-4 good, fine, I wouldn't mind playing
4-5 excellent, must play games
However, I now have to do this silly thing of averages for a final grade,
4.5 for Jack
4 for Fibbage and Drawful
2.5 for Lie Swatter
And a 1 for Word Spud.
4.5 + 2.5 is 7 4 times 2 is 8, 15+1 is 16
Whatever 16 divided by 5 is!
Which is 3.2, so 3.2/5 I think that is an average score for this game.
Again, it's a fun party pack, please pick it up when they are on sale and you're bored with friends, it makes for a fun game night!
However, in my situation, at my current timeline, your mileage may very when you have zero friends and you're always a little depressed about it.
I'm sure one day, I will have friends to play Jackbox with, I just hope the servers don't shut-down when that day comes. ☹️