5 people found this review helpful
Recommended
1.7 hrs last two weeks / 36.8 hrs on record (31.2 hrs at review time)
Posted: 25 Dec, 2024 @ 11:33pm

This is an incredible collection from Jackbox Games. Of all the packs, this is the one that we put the most hours into. There are no duds in this pack and some of our absolute favorites are here as well. If you're on the fence about which Jackbox pack to start with, this is a great choice.

* The Devils and the Details - This is probably my least favorite game in this pack, but it's still a fun time. Players all take the role of a family member in a family of devils and have to perform various tasks on their device within the time limit. Most of the tasks make progress towards the shared goal, which is the baseline score that all players receive at the end of the game and is required to continue to the next stage, but as you're evil you have the option to take on selfish tasks that contribute no progress towards the shared goal but rather just add to your personal score. The goal in the end is to have the highest score after all. Overall, it's a decent game we've played a handful of times, but it can get repetitive and there isn't much room to add your own creativity or comedy to the game.

* Talking Points - This is a game about giving a PowerPoint presentation. One player gives the speech while another player runs the slide deck and teleprompter, choosing 3 different pictures and prompts that appear for the speech giver to work into their presentation. Speech topics are all written by players at the start of the game and then given out randomly to each other to choose from. This game leads to some funny moments as the speakers have to come up with some way to tie some unrelated images and prompts into a speech. Great if you enjoy impromptu comedy. The scoring system isn't the best, but this game is more about making up funny speeches than it is about serious scorekeeping. This game does have a bit of complexity to the rules though and might take a few tries for new players to fully understand.

* Blather Round - This is one of my personal favorites. It's a guessing game where each player chooses a person, place, or thing prompt from a set of three, then has to get the other players to guess the prompt using only a very limited selection of words. You craft sentences in the form of "it blanks the blanky blank" where the game gives you two columns of maybe 10 words each to fill in the blanks with. You have to be creative with the limited options you get. This game is relatively easy to pick up for new players, but it also provides a solid challenge and really makes the guessers think.

* Champ'd Up - This is a drawing game where two drawings are put up against each other and players must vote on their favorite. In the first round, each player is given a text prompt in the form of "Draw the champion of blank" and must draw a picture that represents "the champion of blank". In the second round of drawing, each player is shown one of the other player's drawings and must draw a challenger without knowing what the original prompt was. Then, in the voting round, the players are asked to "choose the champion of blank", but as the second round drawings didn't know the original prompt, they can miss the mark entirely leading to some chaotic and hilarious moments. It's one of my group's favorite drawing games. The only downside is that in a small group, especially only 3 players, you have a single person's vote deciding the winner of each matchup. This isn't a problem with larger groups.

* Quiplash 3 - The third installment of Quiplash, this game asks players to type witty responses to various prompts and then players vote on their favorite quips. It's simple, it's funny, and the third round Thriplash lets you enter three line responses which allow a bit more creativity. One of the best games to play to get new people into Jackbox due to the simplicity, but again it's a game that is worse with a small group due to the voting mechanic. In a 3 person game, only one player decides the winner of each matchup. Protip - use emojis in your quips. A lot of players don't realize you can do that. This is one of Jackbox's best games and almost always gets played at some point during every one of our Jackbox sessions.
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