The Jackbox Party Pack Review

If you’re looking for a great party game for the PS4 to play with your friends and family, you can’t really go wrong with The Jackbox Party Pack. For half the price of your typical AAA game, you get five classic board games in one package, but without any pieces to lose or mess to clean up. You don’t even need to worry about purchasing additional DualShock controllers for your console- the game is controlled by your tablet or smartphone, and up to 100 people can play! While it’s incredibly unlikely that you can fit 100 people around your TV, it’s a great feature for anyone who owns a bar or coffee shop and wants to host a game night.

So what games are included?

First and foremost is the classic You Don’t Know Jack, in which players try to answer as many trivia questions correctly as quickly as possible. You can bet on your answers, which can make for some great late game comebacks, and the categories and questions are varied enough that everybody will be strong in at least one area.

Fibbage is a unique trivia game in which you are presented with a question and then must pick an answer, but the twist is that you don’t have to pick the right answer to get points. The other players vote on if your answer is the true answer or if it’s a lie- you do get points for picking the right answer, but you get even more for successfully lying to your opponents.

One of the most laugh-inducing games in the bunch is Drawful, where you’re presented with a series of words or phrases and then tasked with drawing one of them on your phone’s touch screen. The other players then guess what your picture represents, and just like, you get more points for faking them out.

Lie Swatter is the game that supports up to 100 players, but it’s the most simplistic of the bunch as players are simply tasked with guessing if a given statement is true or false. The fifth and final game is Word Spud, which isn’t a competitive experience as much as it is just for casual laughs. It’s similar to Cards Against Humanity in that it’s a word association game and it’s fairly simple.

The smartphone integration is incredibly straightforward- there’s no downloading involved; all you do is go to the game’s website and enter a code to link your phone to the game, and from there you’re good to go. The UI is sleek and there’s no lag, and the setup doesn’t feel gimmicky at all, which is usually a concern whenever smartphones are being hooked to game consoles.

All in all, The Jackbox Party Pack is a great party game that’s totally worth the budget price tag. You’ll be playing within minutes of opening the game’s case and the variety in the games will have you laughing for a long time to come.