Jackbox has established itself as a mainstay of the autumnal release schedule, with all the annual Call of Duty and FIFA games. The Jackbox Party Pack 9 offers a new selection of party games for you and your pals to get lost in this year.
Over the years, Jackbox has significantly improved and expanded, responding to user requests and adjusting to shifting game preferences. Today’s accessibility features and game settings make playing with a remote group of friends easy and natural. Additionally, the game has undergone full EFIGS localization for the first time, which has allowed for the adaptation of additional regional humour.
The game performed beautifully for our remote play session, with everyone playing on their phone locally while viewing the shared screen, aside from the peculiarities of Discord screen sharing on a Mac – play in windowed mode for audio to share.
Lie No. 4
There is always at least one game that is back, and this time Fibbage 4 is the featured title. It’s a simple game where you’re given instructions and asked to come up with a false but plausible alternative response before trying to separate the true response from the group’s falsehoods.
This edition’s new video round asks you a question based on a video clip; ours was from a vintage film featuring polar explorers finding something in the ice; what might it be? It resembled the “What Happened Next” round from A Question of Sport a little bit.
The last round, in which you must develop one response that could perhaps apply to two challenges, is more difficult to understand. The overlap between the real answers and your lies, however, led to some misunderstanding among our party because the real answers don’t overlap. But once you play a few times, you’ll get the feel of it.
Despite not being the most well-known of the Jackbox regulars, Fibbage 4 is the game that holds the party pack together. Fibbage: Enough About You also makes a comeback as a player-led variation.
Roomerang
We now move on to a brand-new and unquestionably fascinating topic. The format of Roomerang is similar to that of a reality TV game show, complete with eliminations, covert tactical voting, and appeals to the group as a whole.
You select an avatar, a name, and a job, interest, or another aspect of oneself before the game starts. Depending on the group, you can either be who you are or get into creative roleplaying.
The actual game is divided into five rounds, with various prompts and combinations to encourage you to think of humorous solutions. It opens with a common question, “What did you do to your hairstyle to start the show?” The next round combines your question with that of another participant: what would you call their dance style? After that, there is a fast round that is anonymous before the conclusion, where you make your case for why you should win the entire competition.
In the elimination phase that follows each round, you can vote to send contestants home.
In the elimination phase that follows each round, you can vote to send contestants home. The loser gets to type a few words before leaving, but they shouldn’t worry too much because they get to return with an entirely new identity and fancy hat instead of being eliminated from the game altogether.
Everyone begins with 5 points, which they can increase or decrease with each vote cast during a round and elimination. This is the peculiarity. The victor of each round will also receive a bonus, which can include things like immunity from elimination, the capacity to trade points with another player, the ability to revoke another player’s vote for elimination, and more.
Swapping points is a true measure of how much attention you’ve been paying to who’s winning and losing because the score is kept a secret from the others.
Roomerang is the true standout of Jackbox Party Pack 9 thanks to its innovative format while having a lengthy playtime over five rounds.
The extremely UK-centric way to explain Junktopia is as “Junktopia Bargain Hunt, except you’re a frog trying to flog odd rubbish for a wizard.”
You must select from an assortment of weird curios throughout three rounds, from gruesome dolls and torture chairs to cuddly cow plushies and jewel-encrusted fish, and then try to come up with a name and a couple of backstory details to persuade the other players of their worth and value. You can write free-form or use provided prompts, and you also have the choice of a presentation mode that lets you speak over your item as it is presented.
The items are divided into groups if there are enough players, and after that, voting is conducted by asking you to choose your favourite item pairings. You must then name your collection in the last round, after which there is one more vote.
Due to a large number of strange items, there is potential for a lot of humour. If you finish your answers early, the main screen displays a variety of odd magical incantations and what they do, however, the structure is somewhat simple in comparison to other games in the package.
Nonsensory
Nonsensory, the required drawing game in this Jackbox, has three rounds and combines writing and drawing.
This one’s central idea is the most challenging to understand after only one viewing. You are given a prompt, but you are then asked to provide a response that falls within a certain range. Therefore, if you are asked for advice for a new parent, you must rate the usefulness of that counsel on a scale of 6 to 10. The rest of the group must then rate your response and award points based on how accurately they were able to do so.
From then, it becomes much weirder and harder, with the second round requiring drawing from just one suggestion and the second combining two prompts. How can you depict something that resembles a cathedral 70% more than a cat? or cries out 60% more than they fart? You do have an undo button in this drawing game, which is a blessing.
Although the game is difficult to grasp and some individuals will always find it difficult to distinguish between 5, 6, or 7 out of 10 answers, points are awarded rather generously, and you can double down by adding “confidence” to an answer if you believe you are in the appropriate range. Additionally, it helps that there is a lot of variety available as you move through each round because instructions are only ever shared between two people. Nonsensory can turn up some great pearls of weird ingenuity if you give it a few tries.
Quixote
Finally, we reach Quixort (‘quick sort’, get it?) — a fun team game and the quiz game included in the box. Your objective, depending on the category or question, is to order the answers from lowest to highest, best to worst, or least to most in a Tetris-like block-dropping game. The types of suggestions you can anticipate include placing the Friends theme song lyrics in the correct order, ranking the strongest superhero, and US high school hierarchy.
Each team member on a team takes turns placing an answer throughout each round as the teams alternate using different prompts. The opposition team can chirp along and attempt to turn people off, and the game truly fosters conversation and speculation.
There is an Endless mode that you can play alone or with everyone on the same team; I found myself speaking and attempting to assist.
The first round is fairly simple to help you get used to it, the second round introduces some fake answers that you need to eliminate (for example, what age is Squilliam Shakespeare), and the final round informs you of which answers you correctly grouped and allows you to make corrections.
You should be aware that this game is unquestionably the most prone to lag if you’re playing with friends remotely and try to make up for it by changing some of the online game settings or having the local player take the lead. It’s also the only time I wished I had turned on the non-US-centric prompts setting in the settings, and I thought the option to choose between a loose categorization and a complete mystery was a little pointless.
Summary
REVIEW : Endzone – A World Apart (PC)
