Jackbox Party Pack has been a mainstay for family and friend games night for a long time now, with the original released back in 2014. Jackbox Party Pack 10 has now been released, and it was time to get the boys back together for a bit of fun: a more difficult task than I had first thought. After scouring our schedules, we found a time when we were able to get together and have a night of fun. With five new games, it was time to roll up the sleeves and get into it. To make things easier, I will be discussing each game separately and then writing about the entire experience.
Before that, I set the scene; after a long day at work, I headed home, walked through the door and fired up my PC, Discord, and Jackbox Party Pack 10. I grabbed some grub, a beer and popped my headphones and microphone on. We were finally settling in to talk with the fellas while setting up the room for our first game. Due to the way Discord streams, I had to get more creative with the setup so that all participants could see the stream while also being in voice chat and using the web browser on their phones. After some tweaking, we had everyone on board and were ready to play our first game.
Tee K.O 2
This was our first game of the night, and we competed in multiple rounds. While the images may need to be edited so that they are safe for work, the updated version of this title is a heap of fun. Drawing silly pictures and then following them up with even nuttier slogans had us all laughing like a pack of hyenas. The added choice in the garment is a definable difference from the first iteration of the game.
There’s also the option at the end of each session to print the shirts. While a delight, it is also a considerable expense to have them printed and sent to Australia, and I am unsure if I would be comfortable wearing some of those images in public.
‘Tee K.O 2’ will be a must-play for future game nights.
Time Jinx
The second game of the night had us journeying through time, answering trivia questions, some of us dominating the rest of the crew. Hilarity ensued as we tried to remember eras of memes, songs, people and places. I need to hit the books a bit more.
The game aimed to get the lowest score by guessing the year closest to the answer. A few of us ended up in the triple digits, only clawing our way back up the chart during the later rounds. The other guys and I all enjoyed this game.
‘Time Jinx will be another must-play on future game nights.’
FixyText
This was the third game, and we had reduced numbers due to a player heading to bed—an interesting concept where players all reply to a text message. Everyone has the chance to edit the statement, and the big twist is that all players are editing the text simultaneously, and there is no backspace or deletion of what is written.
Chaos ensued in this game as we edited the messages into an abstract statement, ultimately trying to lead a person into a multilevel marketing scheme falsely. At the end of each round, the players vote on up to seven words they enjoyed the most, and these words are then tallied into scores to the player or players who wrote them.
At the end of the game, I was victorious, my only victory that night, but we all agreed that ‘FixyText’ would have been a blast of chaotic fun with more people.
Dodo Re Mi
The fourth game of the evening was much different from the rest, as it was a music game. Competing as a team, we were tasked with playing instruments in time with the music and on-screen prompts. Two out of three of us sadly did not perform very well in this game. Out of our two rounds, we were unsuccessful in beating the plant monster, and our stars were quickly snuffed out.
After playing the tutorial, we played a second song, still not managing to beat the plant and decided to move to the next game in the pack. While it could be fun, ‘Dodo Re Mi’ was far from the favourite game of the evening.
Hypnotorious
The final game of the evening and a good one to finish on, Hypnotorious was all about trickery, hidden identities, answering ridiculous questions and aligning with the others who you believe share a similar prompt or identity or tricking others into aligning with you. Throughout three rounds, we fought to decide who should be in our group and who the imposter was. Over the two games we played, we were successful half the time.
‘Hypnotorious’ would have benefited from a larger group; however, it is being added to the game list for next time.
Our Jackbox Party Box 10 game night was filled with many laughs, and we all had fun. Our only issues from the night stemmed from how I had decided to stream the pack, assuming everyone would be watching and chatting on PC and using their phone to participate. We found a workaround utilising the streaming settings in Steam.
Overall, the latest Jackbox packs are a great addition to games night. The cost means only the host requires the software, and there is no need for fancy controllers, just a device to access a web browser, such as a phone or tablet. The drop-in and out mechanic makes it easy to share with larger groups. Up to nine players and ten thousand audience members can play, making it an excellent game for streamers and their audiences. The inclusion of a variety of streaming settings makes it easier to share with a streaming community while also weeding out trolls. There is enough variety in this pack to ensure a game for everyone. There are additional family-friendly settings that provide the ability for younger players to enjoy it as well. Our two favourite games from the evening were ‘Tee K.O 2’ and ‘Time Jinx’ both made us laugh.
