By Jonathan Bilski
Do you think me to cruel for insulting the last major pack? Then, I don't think you
remember it! It might be called pack 10, but we missed a year with The Naughty Pack. Listen, Pack 10 did give us the majesty and grace of falling blocks of answers in a head to head competition in
Quixort and ... nothing really else. So, go back to to Hell with ye, Pack 10, with
Quixort escaping to heaven. Also entering Heaven,
Hear Say. The most crowd pleasing game in pack 11. Oh, jeez the laughs had, the tears cried, the funny noises made. So, let's do what we do with every pack review: the best games first and the worst games last. Though none of them fail quite as pack 10. Enjoy the fire down there,
Junktopia.
Update: As pointed out by Jackbox, I guess, I got confused and switched Pack 9 with Pack 10 and actually was referring to Pack 9 at the start of this review. They have a lot of games and I have played so many of them. So, go get 10 or really any of them if you see them on sale.
For those who have played Jackbox before, skip this part
For those who don't know what I'm kvetching about it. It's The Jackbox Party Pack 11, part of a game series that let's you play with your friends or whomever by using your smart phone or tablet and using said device as your controller to answer questions, draw and this time around, record audio. Someone's PC/console or app has to be running the game, but you can play locally or around the world in real time. It's super easy to do and great for parties and get-togethers. I know some of you know what it is already, but a lot of people haven't heard how cool this is.
Hear Say
Hooray, hooray for
Hear Say. If you want to to calm down a party or set the mood to be extra sensual or downright horny like sweet jazz, THAN THIS IS NOT THE GAME FOR YOU.
LOUD! SiLly! Fun! It's all that and more as you can create sounds with your own phone/device's mic. You are given prompts of all kinds. A squeaking door opening. Being sad at a truck rally. Animals screaming. You make these sounds with your mouth and then vote on who did it best after hearing them all.
Oh, was this the top game of the pack! Instantly a classic. Hearing friends or family as a pro-wrestler or as a camp counselor on a megaphone It's too good.
You got three rounds of fun and vocal warm-ups to start off each round. They could have lost those vocal warm-ups in testing or have a way to skip them. They get real boring after hearing them every time.
Now, you do see your voice shine, if you're the winner. Video clips are shown with your voice used to really sell it. And, never for what you recorded for. Was it a bear humming? Well, the clip is a pilot landing a plane.
And, visual design, hats off, it just looks like early Nickelodeon Animation from back in the 90's. Back, when people knew what Nickelodeon was. A great visual style with an overgrown jungle of wire and old components with avatars that animate to what you say. Adorable little animated creatures perfect to make into stickers. And clips shown an archaic TV that might have said creatures living in it.
Easily, the top game in the pack. Yeah, that sounds right.
Legends of Trivia
If your into trivia or D&D or both...well, that's nice, but other people can enjoy those things too. What I'm writing is, this game is so good it works for everyone. Yes, in a homage to RPG's, D&D and a bunch of other references we have the new
Legends of Trivia that makes you answer questions as a team or get killed by a goblin.
Unheard of. A co-op trivia game for Jackbox? Where's the, "You Don't Know Jack!", screaming at the end of a match? Not here. Here you yell during the fights. So fights within fights. That is not what an abacus is, what are you stupid?
Presented as three quests, different difficulty levels, you transverse different lands in a party of colorful well known RPG creatures/types. Each character is a slight twist with trivia and it's like adding lemon, it makes it so much better. Praise to Jackbox for actually incorporating different stats for each character you choose. More praise for such a great look, copying elemets of RPG games from over the years. You can tell time was taken with animations per character on how the move, attack and have little sound effects.
Trivia is the main game though, as you have to answer it for every attack you make. As a party, you can work together and shout out the answer. Or, if your unsure you can all answer differently so at least someone can score a hit. And, you can get frustrated with each other and yell at a team-mate. But, try to work together, that's the point.
Gameplay changes up from time to time with rapid responses, photo answers and even filling in lists to mix things up. And, you choose the path with your party. Mainly it's multiple choice. There's even a chance to go to a shop to grab items on your quest.
Legends of Trivia is an easy game to get into if your a heavy trivia group and might take up the entire game night if that's what your crew is into. If not, just another great game on the pack.
Cookie Haus
Yah, yah and velcome to dine at von
Cookie Haus. I like the cute cow host/baker's design, but with a name like
Cookie Haus you should have gone with someone wearing lederhosen. The "drawing" game this time around is a cookie maker. It oddly can generate fairly realistic looking cookies. In the hands of the people playing these games, what have you done Jackbox, what have you done?
You've made a gosh darn cute game.
You and friends are in competition to make whatever cookie is prompted; out of cookie shapes in no way suitable for that cookie. You can add frosting and sprinkles up the wazoo. Your only enemy is time and if the group hates your cookie design. You can create cookie works of art or things most unmentionable to others. Then, everyone votes for their favorite cookie in different rounds.
Top notch on cookie creating software via your smartphone, Jackbox. It's crazy you can do your
banking, reading and now fake cookie making on your phone.
Perhaps it's early, but my friends and I weren't vibing on the cartoon world the game presents. The host, who I think is named Moonique, has a great design, but her personality stinks. It was an easy bet with a cute anthropomorphic animal cartoon world, but something seems missing. Great design, but missing on theme, maybe should have been more cartoony German in nature.
Why go with the name Cookie Haus and not Cow Pies, make it a pie maker? Milk & Drawings instead of Cookies. Uhmm, Udderly Bad Cookies. Black & Whites for my Jews for the favorite deli nosh, cuz many cows are black and white. Listen, it's a terrible name and does fit the cow. Cookie Bull?
Suspectives
I suspect you might need to know the group your playing with. The new "social deduction" or detective game in the pack has you trying to figure out the suspect after giving your honest opinions on a survey. The survey is multiple choice except for a final answer that can be a nail in the coffin for some suspects. Ya see, at random one of your group is chosen as the suspect. Thus, we have
Suspectives!
Let's get lazy with design. The all dogs cast of suspects makes me want a little bit more. We know these games can do a lot and having one doggy where shades as oppose to designing a new character screams of tighter budget or running out of time for launch. If just a decision by the director, then bad decision, cuz the game looks cheaper this way.
Gameplay has you suspecting others on the list and then voting on interrogations on whose in the hot seat. Also, a suspects answers are slowly revealed each round. If you know your group that's not that hard. But, if you don't know the people you're playing with, the game would be probably be impossible to win. Fun for friends or family who know each other, but it becomes less playable with anyone new to your group.
Doominate
Get ready to ruin the nice things you say with
Doominate. This one is a little bit harder to get into. You have three rounds to twist what is said. First, a random nice thing must be twisted by your words. Second, you must know ruin something someone in your group was prompted to write that they like. Third, you take it all back as you un-ruin previous prompts. You vote every round on who made everything worse.
It reminds me a lot of the previous game Survive The Internet, that also twists your words and is a bit hard to get into a first.
But, that was done a lot better.
Right now, this might be the weakest game in the pack. Visually, it's still way better than Suspectivies. We even clocked a Nickelodeon clock right out the 90's used as a timer. Showing some flair in this game. It's also got the feel of Quiplash with seeing you "Doominate" over someone with making things worse.
In time, having an angel or devil on your might be more fun, for right now, it's not making weird sounds with instant laughs.
For know let's side with the devil. Burn in Hell Pack 9, though I still recommend getting you on sale just for Quixort and maybe freaky-looking Fibbage 4. There's a new Jackbox in town with funny bobble-heads on the menu screen and games so sweet they must be drunk with friends to be enjoyed proper-like. Released just in time for all the major holiday functions in the calendar year, you know you'll want to play this one well into the new year!
The Jackbox Party Pack 11 is out now on
Steam and consoles.
Game provided by publisher for review purposes.
