"Nice to see you, to see you nice"
Ever since I reviewed Jackbox Party Pack 2 it's been a firm favourite among friends and family. I can't remember the last time we had a house party without it making an appearance. So when I heard that Jackbox Party Pack 3 was about to be set loose I was all in.
Jackbox Party Pack 2 is still a big hit with my family of non gamers so Pack 3 really has a lot to live up to. Included this time around are Quiplash 2; Trivia Murder Party, Fakin’ It, Guesspionage and Tee K.O. As usual each game has its own style and the humour varies from family friendly to a distinctly more adult orientated for those boozy nights in or the just got home from the pub quick half before going to bed sessions. I gathered my kin around the TV with some reveal friends who had played Pack 2 before and with alcohol in hand we got stuck in.
As with Pack 2 setting up is a breeze. Navigating to a specific website and entering a code let's you use your Smartphone, Tablet or Laptop as an interface to interact with the various games. It's to easy that even my parents set it up without any prompts from me. You can even play the game via a streaming service from anywhere in the world. It's a fantastic system and I absolutely bloody love it. But as always the true test is in the gameplay.
Quiplash 2
Quiplash is back and it's better and bolder. Each player gets given multiple sentences and you must chose one sentence to play with. Then you must find the funniest phrase to insert into that sentence. Trust me I know how boring that sounds but it's not. There are some rip roaring belly laughs to be had here. I found a lot of the humour to be quite adult adult orientated and after a few beers there's nothing like a good bit of schoolboy humour. Quiplash 2 is as good as if not better than its predecessor.
Trivia Murder Party.
The title is a huge red herring and it's nothing like the image the title conjured in my pickled brain. If your a pub quiz veteran you will be right at home here. Answering a succession of questions correctly keeps you in the game however answer a question wrong and you and anyone else with the wrong answer gets put into an elimination round where the loser gets killed. This isn't the end of the game for the loser because their ghost will make an appearance in the final round where it's all or nothing. We found a lot of the questions to be very American based which led to a lot of random button pressing but thankfully it didn't diminish the fun we had
Guesspionage
Guesspionage divided opinion amongst the group. This is a percentages game which asks you to decide what is the percent of people polled for various subjects which boils down to a competition of higher or lower. One player enters a percentage via an onscreen dial and then the remaining players decide if the amount should be higher or lower. I found this game quite dull compared to the previous two and not at all funny which is one of the big draws for the Jackbox Party Pack series of games especially for my family.
Fakin' It
Another great party game with a difference. Fakin’ It is all about being a liar and a cheat and my step kids loved it. Every player is given a task to perform apart from one player. The player who is nominated as The Faker must blag his/her way through each round until the game finishes or they get caught by the other players. Everything here is about face pulling and weird poses so it's easy to see why my step kids instantly fell in love with Fakin’ It. Us oldies enjoyed it as well but some found it embarrassing.
Tee K.O.
Tee K.O became very rude, very quickly and was hilarious because of it. When the game starts you're asked to draw pictures on blank T-Shirts. Then you are asked to create random slogans. These slogans are then randomly added to various T-Shirt designs with hilarious results. Knowing the people in the room were ever so slightly drunk I should have expected the filthy slogans and penis drawings but each one still made the room erupt with laughter. It's then up to everyone in the room to vote on the best designs. With each T-Shirt going into a head to head competing until a winner is declared. We all love T-Shirt K.O. and it's a game that was played multiple times through teary eyes.
As I mentioned in my opening paragraph via Jackbox Party Pack series of games are loved in our house and when we are in party mode Pack Two always makes an appearance. It's easily accessible by everyone because we all have smartphones on us these days. Jackbox Party Pack Three isn't as strong as Pack Two. T-Shirt K.O. and Quiplash Two are the highlights for me while Guesspionage took up all out of party mode and added a very bizarre sense of seriousness to proceedings. Jackbox Party Pack Three will definitely be making multiple appearances over time alongside Pack Two which is still the front runner.
Developer: Jackbox Games
Publisher: Jackbox Games
Website: The Jackbox Party Pack 3
Twitter: @jackboxgames
Jackbox Party Pack 3 is available now for £19.99
Review code supplied by Sandbox Strategies