Jackbox has always been a complicated series. The quality of any given "pack" is pretty much completely random; the early entry of 3 was my favourite for the longest time but there are enough good games peppered throughout the series (Survive the Internet, Dictionarium, Talking Points, etc...) that I pretty much always have my finger on the pulse of the series, waiting for more fun little nuggets. This was probably the first Jackbox I didn't see come out when it came out, but I'm so glad I came around to it because this is the most consistent Jackbox game since 3 and probably has the trajectory to become my favourite in the series.
I played a session with friends, and we pretty much just worked our way down the list in the main menu, I'll give my thoughts on the games in the order I played them, except for Quixort - I played it last, but it's the only bad one and I wouldn't want to end a review of such a great game on a sour note; the best Jackbox games give a lot of wiggle room for their players to be creative and this one doesn't, it has pretty much no unique player input, nor does it have the high stakes that make something like Trivia Murder Party exciting, not to mention how much it relies on the dumb luck of someone on your team knowing your subject and just being able to direct the team.
That aside, the first one we played was Junktopia. This one was a lot of fun, I usually don't care that much about the themes of Jackbox games but this one was a lot of fun, it frames the gameplay well and the spell names in the glass ball are funny. It's kind of like Talking Points but with more individual direction, you buy one of a few random items from this junk store, come up with a name and two facts about it, then present the item to the other players who rate its quality. This one is a lot of fun, the timers are quick enough so you get to write a little synopsis of your item very quickly without any presentation feeling too rehearsed.
The next one is Fibbage 4. In this particular session I played the stock Fibbage 4, but I played a game of Fibbage Enough About You in another server a bit before I played any other game in the pack. This one is a lot of fun too; in practice this one should be pretty bad - winning the game and being funny are constantly at odds with each other - but against all odds this adds to the quality of the game, choosing whether you want to make your response silly or misleading in the stock gamemode is honestly a lot of fun and we got a lot of hilarious responses out of it. Enough About You leans a bit more towards the silliness, and the outright trivia intermission is a bit uncalled for, but this one is a lot of fun too.
Next up is Nonsensory. I was really surprised with this one, I was honestly expecting this one to be the second worst (beat out by Quixort, obviously), the presentation made it look pretty obtuse. Fortunately, however, I was wrong. It took me a bit to understand this one, but in essence someone has to fill in a prompt (e.g. advice a knight would give to his apprentice) with a given level of confidence for the person giving the advice, then the other players have to guess the confidence. It sounds really convoluted but it ended up being a lot of fun, especially in the later rounds as drawings are introduced which take the percentage deals to a whole new height.
And finally, Roomerang. Oh, Roomerang. Quiplash was my favourite Jackbox game for the longest time, but this honestly has it beat for the sheer extent which it lets its players mold it in their hands. The art direction is great, it's always high stakes, and the player traits and the prompts are so open that you and your friends can take them in any direction you want, and it is a complete delight.
Really glad to have played this one, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the general conceit of Jackbox - or, hell, even as an introduction to the series it covers most grounds with the exception of not really having any games that feature a lot of drawing.
I played a session with friends, and we pretty much just worked our way down the list in the main menu, I'll give my thoughts on the games in the order I played them, except for Quixort - I played it last, but it's the only bad one and I wouldn't want to end a review of such a great game on a sour note; the best Jackbox games give a lot of wiggle room for their players to be creative and this one doesn't, it has pretty much no unique player input, nor does it have the high stakes that make something like Trivia Murder Party exciting, not to mention how much it relies on the dumb luck of someone on your team knowing your subject and just being able to direct the team.
That aside, the first one we played was Junktopia. This one was a lot of fun, I usually don't care that much about the themes of Jackbox games but this one was a lot of fun, it frames the gameplay well and the spell names in the glass ball are funny. It's kind of like Talking Points but with more individual direction, you buy one of a few random items from this junk store, come up with a name and two facts about it, then present the item to the other players who rate its quality. This one is a lot of fun, the timers are quick enough so you get to write a little synopsis of your item very quickly without any presentation feeling too rehearsed.
The next one is Fibbage 4. In this particular session I played the stock Fibbage 4, but I played a game of Fibbage Enough About You in another server a bit before I played any other game in the pack. This one is a lot of fun too; in practice this one should be pretty bad - winning the game and being funny are constantly at odds with each other - but against all odds this adds to the quality of the game, choosing whether you want to make your response silly or misleading in the stock gamemode is honestly a lot of fun and we got a lot of hilarious responses out of it. Enough About You leans a bit more towards the silliness, and the outright trivia intermission is a bit uncalled for, but this one is a lot of fun too.
Next up is Nonsensory. I was really surprised with this one, I was honestly expecting this one to be the second worst (beat out by Quixort, obviously), the presentation made it look pretty obtuse. Fortunately, however, I was wrong. It took me a bit to understand this one, but in essence someone has to fill in a prompt (e.g. advice a knight would give to his apprentice) with a given level of confidence for the person giving the advice, then the other players have to guess the confidence. It sounds really convoluted but it ended up being a lot of fun, especially in the later rounds as drawings are introduced which take the percentage deals to a whole new height.
And finally, Roomerang. Oh, Roomerang. Quiplash was my favourite Jackbox game for the longest time, but this honestly has it beat for the sheer extent which it lets its players mold it in their hands. The art direction is great, it's always high stakes, and the player traits and the prompts are so open that you and your friends can take them in any direction you want, and it is a complete delight.
Really glad to have played this one, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the general conceit of Jackbox - or, hell, even as an introduction to the series it covers most grounds with the exception of not really having any games that feature a lot of drawing.