The Jackbox Party Pack 8 Review
Jackbox Games released the original Jackbox Party Pack in 2014, and a new entry in the series has been released every year since. On schedule, The Jackbox Party Pack 8 has arrived but with the franchise now eight entries deep, fans may be wondering if it’s starting to lose its appeal. Luckily, the new Jackbox Party Pack game proves that the series is about to run out of steam. Every new edition of The Jackbox Party Pack features a headline game, and The Jackbox Party Pack 8 is no exception. The fan-favorite Drawful game has been transformed into Drawful Animate for The Jackbox Party Pack 8 and is arguably the main selling point of the collection. The basic premise of Drawful is retained in Drawful Animate, but, as its name suggests, players are now tasked with animating their drawings. In Drawful Animate, Jackbox Party Pack 8 players are first given a prompt to draw something on one slide, and then they animate it on a second slide by retracing certain lines and -tweak the image if necessary. This opens the door for new possibilities when it comes to Drawful hilarity, but Drawful Animate is somewhat lacking when compared to previous versions of the mini-game.
The main issue is that turns tend to take longer in Drawful Animate. The players are given three minutes to draw both slides, and since they have to be more careful with their drawings if they want the animations to look good, the players will take their time more than before. Those who can draw quickly will find that they spend a lot of time waiting for other players to finish their drawings. Of course, this problem is negated if the players are in a group that draws at the same speed, although that seems unlikely. In any case, Drawful Animate provides an experience that should be familiar to Drawful fans, and it gets bonus points for having multiple game modes. Unlike most Jackbox Party Pack mini-games, Drawful Animate has a standard mode along with a Friend Mode that has players animating scenes about other players in the game (which are usually with the funniest results), with Make Your Own and Featured Content modes as good. These alternate modes mean that players should still get some decent mileage out of Drawful Animate, especially if they find the right group of friends to play with. While many will likely try Drawful Animate first since it’s at the top of the menu, players may have more fun with the four other mini-games available, such as the Wheel of Enormous Proportions. Wheel of Enormous Proportions is the representative trivia game for The Jackbox Party Pack 8 with some interesting twists to help it stand apart from its predecessors.
The Wheel of Enormous Proportions has players answer various questions and if they are successful, they earn “slices.” These slices can later be used in a wheel that players can spin to gain points. The more slices players collect during trivia questions, the more chances they have of scoring points from the wheel. Players must physically “spin” the wheel with their mobile device, making Wheel of Enormous Proportions more interactive than the trivia offerings in previous Jackbox games. The titular wheel in Wheel of Enormous Proportions talks to players throughout the game and in typical Jackbox fashion, has some pretty funny things to say. The writing in The Jackbox Party Pack 8 is excellent, with the game full of sharp wit and a generally good sense of humor. Besides the Wheel of Enormous Proportions, it can also be found in the new Job Job mini-game. Job Job is a new mini-game in The Jackbox Party Pack 8, and it has a rather unique concept. The basic premise is that players are interviewing for a job where the boss is a water cooler sensation. Players answer various questions, and then share with the group the words used in their answers. Other players have to use this jumble of words to come up with answers to more questions, and while it sounds tedious on paper, it can be very entertaining. Throw in some satirical takes on corporate culture, old-school motivational posters from the mid-2000s, and an ancient PowerPoint presentation, and Job Job has the makings of a new fan-favorite Jackbox mini-game.
Job Job is a lot of fun in The Jackbox Party Pack 8, but the star of the show is Poll Mine. Poll Mine is the best game in this new collection of Jackbox mini-games, and it’s no surprise to see it a game that streamers play a lot in the near future. In Poll Mine, Jackbox players are tasked with ranking things, like their favorite famous cars from movies, for example. Everyone who plays the game submits their ratings, although up to 100 audience members can participate as well, so this game is likely to be popular with Twitch streamers. It even has a dedicated streamer mode, so the developers are clearly confident that it will catch the attention of the streaming community. When Poll Mine players submit their rankings, the game aggregates the results and ranks the items accordingly. The goal was for players to find out how the ratings turned out, either by predicting the top three or by ranking them in order. Unlike other Jackbox games, Poll Mine encourages active discussion between teammates as they try to figure out how everyone rates. It might not be as funny as the other games in the collection, but it’s the most fun gameplay-wise. And finally, the fifth game in The Jackbox Party Pack 8 is Weapons Drawn, which takes inspiration from social deduction games like Among Us. Players in Weapons Drawn are tasked with finding out the identity of the killers. It takes longer to play than other games in the collection and there’s a lot to learn about it, so it might not be an instant play for Jackbox players when they pull out The Jackbox Party Pack 8 for game nights.
Like all other games in the series, The Jackbox Party Pack 8 has its hits and misses, but one’s enjoyment of any particular game really comes down to personal preference. While some may not care for the social deduction gameplay found in Weapons Drawn, it could be a favorite for those who really like Among Us. However, one thing that will be a stumbling block for all Jackbox Party Pack 8 players regardless of their personal opinions on the mini-games are the bugs. Jackbox Party Pack 8 on Nintendo Switch has more bugs than Jackbox fans are used to, and while none of them will significantly affect one’s enjoyment of the games, they certainly stand out to notice. these. Sometimes bugs come in the form of end-game animations slowing to a crawl and outputting garbled audio, but other times they can affect gameplay, like a weird bug in Drawful Animate and Job Job where the game keeps deleting text players. trying to type. Extreme bugginess aside, Jackbox Party Pack 8 is another solid addition to the franchise and well worth the investment for anyone looking for a new party game to play. Poll Mine, Job Job, and Wheel of Enormous Proportions are the standout games, though Drawful Animate and Weapons Drawn will likely have their fans as well. Jackbox Party Pack 8 launches on October 14 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Today Technology was provided with a Switch code for this review.