Jackbox Games‘ unique and hilarious party game compilations are an annual staple and cause for elation amongst my friendship group. We have consistently enjoyed the vast variety and creativity that each Jackbox Party Pack has offered since the franchise’s third instalment, and the excitement at each new release never ceases to re-emerge. The Jackbox Party Pack 9 has been no exception. Everyone swiftly cleared their schedules when the release date was announced and we have already put hours of our evenings into the next-level entertainment that the newest game in the series has to offer. With that positive spin of an introduction established, then, here are our game-by-game thoughts on each of the 5 (and a half) new titles on offer in Party Pack 9.
Junktopia
The first game our group jumped into in Party Pack 9 was Junktopia. A minigame which draws some notable inspiration and features from past pack titles, Junktopia tasks you with upselling junk in order to reverse a curse which has turned you into a frog. The more long-form and sensical description, however, is that Junktopia revolves around a series of rounds in which you purchase an item from a bizarre pseudo-pawn-shop, develop some witty taglines to make it more attractive, and attempt to gather positive appraisals from your friends in order to value your artefact at a profit.
Much like many Jackbox games, Junktopia offers you something weird yet challenging to make into a funny thing for your friends. The game offers a relatively understandable format and a bank of weird objects, but beyond this much of the fun factor is over to you. Ultimately this is not the most fun or attractive game in Party Pack 9, however, it does not let the side down in any meaningful or significant way. A fun place to start with a view to amping up the experience thereafter, Junktopia is a passable Jackbox game which doesn’t quite meet the standard of hall of fame status for me.
Roomerang
Roomerang is the now-classic “a bit complicated” game of Party Pack 9, but like many of its predecessors with that tag, it is truly one of the greatest new offerings this year. Based on reality TV houses, players take on a role and personality in the house and must role-play (or not) that part in order to earn popularity points and stay in the house. A variety of tasks challenge you to stay fun and relevant, whilst eviction votes offer the opportunity to oust your friends. Eviction is not the end, however, as “new” housemates are frequently arriving in the place of those who leave. They do, however, look suspiciously similar to one another…
Roomerang is clever and puts a whole new type of Jackbox party game on the table. The roleplaying aspect has been lightly employed before, but the absolute hilarity at this game of sleight and fancy was so much more than my friends and I expected going in. Rivalries and outlandish commentary emerge like wildfire, and weak points in the personalities of comrades are fully exploited. Best played with friends who take ganging up with a pinch of salt, Roomerang has become an instant house favourite for our group.
Nonsenory
Nonsensory is a game of careful thinking, hot debates and likely disagreements. In this game the premise is simple; on a scale from one to ten, give an example or drawing of what would fall at X. The point comes from and for your peers if they can correctly guess what level your prompt represents on the scale. Straightforward, right? The prompt you are working on is something along the lines of suggesting a quote from Batman to Robin which falls firmly at a 7. Now you are thinking on your toes about something Batman could feasibly say to Robin, but would not certainly say. The drawing rounds become even more interesting, as you start by drawing a picture on a scale from eagle to dolphin, before the final round tests you to draw a diagram on a percentage scale between banana and foot, where the depiction is 60% swayed towards the banana. Needless to say, this is the type of Jackbox game which will bring out the very best form of comedic chaos amongst your friendship group.
Naturally, the more mentally in tune, you are with your friends’ ways of thinking the more likely you are to score highly in Nonsensory. If you know that Timothy isn’t much of an artist and that the leaf on that pineapple is actually more likely a shark’s fin, then you can likely decode your way to victory. If you are feeling particularly confident, you can even double down on your prediction to earn bonus points, but only if you are within a 10% (or one tier) margin of the correct answer. Anything more or less than this and you lose points instead. It is my favourite type of calamity, though those sensitive to criticism from their comrades should probably stray clear of this rapidly meta-judgemental minigame. On the whole, Nonsensory scored for me and my friends as one of our top two picks from Party Pack 9, and a game we will be playing long into the quiet Friday nights of the future.
Fibbage 4
Fibbage 4 is the return of a long-time Jackbox legend. Balderdash incarnate in an improved video game form, Fibbage offers a bizarre prompt to which you need to form a fake, yet believable, response. Points are earned both by identifying the correct prompt from the options which present themselves, as well as by fooling other players into believing your own false one. It is a working formula which has served Jackbox games well for years now, and Fibbage 4 throws a couple of different twists in the mix. Fan-submitted video prompts make for an entertaining diversion from obscure real-world factoids, whilst the double prompt finale of the game sees you attempting to find (and create) two answers at once from a pool. Funny as it has ever been, Fibbage 4 holds up as a classic supporting the mid-tier of Party Pack 9. But wait, there’s more!
Where Fibbage 4 really shines is the new play mode in this version; one which makes you and your friends the centre of the action. In this game mode, the action starts by answering prompts honestly about yourselves, with the subsequent questions all being about the people in your physical (or digital) vicinity. Not only do you learn all manner of nonsense about your friends here, but the silly business and fun factor of Fibbage is only amplified when all of the false answers about you and your mates start flowing in. A stroke of slight but notable genius by the Jackbox team, this is certainly the best way to play Fibbage 4, and possibly the most fun my friends and I have had with Fibbage to date.
Quixort
Quixort might be the best Jackbox Game since sliced Quiplash. Not akin to its near-namesake in style but aptly placed in the high-ranking Jackbox games of all time, Quixort challenges competing teams to quickly sort (yep, you got it) items in a category from first to last, most views to least views, highest to lowest grossing… you get the idea. A remarkably fun game which requires a wealth of useless general knowledge and a cooperative team structure above all else, Quixort is a lot of fun as one team rallies to frantically sort their falling prompts into the correct order (think Tetris) whilst the other team giggles in the background and resists the temptation to correct or otherwise sabotage them. The perfect balance between pseudo-intellectual coordination and rampant panic, Quixort represents the best of both worlds in the comedic and smart catalogue of Jackbox minigames.
The game starts relatively simply with teams choosing between a semi-revealed or total mystery prompt, followed by straightforward categorisation. This develops as the game progresses with the addition of intentionally fake “Trash” blocks which you must dispose of to score, with a challenging final round which gives you a second attempt at creating the best streaks. Much like Snapchat (or so the kids who still use it tell me), streaks are the key points in Quixort. The more blocks you get in the correct logical order, the more your points will multiply in that round. The concept and execution are simple, but the mix of the teams is truly what makes this game so fun. Akin to its predecessor in Party Pack 8, the friendship-group favourite that was Poll Mine, intentionally mixing your teams leads to the most comedic and entertaining outcomes in Quixort. The game certainly leads your proverbial horse of a group to water, and I highly encourage you to make it drink.
Other notable features
The return of Jackbox is once again supported by great, ongoing localisation, and more importantly the careful integration of accessibility features. Jackbox Games have championed accessibility for years, and Party Pack 9 continues the theme with options such as the removal of times from games, subtitles, audio-described room codes and instructions, text sizes and much more. A lot of overt consideration has gone into ensuring anyone can play and enjoy the games to the best of the developers’ abilities, and for this, they should be heartily commended.
Verdict
Jackbox Party Pack 9 does not disappoint. It is far from “more of the same”, but it maintains the expected level of entertainment value whilst upping the ante in all the right places. Not all minigames are made equal, of course, but Quixort and Nonsensory are new all-timers for my group of witty friends, with Roomerang playing close to the top charts line as well. Another year of hilarity and nonsense awaits Jackbox fans new and old. Truly, Party Pack 10 will have a lot to live up to.
Grab your copy here https://www.jackboxgames.com/party-pack-nine/
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