Main game
3.71 average rating based on 258 ratings
Hard to review Jackbox game packs because I dip in and out and only play certain games with friends and never experience others, so my rating is never going to be accurate to the entire package. That said, Fibbage: Enough About You is exactly up my alley (I get to talk about myself and force everyone to get to know my life in order to win? Count me in), and general Fibbage is fun in itself as per usual.
The one I find myself playing with friends most often is Monster Seeking Monster, and it's not uncommon at all for us to boot up this game purely for that. I'm not sure how much I'd like it if it wasn't for the group I have, but they love it and actively ask for it, and it's always incredibly fun with them. The various monster types and secret abilities keep things interesting and change the vibe up per game, and the way the scoreboard can change so drastically and suddenly is always a trip. We like to use anonymous names so we can't cheat the system by going for people we know better than others, people we know our humour lands …
Hard to review Jackbox game packs because I dip in and out and only play certain games with friends and never experience others, so my rating is never going to be accurate to the entire package. That said, Fibbage: Enough About You is exactly up my alley (I get to talk about myself and force everyone to get to know my life in order to win? Count me in), and general Fibbage is fun in itself as per usual.
The one I find myself playing with friends most often is Monster Seeking Monster, and it's not uncommon at all for us to boot up this game purely for that. I'm not sure how much I'd like it if it wasn't for the group I have, but they love it and actively ask for it, and it's always incredibly fun with them. The various monster types and secret abilities keep things interesting and change the vibe up per game, and the way the scoreboard can change so drastically and suddenly is always a trip. We like to use anonymous names so we can't cheat the system by going for people we know better than others, people we know our humour lands with, etc.
Personally not a fan of Civic Doodle, but not because it's a bad game - it takes a pretty damn good drawing-type game to engage me because I suck at drawing in a way that is less "funny bad" and more just "impossible to enjoy bad", but some of my friends do like it, mostly the artists.
Love Survive the Internet, especially in larger friend groups; I'm lucky enough to have some hilarious people around me, and we always end up cracking up with some of the shit that comes out during this one. Quality varies heavily depending on players and the categories you're sent to, but overall it's a fun game with a lot of potential for shocking humour.
May update this if we do end up dipping into Bracketeering, but until then this score is based solely on those four games.
This is my 4th review of the Jackbox Party Pack series and while it's still better than the earliest couple packs, this one isn't one of the best. It does feature my personal favorite version of Fibbage and with the right group, Survive the Internet is a pretty good time.
Usual disclaimers: I'm writing this review after having played a lot of Jackbox already, so I'm often speaking about my impressions in the context of the full release library so far (up through 9 at the time of this writing). I generally play over Discord stream with a group of 3 (including me). I'm skipping games that require more people for now if I've not had a chance to play them with a larger group otherwise, though this pack didn't have any such games. My rating will mostly be based on a holistic look at the pack based on individual impressions of the different games contained.
Civic Doodle
In this game, you're all artists designing murals and art pieces for the local government, such as what will be painted on the local school or drawing portraits of local residents. The image will start with a small piece partially drawn. Each …
This is my 4th review of the Jackbox Party Pack series and while it's still better than the earliest couple packs, this one isn't one of the best. It does feature my personal favorite version of Fibbage and with the right group, Survive the Internet is a pretty good time.
Usual disclaimers: I'm writing this review after having played a lot of Jackbox already, so I'm often speaking about my impressions in the context of the full release library so far (up through 9 at the time of this writing). I generally play over Discord stream with a group of 3 (including me). I'm skipping games that require more people for now if I've not had a chance to play them with a larger group otherwise, though this pack didn't have any such games. My rating will mostly be based on a holistic look at the pack based on individual impressions of the different games contained.
Civic Doodle
In this game, you're all artists designing murals and art pieces for the local government, such as what will be painted on the local school or drawing portraits of local residents. The image will start with a small piece partially drawn. Each round, two players add on to the drawing and the rest of the group votes on the best one. Then two other players will have to add on to that drawing, improvising from the first set of additions, which continues on a few rounds. The game changes slightly in the rules as it goes on, but that's the basics. We didn't really find this game that great. It has some funny moments but there are only so many ideas you'll come up with (and let's be honest, most people just default to drawing penises after a while). So it's decent on occasion, but I wouldn't consider it a staple for the average Jackbox session by any means.
Bracketeering
This game is about as a straight-forward as it gets for a voting-based Jackbox game. You'll get a prompt like "A name for a nasty flavor of ice cream." You each then get to think of two answers to the prompt which will be placed into a tournament bracket against each other. Each match up is voted on by everyone (meaning you can vote for or against your own answer) until only one answer is voted the grand champion. You also get to place bets during each round on one of the match-ups to come for which one you think will win. You get some bonus points if you're right, even if you bet against yourself. In later rounds, the game will change the prompt everyone actually answers. So for instance, after you've put in your ideas for funny gross ice cream flavors, instead the tournament bracket will have you vote on those answers instead for how well they answer a different question like "A name for a brand of sexy underwear." Otherwise there's not much to the game. I think the idea of the game is decent. It's not one I'd play over and over but as a heavily voting-based game, it's also not great for a group of 3 like mine so larger groups may have a better time with it.
Survive the Internet
This is one of those games you probably only want to play with your closer friends who know when to take your jokes as jokes. The premise of Survive the Internet is that each of you will be asked a question to answer, usually requiring a more open-ended response (ie "how do you feel about Nickelback" rather than a yes/no question). Another player will then see your answer but not the question you were asked and instead will have to make up the prompt that it was answering, usually with an internet theme like "this would be X's response to a crowdfunding campaign titled ______." As you might be guessing, you can easily make it look like your friend said some pretty fucked up stuff and that is most of the appeal of the game, how awful you can make people look...with of course the caveat that everyone playing knows who REALLY set that fucked up combo up. You then vote on which person looks the worst, awarding points to the person who set them up. This is a long-time go-to for my group for a quick round to start the night off with some (really awful) hilarity. About my only real complaint is that since the prompts and answers are usually full phrases, when the game flashes each one on the screen, it usually doesn't linger long enough to really take in the joke until you get to the voting stage. One quick note, the game format sort of requires 4+ players but if you have 3, the game will insert an AI player named "Gene." Gene's pretty awful at the game and his answers often make no sense whatsoever, but while that sometimes wastes a good prompt, we usually find his goofy answers entertaining in their own right.
Monster Seeking Monster
This game takes the form of a monster-based dating sim in which each player assumes a secret monster identity and seeks to get the most points by getting the most dates across a series of rounds. Each round you get a limited number of text messages to send to each other to privately convince someone to date then choose who to approach that night. If you both approach each other, you get a date, but if you pick someone who picked someone else, you get rejected. Each identity follows certain individualized rules, getting bonus points for achieving certain things, like dating the same person twice in a row or something. These criteria can be kind of complicated but often yield the primary advantage you want to aim for. There is also a robot character who anyone can date easily but if the robot never gets a date, everyone loses. Each round also reveals the winning player's hidden identity and rules so the other players can try and play around it, which is where it gets a little complicated, incorporating their aims into your strategy. As this description may entail, the game logic can get a little overly complicated for my tastes when I'm playing Jackbox to just have some simple fun. Personally, I thought the game was clever, but I didn't enjoy it too much. I think my friends liked it more, but we all agreed that it would probably be better with a somewhat larger group of maybe 5 people. I will also hazard that while I didn't time it, this felt like one of the longer Jackbox games out there and could be time-consuming.
Fibbage 3
This version of Fibbage is probably my favorite. They dispensed with the "difibrillator" mechanic of Fibbage 2, but otherwise, the game generally works pretty much the same as the previous two editions. The biggest difference is the addition of a separate playable mode called Fibbage Enough About You. In this mode, you each answer (honestly) various personal questions like "if you had one wish, what would it be?" or "who is your biggest celebrity crush?" Your friends then get to make up an answer they think would fool the other players—pretty much like regular Fibbage except it's based on your knowledge of the player—then the players who made up lies have to guess among the truth and the made up answers. The final round is sort of like two truths and a lie, but you just type one truth and one lie, with no real prompt. Your goal is to fool the other players into picking the lie. This mode is pretty short but I personally find it much more fun than regular Fibbage (which is still pretty great), and weirdly, it's actually pretty fun whether you know the other players super well or barely at all as it's fun to both come up with convincing answers for people you probably have an idea of the truth for, and to try and guess at what might be a good answer for someone you don't even know much about. My friends aren't as crazy about this mode as I am (probably because I often win), but I think it's great and also happens to be quite short and sweet, probably one of the shortest Jackbox games out there. Even if you don't like this mode though, this third Fibbage is a once more fine-tuned version of the Fibbage of earlier packs.
All in all, this is a plenty fine Jackbox pack with some really fun games, mainly Fibbage 3 and Survive the Internet. The other games generally aren't bad, but I wouldn't really get this pack specifically for them. However at least Monster Seeking Monster and Bracketeering would probably have been more fun with a larger group.
My other Jackbox reviews:
Jackbox Party Pack 3 ★★★★★
Jackbox Party Pack 5 ★★★★★
Jackbox Party Pack 6 ★★★★★
Jackbox Party Pack 7 ★★★★★
Jackbox Party Pack 9 ★★★★★
Jackbox Party Pack 10 ★★★★★
I really like the Jackbox series. Just as Knowledge is Power, it is a party game with lots of fun, silly animations and a high replay value.
Unlike Knowledge is Power however, Jackbox is a little bit more versatile. Instead of being bound to your PlayStation and your smartphone, you can now use your phone or your pc/laptop to connect to jackbox.tv, and play. The connection and overall stability of the game is also a lot better.
There are many Party Packs for the Jackbox games. Each pack offers a set of minigames that you can complete with your company of friends or family. Most of them revolve around choosing the funniest answer, predict who might have answered a certain question in a certain way, or, in general, just who made the most ridiculous drawing. Throughout the mini games, players score points, the player with the most points wins. Easy and simple.
Of all the Jackbox Party Packs, the fourth one is my favorite. In this Pack, you got Fibbage, in which you guess weird facts about your friends. Then you got Monster Seeking Monster, a dating service for monsters in which you need to come up with your best …
I really like the Jackbox series. Just as Knowledge is Power, it is a party game with lots of fun, silly animations and a high replay value.
Unlike Knowledge is Power however, Jackbox is a little bit more versatile. Instead of being bound to your PlayStation and your smartphone, you can now use your phone or your pc/laptop to connect to jackbox.tv, and play. The connection and overall stability of the game is also a lot better.
There are many Party Packs for the Jackbox games. Each pack offers a set of minigames that you can complete with your company of friends or family. Most of them revolve around choosing the funniest answer, predict who might have answered a certain question in a certain way, or, in general, just who made the most ridiculous drawing. Throughout the mini games, players score points, the player with the most points wins. Easy and simple.
Of all the Jackbox Party Packs, the fourth one is my favorite. In this Pack, you got Fibbage, in which you guess weird facts about your friends. Then you got Monster Seeking Monster, a dating service for monsters in which you need to come up with your best pickup line. You also play Civic Doodle, where you create unique art to brighten up the city. One can only imagen the amounts of d!cks on the wall.
In Bracketeering, You create random words for based on earlier questions. These are put in brackets, and players vote and bet on the best one in a match of two answers. Those then advance to the next round, rinse and repeat.
Lastly, my personal favorite, Survive the Internet. Here, you respond to headlines you read on the internet, after which another players comments and uses that response on their own vile creations. This results in ridiculous articles and frontpages with non sensical nonsense. Players then vote for the most fun answers, and that player wins.
The animations and art style of The Jackbox Party Pack 4 is colorful, jolly and silly. My biggest compliment here, is that all animations and slides within the games, are really fast, keeping the pace of the game at a very healthy levels.
The silly sounds, the jolly music in the background, enhances the experience and lets you have a good time with the game.
With the right company, I can get aches in my stomach from laughing and I think that The Jackbox Party Packs are the best party games out there by far. Especially this one.
In the end, I can only praise The Jackbox Party Pack 4 and recommend it to everyone.
Free @ Epic this week:
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/jackbox-party-pack-4
Next week will be the first mystery game!