Kittystrophe
2021
This is like if The Witness was designed by someone who wanted the player to have a good time
2023
Creepy OuterWilds-like that constantly had me feeling like I was both sequence-breakingly clever and completely in the dark about how this world works. Also has a bitchin' soundtrack and a tonally confusing obsession with titties. If Hades is the Gideon the Ninth of video games, Void Stranger is the Harrow the Ninth.
Stopped playing because I stumbled into hard mode, where there's little to do but grind out those sokoban GIMP puzzles while feeling the literal energy drain from the mental crunch of it all. Still a mind-blowing experience for what I got out of it. How dare she choose the fetus
Stopped playing because I stumbled into hard mode, where there's little to do but grind out those sokoban GIMP puzzles while feeling the literal energy drain from the mental crunch of it all. Still a mind-blowing experience for what I got out of it. How dare she choose the fetus
Commendable for its vignette storytelling style that stands out even among other walking simulators, especially for the time it came out. Playing in current year, you may notice that walking sims need good writing to be interesting, and with this one the method of storytelling is far more compelling than the plot itself, which is kinda just a boring "what if bad things also happened to white people?" story. The one non-white character who married in is an Indian guy whose main interests are hookah and being from India.
2016
Jonathan Blow's disdain for accessibility is outmatched only by his burning hatred of completionists and speedrunners. Half of all the puzzles in the game revolve around proving you don't have aphantasia, and there are entire sound- and color-themed sections of the island that aren't particularly well designed to begin with, but are completely unsolvable for a Deaf or colorblind player, in a game with no accessibility options whatsoever. To his credit, you at least don't need to complete all sections to unlock the endgame. However once you get to that endgame, there is no skip button for the moving and flickering screens designed to cause motion sickness and seizures.
Don't get me wrong, The Witness also has many fun and interesting puzzles that don't alienate disabled players, which is why I feel compelled against simply rating the game as low as possible, despite my many grievances about the squandered potential and active antagonism of the player. I think it's really cool whenever a puzzle has multiple valid (and accepted!) solutions that reconfigure the environment in a different way depending on which one you last entered, but then I have to complain again because the integration between the 2D puzzle screens and the 3D environment they affect is trash. Every animation is deliberately crafted to be as slow as a tortoise dipped in molasses for no reason. This includes the player's movement: The default walking speed is a crawl and the "run" button enables a light jog. There are also numerous puzzle screens that waste your time by turning off if you get the answer wrong, demanding you repeat a previous puzzle you already solved before you can try again. Supposedly this is a precaution to penalize guessing, but really it just punishes experimentation.
The meta for criticizing The Witness seems to be that it's a glorified phone game and didn't need this budget-necessitating 3D world to solve 2D line puzzles. Personally I would have been happy just solving line puzzles with pretty backgrounds but it feels like the game is trying to thwart my attempts to enjoy it at every turn.
Don't get me wrong, The Witness also has many fun and interesting puzzles that don't alienate disabled players, which is why I feel compelled against simply rating the game as low as possible, despite my many grievances about the squandered potential and active antagonism of the player. I think it's really cool whenever a puzzle has multiple valid (and accepted!) solutions that reconfigure the environment in a different way depending on which one you last entered, but then I have to complain again because the integration between the 2D puzzle screens and the 3D environment they affect is trash. Every animation is deliberately crafted to be as slow as a tortoise dipped in molasses for no reason. This includes the player's movement: The default walking speed is a crawl and the "run" button enables a light jog. There are also numerous puzzle screens that waste your time by turning off if you get the answer wrong, demanding you repeat a previous puzzle you already solved before you can try again. Supposedly this is a precaution to penalize guessing, but really it just punishes experimentation.
The meta for criticizing The Witness seems to be that it's a glorified phone game and didn't need this budget-necessitating 3D world to solve 2D line puzzles. Personally I would have been happy just solving line puzzles with pretty backgrounds but it feels like the game is trying to thwart my attempts to enjoy it at every turn.
2021
Ahistorical white supremacist garbage
2022
Starts unassuming, but give it an hour to show its hand and you'll find yourself in a Legend of Zelda that's also an Outer Wilds, full of breathtaking epiphanies in both game mechanics and lore. Also can't overstate how ridiculous the boss design is, the worst Tunic boss is better than the best Dark Souls boss.
2014
It's impressive how much they were able to accomplish on what was clearly a shoe-string budget, both in terms of literal money and especially development time. The game is super short and definitely not polished, but there's a solid combat system in there, with a surprising number of animations showing off different throws/finishers/etc for each individual bending style. It's a shame Activision/Nickelodeon decided to let this become abandonware. Worth a try if you can get your hands on it, especially if you like Avatar and 3D beat 'em ups (particularly the original God of War), and can forgive some awkward camera movements and blatant palette-swap enemy recycling. One thing I can't defend is the Naga Temple Run segments.
How do you make a sequel to the Stanley Parable a decade past the specific marketing trend it originally parodied? You lampoon the concept of making a sequel to the Stanley Parable
A landmark that transformed the party game scene, rendered retroactively pointless by the best games getting sequels & spiritual successors with better mechanics, visuals, and accessibility options.
You Don't Know Jack - C tier - The standout of the pack in terms of visual style and constantly throwing loud novelties at the player. Stay with this one long enough and eventually you realize it's a lot of flashing lights to distract from shallow game mechanics. It's a trivia game where the real challenge is to parse confusing questions with limited time, that's about it. Wrong Answer and Jack Attack are neat concepts with poor implementation, and the latter means that final scores always give the W to whoever has the fastest reflexes and lowest device ping.
Fibbage XL - B tier - The best of this pack's 3 trivia games. You Don't Know Jack has more style but Fibbage stands the test of time with better game mechanics. Player-submitted trick answers allow an actually social game, rather than trivia devolving into parallel single-player. Not as good as Fibbage 3/4 or Trivia Murder Party.
Drawful - A tier - For my money drawing games are usually the best in the pack, including this one. Drawful uses the same trick-answer mechanic as Fibbage while enabling even more player expression through drawing instead of listening to trivia. Better than Weapons Drawn, worse than Tee K.O. and Champ'd Up, about the same as Drawful 2 & Drawful Animate.
Word Spud - D tier - The biggest gameplay standout that hasn't really been replaced by any newer Jackbox game. I can see why they never returned to it though: It's barely a game and more like a word association stim toy. Can be fun if getting high doesn't impede your reading & typing abilities.
Lie Swatter - F tier - The least interesting trivia game in a pack of 3 trivia games. There is no freeform player input, only answer true/false. It's barely a game and more like a tech demo, testing the server's ability to handle a massive number of players, what would later be better implemented as the audience feature.
You Don't Know Jack - C tier - The standout of the pack in terms of visual style and constantly throwing loud novelties at the player. Stay with this one long enough and eventually you realize it's a lot of flashing lights to distract from shallow game mechanics. It's a trivia game where the real challenge is to parse confusing questions with limited time, that's about it. Wrong Answer and Jack Attack are neat concepts with poor implementation, and the latter means that final scores always give the W to whoever has the fastest reflexes and lowest device ping.
Fibbage XL - B tier - The best of this pack's 3 trivia games. You Don't Know Jack has more style but Fibbage stands the test of time with better game mechanics. Player-submitted trick answers allow an actually social game, rather than trivia devolving into parallel single-player. Not as good as Fibbage 3/4 or Trivia Murder Party.
Drawful - A tier - For my money drawing games are usually the best in the pack, including this one. Drawful uses the same trick-answer mechanic as Fibbage while enabling even more player expression through drawing instead of listening to trivia. Better than Weapons Drawn, worse than Tee K.O. and Champ'd Up, about the same as Drawful 2 & Drawful Animate.
Word Spud - D tier - The biggest gameplay standout that hasn't really been replaced by any newer Jackbox game. I can see why they never returned to it though: It's barely a game and more like a word association stim toy. Can be fun if getting high doesn't impede your reading & typing abilities.
Lie Swatter - F tier - The least interesting trivia game in a pack of 3 trivia games. There is no freeform player input, only answer true/false. It's barely a game and more like a tech demo, testing the server's ability to handle a massive number of players, what would later be better implemented as the audience feature.
While the Jackbox series is great, this is one of the weaker entries. I rarely see anyone boot it up, and haven't played half the games on it, and I feel like there are good reasons for that. You might as well just get the standalone Quiplash instead of this pack, as nothing else on it comes close.
Quiplash XL - S tier - Quiplash is awesome from the get-go. It's what fans of Cards Against Humanity think that game is like, except all submissions are a blank space to write in, so the jokes aren't already written for you, and don't always revolve around trying to be offensive. Quiplash stands out as highly repeatable in a sea of once-a-day novelties. One shortcoming of this sub-series is it feels like they never know what to do with round 3, and never give it enough time, even with extended timers.
Fibbage 2 - B tier - Trivia with social trickery via fake answers. It's Fibbage, but 2er. This sub-series doesn't get meaningfully iterated until Fibbage 3.
Bidiots - C tier - A drawing game themed around money and auctioning. As the follow-up to Drawful in the 1st pack, this feels like a straight downgrade. Bad name too.
Bomb Corp - ??? tier - Haven't played it, so it's hard for me to say how well it works.
Earwax - ??? tier - Haven't played it, though with the premise being "Quiplash but the jokes are written for you and they're all sound effects" I think I can make an educated guess that this is a D or F.
Quiplash XL - S tier - Quiplash is awesome from the get-go. It's what fans of Cards Against Humanity think that game is like, except all submissions are a blank space to write in, so the jokes aren't already written for you, and don't always revolve around trying to be offensive. Quiplash stands out as highly repeatable in a sea of once-a-day novelties. One shortcoming of this sub-series is it feels like they never know what to do with round 3, and never give it enough time, even with extended timers.
Fibbage 2 - B tier - Trivia with social trickery via fake answers. It's Fibbage, but 2er. This sub-series doesn't get meaningfully iterated until Fibbage 3.
Bidiots - C tier - A drawing game themed around money and auctioning. As the follow-up to Drawful in the 1st pack, this feels like a straight downgrade. Bad name too.
Bomb Corp - ??? tier - Haven't played it, so it's hard for me to say how well it works.
Earwax - ??? tier - Haven't played it, though with the premise being "Quiplash but the jokes are written for you and they're all sound effects" I think I can make an educated guess that this is a D or F.
This is when Jackbox Gets Good. Instead of 2 good games, 1 mid one and 2 duds, this pack has 3 good ones, 1 mid, and only 1 dud.
Quiplash 2 - S tier - Better than Quiplash 1, worse than Quiplash 3
Trivia Murder Party - B tier - A frenetic trivia game like You Don't Know Jack but spiced up with fun minigames instead of just shouting at you. I could do without the digitally down-pitched host voice.
Guesspionage - C tier - It's Family Feud with a neon hacker aesthetic. Half the time it feels like a skillful game, and half the time they either had a flawed survey or John Q. Public is just insane.
Fakin' It - F tier - Completely non-functional over a stream, and barely functional in-person. For fans of hidden role games, Push the Button does it better.
Tee K.O. - A tier - Drawing games always have great potential, especially when the captions are player-generated too. The gauntlet format was a great idea to give the game a scoring system while maintaining a brisk pace. I have mixed feelings about the offer to print your design on a real life T-shirt at the end of each game. On one hand, it creates a memento of a joyful time that normally just vanishes, and it's a logical conclusion to a game about designing T-shirts. On the other hand, reaching a tendril of capitalism amid delight and laughter is still preying on people's looser wallets at a time of heightened emotion, and I can't find any indication of the physical shirts being ethically sourced; they don't even say the name of their printing partner, basically just "we outsourced, don't worry about it."
Quiplash 2 - S tier - Better than Quiplash 1, worse than Quiplash 3
Trivia Murder Party - B tier - A frenetic trivia game like You Don't Know Jack but spiced up with fun minigames instead of just shouting at you. I could do without the digitally down-pitched host voice.
Guesspionage - C tier - It's Family Feud with a neon hacker aesthetic. Half the time it feels like a skillful game, and half the time they either had a flawed survey or John Q. Public is just insane.
Fakin' It - F tier - Completely non-functional over a stream, and barely functional in-person. For fans of hidden role games, Push the Button does it better.
Tee K.O. - A tier - Drawing games always have great potential, especially when the captions are player-generated too. The gauntlet format was a great idea to give the game a scoring system while maintaining a brisk pace. I have mixed feelings about the offer to print your design on a real life T-shirt at the end of each game. On one hand, it creates a memento of a joyful time that normally just vanishes, and it's a logical conclusion to a game about designing T-shirts. On the other hand, reaching a tendril of capitalism amid delight and laughter is still preying on people's looser wallets at a time of heightened emotion, and I can't find any indication of the physical shirts being ethically sourced; they don't even say the name of their printing partner, basically just "we outsourced, don't worry about it."
A swing and a miss. It's nice that they use the Pack format to experiment, but that means they can't all be bangers. Pack 4's best game is made obsolete by its improved sequel in Pack 9.
Fibbage 3 - A tier - The star of the pack. This version makes numerous improvements to the scoring system and audience feature, but most notably introduces Fibbage: Enough About You, which turns Fibbage into a "2 Truths 1 Lie"-style game about the current players. The 1st round is the ideal version, while the 2nd is a bit too open-ended and winds up encouraging players to spend the 1st thinking of their answers in advance.
Civic Doodle - ??? Tier - This pack's drawing game. I haven't played it.
Survive the Internet - C tier - It's no Quiplash, but it's more fun than you'd expect based on the cringe aesthetic and title.
Bracketeering - F tier - Severely undercooked and barely a game. It seems like there should be a debate phase where you try to win people over to your answer, but there are no game mechanics to support this.
Monster Seeking Monster - D tier - This one stresses me out. I think it's the combination of speed-dating (inherently stressful activity) and the lack of an equivalent "flirt for me" feature like Fibbage and Quiplash have. I could see this being a hit with the right crowd, but to me this game exists to be tried once and never returned to.
Fibbage 3 - A tier - The star of the pack. This version makes numerous improvements to the scoring system and audience feature, but most notably introduces Fibbage: Enough About You, which turns Fibbage into a "2 Truths 1 Lie"-style game about the current players. The 1st round is the ideal version, while the 2nd is a bit too open-ended and winds up encouraging players to spend the 1st thinking of their answers in advance.
Civic Doodle - ??? Tier - This pack's drawing game. I haven't played it.
Survive the Internet - C tier - It's no Quiplash, but it's more fun than you'd expect based on the cringe aesthetic and title.
Bracketeering - F tier - Severely undercooked and barely a game. It seems like there should be a debate phase where you try to win people over to your answer, but there are no game mechanics to support this.
Monster Seeking Monster - D tier - This one stresses me out. I think it's the combination of speed-dating (inherently stressful activity) and the lack of an equivalent "flirt for me" feature like Fibbage and Quiplash have. I could see this being a hit with the right crowd, but to me this game exists to be tried once and never returned to.
Where some Party Packs have 1-2 standout games and 3-4 forgettable ones, this Pack is consistently mid.
Split the Room - C tier - Neat variant of the "fill in the blank" game that tests player skill on something other than being funny/wacky. Something's off about the Twilight-Zone-parody framing device, feels like it drags down the atmosphere rather than supporting it.
Patently Stupid - B tier - A lot of these gimmicks just end up with a drawing game more awkward than the basic Drawful. It's better than Weapons Drawn at least.
You Don't Know Jack: Full Stream - C tier - I admittedly have not played this version, only the one in Party Pack 1, but it seems like they got it to support more players and made the Screw mechanic worse.
Mad Verse City & Zeeple Dome - ??? tier - I haven't played these.
Split the Room - C tier - Neat variant of the "fill in the blank" game that tests player skill on something other than being funny/wacky. Something's off about the Twilight-Zone-parody framing device, feels like it drags down the atmosphere rather than supporting it.
Patently Stupid - B tier - A lot of these gimmicks just end up with a drawing game more awkward than the basic Drawful. It's better than Weapons Drawn at least.
You Don't Know Jack: Full Stream - C tier - I admittedly have not played this version, only the one in Party Pack 1, but it seems like they got it to support more players and made the Screw mechanic worse.
Mad Verse City & Zeeple Dome - ??? tier - I haven't played these.
This is the beginning of the Jackbox golden age. All but one game is a banger, and they finally have captions!
Role Models - A tier - Competitive personality quiz! The Final Adjectives are often insults, but sometimes eerily accurate. This game can be hit-or-miss depending on the prompts/categories but it's mostly hits.
Push the Button - B tier - The Jackbox Among Us is unsurprisingly its best hidden role game. My favorite part is getting a different prompt and having to justify your answer.
Joke Boat - B tier - Pretty good, but I'd always rather play Quiplash.
Trivia Murder Party 2 - B tier - They didn't need to change much about Trivia Murder Party, so they didn't. It's still the best Jackbox trivia game other than Fibbage: Enough About You.
Dictionarium - D tier - Making up definitions can be funny, the word itself not as much. So 2 out of 3 rounds are dull.
Role Models - A tier - Competitive personality quiz! The Final Adjectives are often insults, but sometimes eerily accurate. This game can be hit-or-miss depending on the prompts/categories but it's mostly hits.
Push the Button - B tier - The Jackbox Among Us is unsurprisingly its best hidden role game. My favorite part is getting a different prompt and having to justify your answer.
Joke Boat - B tier - Pretty good, but I'd always rather play Quiplash.
Trivia Murder Party 2 - B tier - They didn't need to change much about Trivia Murder Party, so they didn't. It's still the best Jackbox trivia game other than Fibbage: Enough About You.
Dictionarium - D tier - Making up definitions can be funny, the word itself not as much. So 2 out of 3 rounds are dull.
This is the best Jackbox Party Pack, hands down. If you only want one, Pack 7 is the one to get. It not only has Quiplash in it, but also the best drawing game, and no duds.
Champ'd Up - S tier - Gauntlet of fighters with a tag-in feature that both keeps things from getting stale and combats recency bias. It's a lot like Tee K.O. but kind of a straight upgrade.
Talking Points - A tier - Improvised slide presentations are consistently hilarious. The only thing keeping this game out of S tier is the poorly thought out scoring system that actively detracts from enjoying the show if you actually try to engage with it.
Quiplash 3 - S tier - Quiplash 2 introduces Safety Quips, Quiplash 3 makes them actually relevant to the prompt. This is the best version of what was already Jack's best game.
Blather 'Round - B tier - So this is basically Jack's take on Taboo, but a lot more functional. Instead of being way too easy with a short list of banned words, it gives you a limited set you can say. Feels a bit antithetical to the chaotic shouting of a typical good Jackbox time, but not enough to ruin the game.
The Devil and the Details - C tier - It's okay. Well implemented, but feels like a remnant from earlier Jackboxes when player expression was less of a priority.
Champ'd Up - S tier - Gauntlet of fighters with a tag-in feature that both keeps things from getting stale and combats recency bias. It's a lot like Tee K.O. but kind of a straight upgrade.
Talking Points - A tier - Improvised slide presentations are consistently hilarious. The only thing keeping this game out of S tier is the poorly thought out scoring system that actively detracts from enjoying the show if you actually try to engage with it.
Quiplash 3 - S tier - Quiplash 2 introduces Safety Quips, Quiplash 3 makes them actually relevant to the prompt. This is the best version of what was already Jack's best game.
Blather 'Round - B tier - So this is basically Jack's take on Taboo, but a lot more functional. Instead of being way too easy with a short list of banned words, it gives you a limited set you can say. Feels a bit antithetical to the chaotic shouting of a typical good Jackbox time, but not enough to ruin the game.
The Devil and the Details - C tier - It's okay. Well implemented, but feels like a remnant from earlier Jackboxes when player expression was less of a priority.