The Jackbox Party Pack 4 (Nintendo Switch) Review

Where You Don't Knock Jack focused primarily on trivia, The Jackbox Party Pack has comfortably cemented itself as a compilation of mini-games sporting the same tone and aesthetic of its predecessor. While the series has done relatively well for itself, each entry so far has featured a mixed roster of games with the clear standouts eclipsing the weaker titles added for the sake of differentiating each Party Pack from the last.

It's one of the dangers of establishing a franchise as a yearly one, honestly. While admirable that Jackbox Games doesn't want to release the same pack over and over again, it's clear that some games just aren't getting the right amount of attention to justify their inclusion but, with a yearly release, there is a schedule that must be abided to. Thankfully, The Jackbox Party Pack 4 doesn't suffer the same issues as its precursors, being home to the best selection of games thus far.

Each game in the pack has enough polish and allure to warrant multiple plays. Of course, there are some that stand out as the clear "winners" of the pack, so to speak, but that isn't because the other titles aren't worthwhile; this time around, at least.

Returning after an absence in last year's pack, Fibbage 3 is the trivia game that's just as much about fooling the opposition as it is knowing the answer. Every round, players will be given a question and they will have to add in a lie before the answering phase. If a player picks your lie, you get half the points you would have gotten for answering the question correctly. Because points aren't solely distributed from guessing the right answer, questions end up being obscure and genuinely difficult to answer at times, relying on weeding out the lies to decipher the truth. With no set linear order for what category is placed with each round, every game of Fibbage 3 feels different from the last. It is worth mentioning, however, that while the game can be played with a minimum of two people, it's at its best with a group of four or more.

An offshoot of Fibbage, Fibbage: Enough About You makes its debut appearance in this Party Pack. Instead of answering assorted trivia, players answer questions about themselves and lies are added into the mix to create a more intimate Fibbage experience. Every round, someone will be selected to answer a question about themselves, lies will be added into the mix, and the typical guessing begins. This time around, though, the player who was asked a question also gets reputation points for every person who answers their question correctly. As a whole, it doesn't get as wacky as Fibbage 3, but it's a welcome addition nonetheless.

While every game in the pack features the end goal of winning, Survive the Internet is the game that's, by far, the least focused on outperforming your peers. Players are asked to answer a social media related question so that their answer can then be sent to another player without the context. They are then prompted to write a new prompting question to be associated with the answer in order to make their opponent look as bad as possible. Players vote on whichever coupling they liked best, but the fun comes from writing and reading what everyone else wrote. The more present, the more creative the outcomes become.

Monster Seeking Monster is Jackbox Games' answer to the party game Mafia where partygoers are given a role and must act out that role for each in-game day until they guess who the mafia members are, or they are whacked. Since The Jackbox Party Pack has never been a particularly violent series, however, this focuses on the love life of multiple different monsters. Each contestant is given their role with a specific power and they are sent off to send four messages a night in search of a date. At the end of the night, players must pick who they want to go on a date with based on who they were messaging. Afterwards, the messages will be displayed for everyone's reading pleasure, including who asked who out and whether or not they were rejected. Like Fibbage 3, this works significantly better with more than the required minimum - the ideal, here, being six to eight players.

Out of all the games, Civic Doodle is the one that feels most at home in a smaller setting. Every round, two players are given the basis of an art piece before being tasked with drawing their interpretation of it. Once the drawings are complete, other players in the group vote for which picture was better. Every game has a minimum of three players, but this is the only one where that minimum actually feels appropriate and doesn't detract from the game as a whole.

The final inclusion, Bracketeering, is a tournament where players respond to prompts and have their answers pit against one another. Players then vote on their favorite responses and whichever wins moves on. Unlike the other games, which only need players in less than the double digits to be made the most of, Bracketeering does not live up to its potential without at least 10-12 people involved. It's undoubtedly fun but it's the most hassle-filled one to set up.

Each game has its own identity to distinguish itself and they all serve a unique purpose in the pack. There isn't a single game that stands out as weaker than the others. It is frustrating that smaller parties simply won't be able to take advantage of most of the pack, but streaming does allow for online play even if it isn't the ideal workaround. Out of all the party packs so far, The Jackbox Party Pack 4 is easily the best of the bunch.