Top 5 Jackbox Games That Only Show Up Once

Creating crude doodles always generates laughs, but Tee KO ups the ante by having players combine his terrible art with equally hilarious phrases. Players write slogans and draw pictures that are then shuffled and distributed for everyone to match on a shirt as they see fit. Two shirt designs pit against each other and players vote for the best / funniest. In a way, Tee KO combines the artistic creativity (or lack thereof) of Drawful with the comedy of Quiplash to fill in the blanks; Pairing a preschool gauge portrait of Sonic the Hedgehog with the phrase “Sex Symbol” can have parties in stitches. Best of all, the game allows you to order any design created like a real shirt, like one you can wear in real life, to immortalize your favorite responses.

Rap battle insults are hilarious because the lyrics are either genuinely witty or so cheesy it’s fun to laugh at. Mad Verse City is both by allowing players to immerse themselves in each other under the guise of MC robots. Players create raps using a combination of keywords they choose, with the game generating lines around them and writing totally original sentences. Ideally, you want everyone’s last word to rhyme, but being funny is more important than being Rakim’s second coming. Hearing an emotionless text-to-speech voice vocalize (and sometimes mispronounce) your absurd freestyle only makes it more fun. Since the game tells you who you’re up against, it’s probably best to play with good sports or friends whose relationships you consider bulletproof. As mean as it may sound, the game is more fun when the raps go for the jugular through silly personal insults.

Have a great idea for an invention? Patently Stupid lets you share your “brilliant” ideas with your friends. Players take turns creating a unique problem that everyone else must solve. Then draw an invention intended to address these dilemmas, including the name and catchphrase. Your ridiculous concoction is probably funny enough to elicit a few laughs, but having to present and justify your silly invention to the Steve Jobs-style group can push the game to the limit in the best way. If that’s asking too much, the game can do it for you via a nifty presentation tool.

In hindsight, Party Pack 5 is quite a package. Split the Room is an interesting game in the sense that it asks you to fill in the blank with a hypothetical “would you rather?” Style question. To get the most divisive answer possible. Here’s an example: “You are the president of Pizza and you learn that pepperoni will cause _____ to 5% of people to eat it. Ban pepperoni as a topping forever? “Whatever word you fill in that blank, you want it to ‘divide the room’ as evenly as possible. So Split the Room is a much more cerebral game, but that’s what it does. It is also a creative way to learn how party guests like to think, and at the same time allow a lot of laughs depending on how ridiculous the players are with their responses.

Who Says PowerPoint Presentations Can’t Be Fun? Talking Points divides players into teams of two, with one person in charge of improvising a speech based on slides chosen by their partner. The trick is that the slides are weird stock photos, hilariously out of context, but the challenge is staying on topic while incorporating whatever weird appears on screen in a way that makes sense. The audience then votes on how engaging his speech was, with custom-made prizes handed out at the end. Talking points can lead to uncomfortable train crashes, but that’s what makes it shine, as does watching someone think calmly and deliver a spectacular presentation. That said, the game is not for everyone. Like Patently Stupid, it requires improvising a speech in front of an audience that can be stressful for some, even if it’s a joke. But when Talking Points lands, it’s a riot.