Jackbox Party Pack 8 is a solid version of the fantastic formula

Jackbox party packages are a social blessing; These collections of simple and dynamic minigames have been a stronghold during the pandemic. Only one person needs to own the package, and then you can make a Discord call or Twitch stream and have everyone have fun via a web browser. The most recent entry, Jackbox 8 Party Pack, is a solid new competitor in the series, with no games that feel like filler.

Some of these packages are to meanand enjoy facing your friends in a strange competition. Others are fairly laid-back and can be safely sent to entertain the family on vacation or to break the ice with acquaintances. All of the games in 8 feel a bit more focused on delivering a specific experience, and the developer has gotten better at working out its little quirks.

Drawful Encourage

Drawful it’s great and one of the best games from previous packs. Drawful animate is better. It’s like a wild game of Pictionary, where players are given wacky subtitles and limited tools to draw them. This is not an artistic endeavor; in fact, the worse you do it, the more fun things get. Drawful animate Spice things up even more by giving people two pictures to complete, which are then put together to create a basic animation.

This isn’t much of a change, but it’s brand new and it also comes with some fun tools like episodes. You can write your own wild phrases or fill in the names of your friends to Drawful animate you can bring them up as the subject of a round. It’s a good tool for stacking on top of the base game, and players can avoid burning all the prompts by adding their own. Drawful animate is the main poster of this pack, and it’s a lot of fun, as long as you were already on board with Drawful vanilla.

Work work

Job Job was my favorite surprise from this pack, and it’s especially good for those who love silly humor. On Work work, they all answer trivial questions. Those answers are then sent to the other players, who have to use their fridge magnet skills to put together a coherent answer. This is a fast and fun one that is independent of the group; I’d be just as comfortable busting this with friends as I would my family on Christmas Eve. Also, the fact that everything in the Work work The Universe Has Googly Eyes is deeply disturbing and hilarious, nullifying the inherent despair that drains the soul from the job search.

The survey mine

The survey mine It is a super charming survey game. Players must rank their choices based on a tough question: which of these dire options can you best bear? So everyone has to guess how their friends responded. The nature of this game means that it is probably best with a pre-existing group that is familiar with each other. But for fans of previous Party Pack Games who focus on interpersonal dynamics, like Party Pack 6‘s Role models, this will be my pleasure.

Image: Jackbox Games

The wheel of enormous proportions

The wheel of enormous proportions it is a simple roulette wheel, with a trap. If you want the wheel to flatter you, you can earn bigger portions by answering quick trivia questions. The game can give you a large chunk of John Travolta’s filmography and then ask you what movies made him dance. Take it out of the park and as you get closer to the wheel, your wins will grant you some random wheel slots, increasing your chances of getting a win for yourself. The only real downside to this minigame is that the Wheel itself is, and there’s no better way to put it, horny on Main. The presumption of the game is that you are playing the travelers trying to get the titular Wheel to answer your unique question. The Wheel is also … a bit to help you ascend to your spiritual heights. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a mild distraction.

Drawn weapons

Drawn weapons it’s probably the most cerebral game of the pack. Everyone is a murderer and a detective: the goal is to hide their own murders while discovering others. The game takes a letter from your name and gives it to you as a business card. Next, you need to draw a weapon around that business card to disguise it. The ‘A’ in Cass can become a claw foot bathtub faucet, or the ‘C’ can become the handy edge of a mallet.

With Jackbox 8 Party Pack, Jackbox Games has further refined their process, making all of these games a lot of fun. Their expertise is also reflected in nice quality-of-life features, like a menu that lets me adjust the volume and dial in extended timers just once rather than having to manually go through the menu for each minigame. It’s a small improvement, but a welcome one.

Neither of these games are worth the cost on their own – there are party packages that I own like Tee KO or Quiplash machine, and none of the games in this package have the same rigidity and ease of learning. But there are no smelly things either: everything here is something that I would feel comfortable recommending to a friend or bringing to a meeting. It is a valuable resource, and I imagine that wherever I go, I can at least cheer it up with some Work work.

Jackbox 8 Party Pack It will be launched on October 14 on the main digital platforms. The game was reviewed using a pre-launch download code provided by Turtle Rock Studios. Vox Media has affiliate associations. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information on Polygon’s ethics policy here.