Jackbox Party Pack 3 review [Nintendo Switch]: King of parties

Not since we discovered that putting alcohol in Jello did a party combination feel as right as the Jackbox Party Pack 3 coming to Nintendo Switch does.

Though it released on other platforms last year, one of the biggest (and only, really) issues with the latest edition in the Jackbox series is that it’s confined to one house. It isn’t exactly easy to pack up a console and take it to a friend’s home for party gaming, let alone one where setup time and TV HDMI inputs are an issue. I should know this. I was the guy who lugged around his Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Dance Central kits to people’s abodes just to keep the party going. But all that waned as consoles became more complex and plastic peripherals disappeared. The calls stopped coming and my social popularity dropped.

So when the Jackbox Party Pack 3 was released for the Nintendo Switch, I realized one thing: oh baby, I have become the Party King again.

Since getting our hands on the game we’ve managed to bring it to three different houses, a corporate office and a Tim Horton’s, all with smashing success (and almost a police escort out of one — don’t be too loud, kids). The game is played via mobile phones, with players entering “rooms” in their browsers and using the screens as the gamepads for up to eight players (with up to 10,000 via Twitch… yikes). The Switch’s portability allows us to take it anywhere, and should we get connected to wifi we’re able to have an instant party. Hooked up to home networks is easy, corporate ones a little more difficult (damn firewalls) and Tim Horton’s sometimes impossible. However we persevered, connecting the console to a mobile hotspot on a couple of the occasions and realizing this could be a way to play out on the patio or a Nintendo Switch commercial rooftop.

The Party Pack comes with five games, ranging from one to eight players, that haven’t been available in other iterations sans Quiplash 2‘s standing as a sort of sequel/expansion.

Quiplash 2

The game asks a few players to answer prompts, often resulting in some beyond crazy answers, with the remaining competitors voting for their favorite. It’s a bit like Cards Against Humanity in enabling creativity, although with my set of friends that quickly turns into sex jokes with every elderly-related prompt.

This is clearly the star of the package, as it’ll probably get the most play time and works great with streaming/Twitch. It’s also the best of the bunch with the full eight in-room players, since the speed of the game is conducive to chaos.

Guesspionage

Possibly our favorite of the games to play, Guesspionage plays a bit like Family Feud but with a little sabotage thrown in. As percentage-based trivia questions pop up and one person answers, the remaining try to determine if his or her answer is lower or higher than the actual amount. I purposefully go to the edge of what I think my limit is, in hopes that others will over- or under-shoot the total and miss points. It’s a bit diabolical, but that’s part of the joy of the experience. I hope?

Trivia Murder Party

Trivia Murder Party is a standard-fare trivia game, but one in which players can “die” along the way. Answering incorrectly enough times transforms us into a ghost, which, during the final round, requires us to chase the survivor before they escape the house. This is done by answering more questions than them, so the heat remains on the survivor to actually try to answer correctly.

All of this is represented as a sort of sock puppet doll house, with players taking the roll of dolls (and eventually ghosts), flashing lights and a “spooky” atmosphere. It’s actually kind of charming, if you like escape rooms.

Tee K.O.

Though this edition of the JBPP doesn’t include the sketch-based Drawful, it does include the novel creativity-based Tee K.O. The game has us drawing t-shirt designs and creating slogans, before everything is mixed up and we need to connect two from among all the entries. Expect a lot of dirty drawings.

Fakin’ It

Fakin’ It brings the physical room into the game, as players are required to fulfill prompts from their phone (hold fingers over your head, point, etc) all in effort to find the person who purposefully isn’t doing it like everyone else.

Though there are enough questions and prompts for each game to probably never see the same twice, the game collection is best played by rotating experiences instead of sticking to just one over and over again, which can wear down our spontaneity. There’s also the issue of player limits, as three of the games require more than two players, which can limit the amount of time couples can enjoy it together.

With the console becoming the portable party machine, Jackbox Party Pack 3 is a terrific addition to the Switch. The console is a multiplayer machine on the go, and with the simplicity of connecting to the Jackbox servers and the controller only needing to be whatever phone or tablet we have, it’s easy to get started. The games are fresh and fun, and the comedy writing is good enough for more than a few chuckles if not outright laughter. The creativity-based endeavors are especially great, and are a riot when a few drinks have been had.

Since I debuted JBPP3 at a house party last weekend, I’ve had three more calls to bring my Switch with me to different places. Make way, boring people, the King is back.

This review is based on an eShop copy of the game sent to SideQuesting.