This would be great if I had friends

IT IS POSSIBLE TO PLAY OVER THE INTERNET WITH ONLY ONE COPY OF THE GAME:

1) Have the game owner load the game and stream it, PREFERABLY to a service with low delay like Steam or Hitbox
2) Give out the room code (players open up jackbox.tv in their browser or phone) and stream links
3) Enjoy either Fibbage or Drawful. The other three games are too fast paces.

From the few games I played over the internet, I had a lot of fun! I heard some complaints about questions repeating questions, but it's hard for me to say without playing many, many games.

This is hands-down the best party game I've ever played. For the price of You Don't Know Jack alone, you get multiple great games, including an amazing Pictionary-style game that manages to not only have its own identity, but exceeds Pictionary in some ways, mostly in terms of quality of the prompts. I can't say Pictionary has ever asked me to draw "words" or "#throwbackthurs."

Meanwhile, Fibbage manages to take the YDKJ-level of trivia questions and combines it with trying to fool your friends into choosing your convincing yet wrong answer. Would you guess that there's a group of people who celebrate by bashing each other with bags of fire ants? Neither would I, which is why I got 1000 points by tricking my friends into thinking it was feces.

YDKJ is, of course, the best at what it is, and 2015 keeps with the trend of "ARE YOU ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SERIOUS" trivia, so while there's nothing really new about the gameplay, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Don't fix what isn't broken, after all.

Word Spud is the only game that really falls flat for me. The description really doesn't explain what it is, so I'll attempt to do so. Have you ever played the driving game where you say a word, and then your friend has to say a word to go after that one that still makes sense? It's that. That's the whole game. They made a video game out of that. There's scoring, but the points are based on your friends voting on whether or not they liked what you said. There's literally no incentive to say "yes" to anything, so the game falls apart. I see the potential for a Cards Against Humanity-style "everyone puts something in and then you pick the funniest answer" game, but they instead made... this. It's fun for one round, but I don't plan on coming back to it.

Lie Swatter is essentially something you can put on to fill time at an actual party. Since it's the only game that supports more than 8 players, it works well for larger groups who don't want to leave anyone out. Unfortunately, since it's been designed to accomodate such large groups, the gameplay suffers, and it's essentially a game of True or False. It's certainly more fun than Word Spud, but nothing to write home about. Definitely reserved for things like family get-togethers, weddings, and the like.

For those concerned about how multiplayer works, don't be. While a couple of reviews have groaned about the smart device requirement, it really shows how creative the people at Jackbox can be, given the right tools. A game like Drawful has always required you to either play a Flash game on your computer or use some kind of accessory on your console, but in this case, if your device can run a modern web browser, you can probably use it to play these games (while I haven't tried using the WiiU gamepad, I would not be surprised if it worked). Fibbage would be outright impossible with any other input method, simply by design. While I can understand the frustration with YDKJ not using controller input, and I don't know why they didn't increase the amount of players thanks to bypassing the controller limitation, it's a small price to pay, when smartphones and tablets are as ubiquitous as they are.

Oh, and if you're looking to play online, I've found a solution (requiring multiple monitors) that involves using Google Hangouts to broadcast your screen that's hosting the game and having all of your friends play by watching the Hangout. Skype, unfortunately, has such terrible video quality that it's unwatchable, but I'm sure many other video conferencing applications will do a similarly good job. The game runs in Windowed Borderless, so you don't have to worry about constantly alt-tabbing, or anything, and the latency from Hangouts is short enough that you can all laugh at the same things at the same time. If you really want to have fun, you can even broadcast the game on Hitbox.tv, because the latency is short enough to where your viewers can competently play, albeit with a 4-second delay. Twitch is functional for playing Drawful, since you have so much time, but Fibbage and YDKJ are far too time-focused. I'd personally recommend streaming on your preferred site and then advertising the Hangout somewhere in the chat or on the page, for anyone wanting to join.

While I'm concerned about the amount of content, considering multiple-hour play sessions are a regular thing, I've been playing a combination of only Fibbage and Drawful for nearly 8 hours with not a single repeated prompt, yet. I would definitely purchase add-on content, if any became available, as well.

All the games are wildly different in their enjoyment, but they are all positive in my book!

You Don't Know Jack, the classic of the bunch. A cheesy gameshow with traditional trivia interspersed with a few more unusual rounds, like a quickfire true or false and a round which singles out the current loser to get themselves back into the leaderboard. It's decent, but the time based answering means that it's unsuitable for streaming and the 4 player max player count makes it less appealing when there are many friends or family over. Still, it's solid fun.

Fibbage and Drawful are the gems in the pack. Both support 8 players and both have a greater focus on player driven interaaction. Meaning your terrible drawings, guesses and lies become part of the whole game leading to some of the best fun you will ever have with party games.

Fibbage however lacks content, after playing for half an hour or so, questions started repeating. Drawful, on the other hand, took a very very long time until something even resembled a possible repetition. (Drawful is much harder to get a feeling of repetition since the answers and phrases are all so esoteric and outright nuts (which only adds to the fun).

I explored the gamefiles, and saw an explaination. Fibbage only has 200 or so questions, while Drawful is closer to around 600. A rediculous disparity when both games are really great.

Flyswatter and Word Spud are special situation games. They are neat, but cannot really stand among their peers. Flyswatter is basically a game you play if you have A LOT of people who want to play a simple trivia game in the form of true or false questions.
Word Spud is the subjective game of the bunch, where how you win is directly related to what kind of people you play with it. Words are stringed together, one player at a time; whether you want to be smart, funny or write poop and pee jokes is entirely up to you and judged accordingly; as each input is judged by everyone else.

Being able to pretty much play all games (aside from You Don't know Jack) through streaming and also being able to play through mobile, tablet and web browsers makes this one of the most unexpectily well realised, accessible party games released in the last decade.

It is one of those technologies that wouldn't have worked 5 years ago, but now it is in the most fertile of environments, and it thrives.

Boy, I just hope they add some more Fibbage questions though, or workshop support.

I bought this game on a Steam Sale, but, trust me on this, the Jackbox Party Packs are worth the full $25. If I had a nickel for every time I've packed my laptop to a house party JUST FOR THIS GAME, I'd have enough money to buy the trilogy. You just need your laptop and an internet connection to start it up. Listen, the game uses your phone as the controller, which means literally every single person you ask to play with you immediately have a frame of reference for how it works. That's priceless. No teaching controls, no explaining mechanics, just "look at the TV, go to that site, enter the code." I don't care if you have an Android, iPhone, or cheap knockoff iPad; if you have an internet browser, you can play this game. The games offer the prompt, then your phone's browser lets you submit your response. Super easy. I've seen socially reserved people suddenly become the funniest f***er at the party, not because they're social butterflies, but because they were witty with their lies on Fibbage.

PLUS, the games are presented in such a way that it can behave like either Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity. It's good to play with kids, college students, or adults and still have a good time. The prompts are never inappropriate, but you're responses can definitely be. Players can adapt the game to suit your own friend bubble's sense of humor and it's brilliantly handled. There's also a secondary prize in most games (the best ones at least) based on who had the most liked responses, which people can pick after the answer has been revealed.

This one comes with 5 games and all of the best ones have an 8 player cap. Each game takes about 10-15 minutes to play, but they have TONS of questions and prompts, so you'll almost never hit one you've seen before and it's pretty easy to corral people to try it out because of the play time. Each game has an announcer that briefly explains the game and the rules, while also presenting the prompts. They're sorta funny; they get some laughs for being super cheesy. You won't want to turn it off for being annoying, at least. They're a little self aware, honestly. Fibbage XL and Drawful are THE games you need, though.

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK 2015 is basically a trivia game with some quirks. Not much to say about it, but I'm not crazy into trivia games. The series has been around since (at least) the original Xbox, so they know what they're doing with the whole "digital trivia" thing. If you like trivia, you'll probably like this.

Fibbage XL is one of the games you're buying this for. It's a trivia game at it's heart, but the questions are less "fact heavy" and much more obscure/funny. Sometimes someone will know the answer, but most of the time you're guessing. After everyone has sent in a guess (or the time limit goes off), the game presents a list of options to pick from, which are composed of everyone's responses mixed in with the answer. If someone pick your guess, you get points. If you pick the right answer, you get a lot of points. That means you can win for being convincing with your answer, rather than actually knowing it. Really, really fun game.

Drawful is the second game you're buying this for. It's Pictionary, except everyone draws at the same time and you're drawing on a phone so it's really not going to be a masterpiece anyway. Basically, the Drawful announcer tells everyone to start drawing, then everyone gets a unique prompt on their phone to make a little sketch for. Then, the drawings come up one after another on the TV. Like Fibbage, everyone says what they THINK the answer is and everyone picks from a combined list. If it's you're prompt, you get points for every person who picks the correct answer. If not, you get points for picking the correct answer and some points if someone picks your guess. Very fun, probably the best game here, IMO. They even made a standalone sequel and it's also great.

Word Spud is essentially a fill-in-the-blank game. Much more abstract and toned down than the other games. This one is about just hanging around and chilling. Not a huge fan.

Lie Swatter is better than Word Spud, but is really just a spin on how trivia games work. Up to 100 players can play this game, which is really it's main draw. You're basically given a succession of prompts and have to tell whether it's a lie or not. You get points for picking out the lies and more points for being the first to respond.

Seriously, though. Get this. It's a great game to break out at a party or just with a small group of friends. I wish I had this when I was studying abroad and staying in hostels.

excellent game! drawful, fibbage, and the trivia game make an excellent combo! this gets played almost every family get-together. if you're curious on the other compliations, my personal favorite is 3 > 1 > 2, but 3 is not better by much.

Friends not included :(

The Jackbox Party Pack is a nice collection of party games for 1 - 8 players locally. it has a great narrator that knows when to make a joke. May the most funny and creative player win.

The game consists of 5 party games, You Don't Know Jack, Drawful, Fibbage XL, Lie Swatter and Word Spud. Like always some are awesome and some are a bit meh. I will write a short bit about each and every one So let's start with the great ones, And slowly work towards the games that are there for filler.

You Don't Know Jack 2015 can be played with 1 - 4 players It is an extremely funny quiz show, that requires you pick between multiple choice questions, Players need to earn money for answering correctly You earn more if you are faster and you lose money if you answer wrong. I really love this game, They really know how to make you laugh, You have a screw which you can use to force players to answer directly, And there is always a bonus sponser which has a secret answer hidden in the game.

The game is just amazing, I think the game is worth full price just for this title. Some rounds are just crazy. Like Dis or Dat, where you have to choose if something is this or that, Like Justin Bieber or Curious George. Then they ask questions like, Egged a house, Peed in a mop bucket, and you have to answer which of the 2 did it. Some questions are real teasers, or trick questions, They all are extremely funny, This game is just amazing.

Drawful can be played with 3 - 8 Players, You have to draw a drawing of a sentence you are given. Like 2 moms having a great day, It is the goal to make others guess what your drawing is about, Each drawing is shown one by one, then everyone can think of a sentence that represents the picture. After that all sentences including the original are shown and people can vote on what they think the original sentence is. If people vote on a false sentence the thinker of that sentence gets points. If you pick the actual sentence the drawer gets points.

This game is extremely funny, Because people see different things in drawings, Sometimes it is impossible to draw something, Sometimes you draw something and you think it fits, and someone thinks of a sentence that matches way way better. It is hard to draw something that gives different sentences, while still being obvious when the actual sentence becomes a choice. Drawful is an amazing game, But this is not the definitive version of Drawful, There is a standalone game which adds a bunch of stuff.

Fibbage XL can be played with 2 - 8 Players, Each round starts with a category, the last player can pick it. Then there will be a sentence with a missing word or phrase, It is up to the players to complete the sentence. You can not make the sentence true, You have to think of something that sounds true. The truth will also be presented along with everyones answer. Everyone has to vote on what they think is the truth.

The game is great, It is fun to let other people fall for your lies, But it is also hard to really pick the right answer. How gullible is everyone and how good are they at coming up with a likely truthful answer. There are 3 different versions of this game, There is this one in JBPP1 Fibbage 2 in JBPP2, But there is also a standalone Fibbage XL game. I would not know which version is the "ultimate" version. If you do, please let me know.

Lie Swatter can be played with 1 - 100 Players, This is a simple true or false game. It is great because it is funny, But it is not as engaging as the first 3 games. I would still recommend this one, But it gets a bit bland after a while. I am also not quite sure how it will work with 100 players, I think people can play along with the mobile game that is also released by Jackbox Games.

Word Spud can be played with 2 - 8 Players I think this is one of the less fun games. The goal is to link words, The first player is presented with a word, And he has to come up with something that is associated with it. Then all the other players vote if it is a valid answer. If it is the next player has to come up with something that associates with the previous word. It can be pretty fun, But it surely bleaks compared to the rest of the games.

Those where all 5 already, It is obvious that the first 3 games are golden, Lie Swatter is okay, But Word Spud does not really do it for me. I personally Love this collection, JBPP 1 and 2 are by far the best of the series. And I have to give this game a solid 9. If you ever have the occasion to play it, you should, and you won't regret it.

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I know this is just a hypothetical situation, but let's say some rampant disease was preventing you from being able to play board games with your friends. Well, Jackbox Party would be your hero.

So I loaded this up and began screensharing on skype with about 6 people in the call. so we didn't all have to be in the same room together but were all playing due to the controllers being your mobiles. 3 hours later we were all in so much pain from laughing too much.

Drawful is a brilliant way to combine the trickery of fibbage and ultimate rediculousness of peoples interpretation of an image. It's easily one of the funnest party games I've played in a long time. Fibbage and Drawful obviously being the two gems in this pack, but the You Don't Know Jack additions to this easily make it worth the money.

I guess the only issue is you kind of need friends to play most of these games with, or a family that doesn't hate you and your gaming habbit. The game definitely works / is funnier with more people.

Either way, I'd definitely reccommend it. Asuming you have a sense of humor and some people to play this with, you'll be fine.