In this game, every round, one player will be the judge who’ll get to choose the topic. The last unique game to the pack is also one of the more clever and enjoyable ones in the Jackbox line-up that hasn’t yet gotten a sequel, and it is called Earwax. All in all it can be pretty fun but the degree to which people want to continue playing it after a few attempts will likely vary. As a change of pace there are sometimes other exercises requiring people to work together such as everyone working together to file a list of people’s names in alphabetical order. It will eventually even get to the point where the order the clues are read in will be vital and there will be rules that will begin to contradict others. Each instruction will need to be considered carefully, especially as things progress, because the rules will continue to get more complex.
Early on one person will typically be in charge of cutting wires while each of the other players will receive a vital clue painting a piece of the picture for which wires should be cut. The solution that will save everyone? A combination of patience, deductive reasoning, and communication. Playing out completely differently than every other Party Pack game that I’ve played you and your friends will take on the role of interns in a pretty incompetent company that apparently, with regularity, produces unstable bombs which will need to be deactivated in order to prevent everyone from suffering an explosive death. Moving on to what will probably be the most contentious game in the bunch in terms of people likely loving it or hating it we have a rare cooperative Jackbox game in the form of Bomb Corp. It can be a relatively good time, and in particular some of the comments and ads for the loan company are a lot of fun, but the limited quality of what you’re able to draw and the somewhat convoluted way things can play out made it the least popular of the pack for my group. So the bidding ends up being a mix of people who are informed, people who may think something is valuable incorrectly, and people who are simply trying to fake out everyone else to get them bidding on something they know is worthless. Another is that you only have a set amount of money to bid with and if you want some more you’ll need to get a loan… but it will cost you $500 interest on a $1000 loan that you’ll need to pay at the end of the game. One complication is that it isn’t unusual, because of the low quality of the art people can quickly put together, for pictures to potentially represent more than one description… making the advice you receive only as helpful as how well you’re able to confirm what the art represents.
To help clue people in each person will receive the actual value of multiple art pieces. Some art carries higher values and some is pretty well worthless. Once everyone is done drawing the main game will begin where everyone will start with a set amount of money and will look to bid on different pieces of art. In my case one time I was given a man wearing over-sized sunglasses and a flash mob. The idea is that each player will receive hints for creating 2 different pictures. Essentially filling the space of this Pack’s game that involves drawing I’d say after a few playthroughs it is the one I’ve enjoyed the least overall, though there are some great elements of humor in it. I’ll start out with what I’d consider to be the weakest of the bunch and that would be Bidiots. Though the overall format of the Jackbox party games remains roughly the same, and there are two titles in Party Pack 2 that are versions of those found in other packs (Fibbage 2 is the sequel to Fibbage XL in Party Pack 1, Quiplash XL is the prequel to Quiplash 2 in Party Pack 3), there’s plenty of originality to be found in Jackbox Party Pack 2 that makes it unique among its peers. With so many of their games available now how is someone to pick which one suits them the best? Surely, you may also think, with so many of their games offered there must be some serious overlap in what’s offered? Well, if you’d thought that I’m happy to say you’d be wrong.
Released in parallel with the original Jackbox Party Pack and after Jackbox Party Pack 3 it may seem like Jackbox Games is competing with themselves a bit on the Switch.