You Don't Know Jack Review - New Game Network

Years and years ago, I can remember opening one of those big, classic PC game boxes emblazoned with the top half of an entirely bald head, sitting down, and playing my first game of You Don’t Know Jack on my parent’s first or second computer ever. The series debuted back in 1995 and quickly became known for its more adult-slant on humor and the trivia game show concept that stretched long into the mid 2000s in several different forms (including boxed releases, online versions, and even a short-lived television series). While the series technically ran all the way until 2003 across more than six different volumes, many people felt that the series peaked with the 1998 rendition You Don’t Know Jack Vol. 3: The Ride. While the series remains a classic PC series from the golden age of humor games, it hasn’t seen any new releases in nearly a decade. Now, You Don’t Know Jack has returned as a cross-platform budget title. Does the humor and wit of the series still hold strong or is this one game series that should have stayed dead?

The two biggest things that set You Don’t Know Jack apart from other trivia games out there like Buzz! and Scene It? are its over-the-top humor and its unique blending of two topics, normally one high brow and one low brow worked into the same question. Jellyvision, the series’ developer, has even said that the idea for YDKJ was fully born when they “realized that it was possible to ask about both Shakespeare and Scooby Doo in the same question.” It is this interesting dynamic within the topics covered by the game’s hundreds of questions that makes YDKJ really stand out. Whereas in a standard trivia game, a question about Macbeth comes up and you aren’t familiar with Macbeth, your only chance to answer correctly is simply to guess and get lucky, but in YDKJ, you may not be familiar with Macbeth, but you are probably familiar with Scooby Doo or vice versa. This keeps a vast majority of the questions within the general areas of knowledge of most players while also making for some downright hysterical combinations.

A standard game is comprised of 11 questions with a majority of those being standard, the-quicker-you-buzz-in-the-more-points-you-get style questions that give everyone the chance to answer (the classic single-player buzzing in of the originals has been done away with) before revealing who was correct. Depending on the specific episode being played though, there are special question types that arise, most commonly the series staple “Dis or Dat” which has one player, the one with the lowest score, choosing if a list of items is either “Dis” or is, in fact, “Dat.” These are some of the best humor moments of the game especially when you consider that you are set out to pick whether something is a Britney Spears’ song title or a Pope (that’s just one of many great examples). Add in the option for the other players to steal the money from the items the primary contestant answer incorrectly and it’s an absolute blast.

Additionally, the final question is always a “Jack Attack” which is a first-to-buzz-in style question that tasks players matching two items appearing on screen with an overarching clue. The game can easily be won and lost within the Jack Attack segment. This keep things particularly fun in matches where you have been getting squashed by your opponent and equally as wary if you are the top dog going in. It many ways it contains a lot of rubber-banding mechanics reminiscent of other fun-focused games like Mario Kart. This just really adds to the general atmosphere of the game which is not about winning or losing but about enjoying the company of a few good friends and having a few laughs.

The online multiplayer works just about as well as can be expected. It is easy to find and start a game. Voice chat is fully enabled, allowing you to chat with your opponents. In some ways, not being able to see their reactions to certain questions changes some of the game’s dynamics. Whereas with your friends, you may know that they will not be able to answer a question about baseball or silent films, but you can’t really make any assumptions about the anonymous contender you are up against. This changes, not only when you choose to play your Screws, but also how quickly and readily you buzz in for answers. It is an interesting way to play and much more exciting than playing the game alone, but still it pales in comparison to the full, local multiplayer experience which is definitely the game’s strongest mode of play.

You Don’t Know Jack is a wonderful reboot that is an absolute steal at its budget pricing. With over 70 episodes right out of the box and many more already available through cheap, paid DLC, it has tons of content, questions, and jokes without you ever having to repeat a thing. In a gaming environment in which more and more games are going online only in terms of multiplayer, it’s great to have a title that is the most fun to play in local multiplayer (although the online is still fun). You Don’t Know Jack is another great entry into the ever-growing field of games that seem to be focusing as much on humor as they do on gameplay. If you are looking that will keep you laughing and give you a great reason to have friends over, then you’ll love You Don’t Know Jack.