Opinion: The top 5 Jackbox games for any social gathering

Jackbox player avatars sitting around a screen playing the game. Art by Wes Mowry-Silverman.

Jackbox was one of many online games that facilitated digital socialization during the COVID-19 pandemic and thus blew up during that general time period. Clips of YouTubers playing the game circled the internet, and young people needed something to do all day that wasn’t Minecraft and Among Us.

Jackbox refers to several different “party packs” all made by the same company, each containing a set of five games designed to be played casually at an in-person party, over a Discord call, or as part of a livestream. It’s quite popular on Willamette’s campus, but what many people don’t know is that the game has an ancestor in the form of “You Don’t Know Jack.” 

Originally, these were a series of trivia games released in the 1990s, featuring the iconic bald man, Jack Patterson, who would later become the face of Jackbox games as a whole. 

As a resident Jackbox expert, having played around 16 of these games, some are definitely better than others. Avoid Monster Seeking Monster, believe me. You’ll regret it one way or the other.

5. Talking Points

Talking Points is a game that is highly dependent on improvisational skills and group coordination. The rounds take quite a bit longer than other games. This aspect holds it back as a casual game, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is fun to play, with the wait between each slide acting as its own setup for an absurd punchline and a desperate attempt by the presenter to make sense of it. 

The premise is that one player gives a presentation as another player makes the slides for it in real time. It rewards coordination and improv, and thus operates as a great way to build confidence and a sense of comradery. At the end, everyone gives out their own custom-named awards.

4. Mad Verse City

It pains me to put this game so low. It’s by far my favorite game to play — when the stars align and I actually get to play it. The premise is Mad Libs meets rap battles, forcing players to improvise sick burns with whatever prompt they’re given. This game got me into Jackbox as a whole, but it has two big issues. 

One: it’s the kind of game you need a lot of social confidence to play, and when people don’t have that, they end up just giving up and writing “idk” for everything. 

Two: the game requires an even number of people or else the dreaded Gene shows up, an AI agent who writes boring lines and, even worse, votes randomly. While this game is very dear to my heart, it’s held back as a “pick-up-and-play” party game due its player number requirements.

3. Quiplash

This game is a classic and has several different iterations over several party packs. Each player is given a joke, and they have to come up with the punchline, somewhat like Cards Against Humanity but players have full reign over the punchline. The game is simple, and there's beauty in its elegance. It’s a test of who can come up with the funniest second half of a joke. The best moments of this game occur when two people, without communicating, put the exact same answer.

2. Patently Stupid

The first drawing game on the list, Patently Stupid does suffer from a similar issue to Mad Verse City in terms of confidence in one’s skills. This game’s premise involves drawing and creating funny inventions to solve ridiculous problems posed by fellow players. In the case of this game, some people are put off by their inability to draw. But all of the drawings are done on digital restaurant napkins. They’re not supposed to be good. Each person is given a problem generated by another player, and each player has to draw a solution, name it, and even give it a tagline. This game is consistently very fun regardless of which group you play it with and often a good icebreaker. Just be warned, there will be at least one round where every single invention is some variation of a gun.

1. Champed Up

Out of any of these games, I’ve probably played the most Champed Up, and for good reason. While it can be fatiguing at times, it’s hard to deny the reasons why this game is so popular. 

Another drawing game, the goal is to draw a character who is the “champion of [blank]” and then draw a counter to another person’s champion without knowing what the competition is about. These messed up Pokémon duke it out, leading to incredible duels such as “Forehead Man versus the Green Grumbling.” The results of these fights are determined by the audience voting on who fits the bill better. Players can sometimes even bring in fighters from previous games, letting them build a cinematic universe. It’s accessible and consistently funny, and that’s why it takes the No. 1 spot on this list.