Jackbox Naughty Pack

In one sense, it is almost impossible to review something like a Jackbox Party Pack. The formula depends so much on the people that you're with, the sense of humour that you may or may not share, that given the crowd any Jackbox game could go from a 2 to a 10. Of course, the idea for Jackbox Games is to make a party game that can be picked up and enjoyed by anyone. The perfect ice breaker, if you will, but in reality, due to the input that the player has to give in something like Quiplash, or Tee K.O. it does become difficult not to also review the people that you're with.

This feels most true for the Jackbox Naughty Pack. A collection of three games - two of which are classics that have been given a distinct NSFW twist - that are trying to do something Jackbox hasn't done before. While we've all put answers into Quiplash that would certainly have us on some kind of list, never before has Jackbox really let the collar loose, giving us prompts designed around the concepts of sex and other adult content.

For a Brit, this was something I was unsure of at first. Jackbox really was taking a risk here, like your dad coming in to try and give you the birds and the bees talk at the age of 21, it seemed almost a pointless endeavour. We already know what sex is, Jackbox. It already encompasses half of my Quiplash answers, but interestingly we don't see a NSFW Quiplash here. Dirty Drawful and Fakin' It All Night Long are the returning classics, and while the former does feel like it doesn't hit the mark, the latter is a stroke of party gaming genius.

Fakin' It All Night Long essentially works like a really dirty Among Us with no tasks and no murder. You stick your hand up whenever a prompt is read out like "Would you like to rub ghost ectoplasm on yourself?" If you're the Faker, you're not sure why everyone's raising their hands or leaving them down, forcing you to defend yourself if you're caught out. Even among strangers at Gamescom, this was a really fun experience to have, and allows you to quickly break down barriers you might have about the content. Of course, not everything revolves around sex. In any of the game modes, you can still find prompts that'll push the boat out in other ways, like asking you to put an emoji for which animal you think you could boot into the sun. It is good to sprinkle in the odd break from the NSFW content, so that Jackbox doesn't come across as an uncle trying to be cool but just ends up being creepy.

The Jackbox Naughty Pack is certainly the Party Pack where you can most feel Jackbox's influence. Because of the shortened scope of this game having that "naughty" atmosphere, there's more of a sense of tunnel-vision on this game, both to its benefit and detriment. Dirty Drawful, for example, doesn't feel like it necessarily needs this filter or lack thereof. We were all drawing balls and boobs long before the Jackbox Naughty Pack came around, and so while Dirty Drawful is still fun, it's that same enjoyment you get from a normal game of Drawful. Laughing at your friends' drawing skills, trying to decipher what they could have possibly meant by the hieroglyph that's sitting in front of your screen. When you've only got three slots for this pack, it does feel like Dirty Drawful didn't add much to the formula. Though, in saying that, it's worth mentioning that Drawful is already a successful formula, so there's very little to add.

Let Me Finish is the only brand-new game on this pack, and while it isn't a wholly new idea for Jackbox, as it is a pitching game similar to Talking Points and Patently Stupid, it is a good one. From a line-up of anything from screwdrivers to birds, you and your opponent will pitch which one is the best at something. Let Me Finish also allows everyone in a group to get involved in the debate, giving their own pitches and sending the overall debate into complete chaos, gaining points depending on how convincing you are. Or, as is the case in most Jackbox games, you'll be awarded points for making your friends laugh. The wackiness of Let Me Finish and the prompts it gives lets you go to wild and sometimes dark places in the search of comedy, and it proved a surprising favourite in this party pack, when I had expected to be drawn most to the sexy twists on the classic games.

The Jackbox Naughty Pack is a bold new step for the series. Similarly to when you submit a risky Quiplash answer around people you don't really know, Jackbox Games is testing the waters here, seeing the potential of pushing a more adult-only collection of party games. In one sense, this confines the usual freedom you get with any of the other Party Packs (many of which come with more than three games, by the way), while in another you can tell Jackbox is trying to tell you to let your hair down and be freer than you've been before with your answers. However, the former sense is the one you feel most while playing. It's also the pack that is most defined by who you're playing with. You can't bring Dirty Drawful out in front of grandma, unless your grandma is really cool, I guess.

While it does have its flaws, The Jackbox Naughty Pack is the first iteration of this NSFW twist on the traditional Party Pack formula. Jackbox Games didn't get it 100% right with its first Party Pack, and it didn't do the same with the first Naughty Pack. But, from lessons learned ten Party Packs later, it has managed to make a solid addition to its party line-up, that lets you get wild without becoming uncomfortable.