Review: You Don’t Know Jack

You Don’t Know Jack is a party trivia game structured around a fictional game show in which players answer multiple choice questions to earn imaginary dollars.

This is the latest game in a very old series of trivia games dating back to 1995. (There was even a live action TV show hosted by Paul Reuben/PeeWee Herman. Watch HERE) Believe it or not this newest version breaks an eight year hiatus. Despite the fact, Jack doesn’t feel rusty at all. It brings back the same great humor, quick witted comments and perverse innuendos with a vast array of trivia topics.

It’s the most simple of concepts; anyone can pick up the game and start playing instantly. However, the real competition comes from the additional elements. You are penalized for incorrect answers and will often find yourself in the negative dollars zone. The faster you answer the more money you earn, so even though everyone can get the question right, the element of speed is what is most important. Since everyone is on edge to answer as fast as possible, the game messes with your mind with double-negative questions or overly complicated wording. So if you’re not sure, you may want to wait out the timer to lessen the punishment. You can even choose to not answer at all without a penalty. The trivia topics range from general knowledge to pop music to the anatomy of a Muppet.

Not all questions are multiple choices; You Don’t Know Jack also has its signature DisorDat where you have to match up several phrases with their classification. For example, you will be presented with either a YouTube video with 250,000 hits or a painting by Renoir. Seems simple enough but when your choices are “Dog Eats Dinner”, “Young Boy With a Cat”, and “Nude On Cushions”, well you can see how it could go either way.

Other signature questions are “Nocturnal Admissions” where Cookie tells you this weird dream he had last night where his brain was put inside a cat and lived in a giant tree and then asks what movie he must have watched before going to bed. The answer is obviously Avatar. The final question at the end of the game is the infamous “Jack Attack”. This is where you have to match up a word or phrase with a matching word or phrase. For example you will be presented with New York and then choices will fly across the screen. Words like peanut butter or public radio, none of those make sense but when you see big apple, you better hit that button real quick.

The real fun comes from the game allowing you to screw your opponents. Each game allows you one “screw” where you basically force someone else to answer the question at hand in less than five seconds. If they get it wrong they are penalized the value of the question and you win that same amount, plus the opportunity to guess the answer yourself for more money. You can easily go from fourth place to first in a matter of seconds. My personal favorite is called the “Wrong Answer of the Game”. Each game has a fake sponsor that has subliminally placed a wrong answer into a question somewhere. If you manage to find the wrong answer, you’ll win double the maximum value of the question which can sometimes be as high as $8,000. You’re pretty much unbeatable if that happens late in the game. So let’s say the sponsor is brought to us by Fistable Bowling Equipment. You might see a question where one of the answers might have the words bowling ball in it. Even though this is the wrong answer to the question at hand, selecting this option could win you the game. Other notable Jack categories to return are “Who’s the Dummy”, “Funky Trash”, and “Cookies Fortune”.

Besides the always amazing voice work from our pessimistic and perverted host, Cookie Masterson (voiced by Tom Gottlieb), my favorite part of the game was just hearing the hours and hours of voice work that plays during the end credits and main menu. I’ve honestly left the menu screen up on the TV and just let it play in the background while I worked on something else. Yea, it’s that entertaining. There’s supposed to be hundreds of hours of voice work in this game and it shows. You never hear the host say the same thing twice and that’s saying something. There’s over 70 episodes trivia plus two DLC packs out currently. That’s got to be somewhere around 800 questions.

@YouDontKnowJack has a great online mode where you can play with up to four people online, but it doesn’t compare to local multiplayer with your friends. The game features online leader-boards so you’re encouraged to embarrass your friends’ game scores daily. What’s even cooler is that you can swap the regular controllers for the Scene-It controllers instead. I would have liked to see support for the Buzz and PlayStation Move controllers too but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

Stay away from the Wii, DS and PC versions. They don’t have as much content and the PC and DS only allow two players. I had enough fun playing this by myself, but it’s really meant to be enjoyed with a group of friends. It is a party game after all. I had people asking me all the time when would we play Jack again and it became the main event on many weekend hang outs. Alcohol consumption encouraged.

This game is probably the best party trivia game around, the rounds are short enough to keep everyones attention but addictive enough to occupy your entire night. The humor is nonstop and always puts a smile on your face. This is possibly the funnest trivia game I’ve ever played.

But remember, even if you manage to score a few minor victories here and there, some fake dollars, virtual unicycles and backhanded compliments from Cookie Masterson, you’ll never be able to hide from the undeniable truth: YOU DON”T KNOW JACK!

- Jon Duryea (Follow @Artifact911 on Twitter)