The Jackbox Party Pack 12 is a goofy mix of oddball mini-games

The Jackbox Party Pack 12 features an odd mix of new multiplayer mini-games, ripe for inspiring laughs amongst your friends, but dependant wholly on your own cleverness and ingenuity to get the most out of them.

Like other games in the iconic Jackbox series, this features five mini-games (all new), charting various silly gameplay elements. There’s MegaPals, which will test your friendship through trivia, shared thoughts and funny connections, Hyperface, which lets you warp faces to suit silly scenarios, We Forgot a Card, where you pair stock images with sharply-worded phrases, Idol Factions, a time-based trivia game with tricky choices to make, and Debate and Switch, a talk-out-loud debate mini-game with set prompts and timers.

All have their own little twists, although there are obvious standouts in the bunch.

The thrills and spills of The Jackbox Party Pack 12

The best times I had with The Jackbox Party Pack 12 were split between Hyperface and We Forgot a Card.

Of these, We Forgot a Card is the strongest of the bunch, as it leans heavily into the tried-and-true best formula for a Jackbox game: let people write silly captions under ridiculous images. The premise of this mini-game is that the players have forgotten to buy a card for a certain occasion, determined by voting.

In a rush, you’ll need to come up with a caption for a card, and then it will be automatically mixed and matched with a card front, creating all sorts of lovely, stupid loglines that make no sense but are endlessly hilarious.

As always, this does depend on how funny and clever your friends are in a pinch. More often than not the pressure to be the funniest and cleverest player may get to them, which can go one of two ways: jokes that don’t land, or jokes that are genuinely, hilariously side-splitting.

A Christmas card seemingly written in the throes of being attacked by It, the clown from It? Sure, why not?

What’s worth noting is if you don’t have 4+ players in this game (and some others) you will get an NPC bot to create jokes alongside you, and it’s really, really not funny – so there is the occasional dip in the good humour here, but easily fixed if you play Jackbox with a rowdier cohort as intended.

Hyperface was an equally fun time, although made better if players were comfortable using the game’s photo-taking features, rather than its stock images.

In this game, players are presented with a scenario and then asked to warp a photo to reflect the emotions and experiences suggested. You can pick from an array of stock images or take your own – and you really should, because seeing what sorts of selfies people pull off and how they mess around with their own faces is a joy.

You can draw on pictures and use warp, shrink, smudge and enlarge functions to create your masterpiece. The more talented drawers might find it easier to go for the look they want, but it’s funnier when the drawings are bad and clever, rather than good but drab.

Part of my love for this particular game and its array of silly scenarios derives from my appreciation for classic but forgotten kid’s game, Thinkin’ Things 3. This one had a very similar game where you warped pictures, and The Jackbox Party Pack 12 presents a lighter-hearted, more game-y twist on this silliness.

From these highs, we head towards the middling experiences of the rest of the pack.

MegaPals, Idol Factions and the challenge of Debate and Switch

First up, Debate and Switch. This mini-game is one that will really depend on the involvement of your friends. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the best time with it.

Debate and Switch is essentially a housing to encourage friends to debate together about various topics – some suggested by players, others suggested by the game. The stock debates are all pretty funny, including the one about why Dracula would be cancelled in the modern era. There’s also plenty of chances to spark the fury and passion of your friends with prompted debates about all kinds of things – the merits of certain games, the best fruits (mango, of course) and who would win in a fight between Wolverine and The Winter Soldier (still up for debate).

The part of Debate and Switch that didn’t work as well for me is that the game is really just a facilitation of discussion. You can use it as a prompter for new elements of a debate and to switch tracks when you run out of steam. But these conversations could just as easily happen outside the game, and I’m not sure Debate and Switch adds much other than providing an excuse to yap about meaningless topics.

All that said, for the right kind of player, this could absolutely be a favourite game. It all depends on what conversations result, commitment to the bit, and what players are looking for in a Jackbox Party Pack. Personally, I prefer the mini-games to be a bit more ‘game-y’ in approach, rather than simply facilitating discussion outside of the game.

MegaPals does this a bit better, but also has its own quirks. First up, it’s hosted by a cartoon man who I dislike immensely. I can see the comedic vision, but having him semi-climax to produce new word linkages as the game goes on increasingly gets stale.

At the very least, the gameplay itself is rewarding in parts, switching between testing your friendship knowledge and creating assumptions about word linkages. It’s all about the ‘mind meld’ between players and leaning on what you know about them. Perhaps not the best in a party scenario, where you might be playing against acquaintances, but if you play with close friends, it’s a joy to guess what they’re thinking and see where your brains gel.

Finally, we come to Idol Factions, the game’s designated trivia stage.

This game is a nifty form of trivia that relies on both logic, assumption and earned knowledge. Each player will take on the role of a tiny being bouncing through a stage, fielding all sorts of trivia questions by sorting concepts into buckets.

Is a certain phrase referring to a fictional movie or a musician biopic? Make a decision, then direct that word into the correct hole on the map – or guide it along to your teammate, where they can sort it into their own bucket. While there’s a brief teething period to understanding what’s going on in Idol Factions, it quickly becomes a bright, bouncy trivia game with a neat degree of challenge.

There’s also an array of categories that add to its flavour, including ‘Is this born of an egg, or a tree?’ – trivia that I got frequently, surprisingly wrong.

Where Idol Factions is a middling version of trivia for me is only by comparison. The Jackbox Party Pack 11 was a brilliant release, with the Legends of Trivia mini-game being a real standout. This one featured a massive trivia adventure housed within a light narrative inspired by Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy gameplay. It felt very well-rounded, bouncy, funny and clever.

Idol Factions is a lot smaller-scoped, and doesn’t quite have the same sense of reward as you bounce through its challenges, sorting answers left, right or up. Perhaps a freer version of trivia would make more of an impact, but this one feels very rigid in approach.

The overall verdict on The Jackbox Party Pack 12

You’re always going to have fun with a Jackbox Party Pack. There’s plenty to be had here, with a few new games worth playing alongside friends. But overall, this is a more middling pack, particularly in the wake of The Jackbox Party Pack 11.

Comparison is the thief of joy, but this pack just doesn’t quite measure up to its predecessors, with fun but safe choices made in its array of mini-games.

There’s classic Jackbox antics here, made better with friends who love the franchise or who’re willing to get silly for the sake of fun, but the longevity and reward will depend on a more active, somewhat forceful investment in this array of games.

A PC code for The Jackbox Party Pack 12 was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.

Discover more screen, games & arts news and reviews on ScreenHub and ArtsHub. Sign up for our free ArtsHub and ScreenHub newsletters.