The Jackbox Party Pack 8 Critic Reviews

This game is honestly all over the place. There’s a naming of an accomplice that is tough for others to guess. There’s a voting about which art to investigate. (And then you loop around and do more of them anyway?) It never feels like Weapons Drawn knows entirely what it wants to be. Still, there’s some fun in trying to spot letters. The second round keeps the same letter for your art, but uses different writing styles to make it truly tough. We appreciate the ambition, but this one’s tough to get your mind around most of the time.

Overall I really like The Jackbox Party Pack 8. I've been enjoying messing around with it with my friends and will definitely keep delving into Job Job, Drawful Animate, and Weapons Drawn. On the other hand, I find the trivia games to be a bit dull, and I think The Poll Mine has a short shelf life, at least when it comes down to how I like to play games.

Job Job makes what is an otherwise passable collection special, for it is one of the best games in the history of Jackbox Party Pack. If you are already a fan of the series and like to play it at parties, this one can’t be missed.

After the 8th pack, one might be wondering if these games are losing steam or continuing to improve whilst offering new and fun experiences. Having played countless hours of these with friends, I couldn’t be happier to report that the latter seems to be the case.

Does The Jackbox Party Pack 8 stand out amongst the prior 7 releases? Probably not. But what we do have is a genuinely solid lineup of 5 new minigames that’ll help ensure your next games night is an absolute cracker. This is one yearly release I’m happy to support because Jackbox offers crazy good value for money and a gaming environment that’s so approachable for gamers and non-gamers alike. After 8 years of annual releases, The Jackbox Party Pack 8 certainly doesn’t feel as special as past games, but the entertainment found within is undeniable.

In keeping with the tradition of past Jackbox Party Pack editions, Jackbox Party Pack 8 contains a lot of variety for its price tag, as well as plenty of cartoonish charm and some intuitive touchscreen gameplay. From the trivia of The Wheel of Enormous Proportions and the Pictionary-style fun of Drawful Animate to the chilling murder mystery of Weapons Drawn, this quirky minigame collection could make for a nice source of entertainment at the next family gathering or holiday party.

Jackbox Party Pack 8 is a great entry in the Jackbox series, propped up by Job Job and Drawful Animate. The Wheel of Enormous Proportions is one of the better trivia games when it’s not trying to be funny, and less punishing than Trivia Murder Mystery Party. The Poll Mine and Weapons Drawn are both new ideas for the series, but only Weapons Drawn really lands, and even then if you have the collective works of Jackbox, I don't think it'll come up in the rotation much. It's a solid Jackbox Pack with two great-if-not-quite-legendary games, one good trivia game, and two more experimental titles that your mileage may vary on. It's not Jackbox 3, but hey, it's also not Jackbox 6.

No single one of these games are worth the cost alone — there are Party Packs that I own as a Tee K.O. or Quiplash machine, and none of the games in this Pack have that same stickiness and ease to pick up for me. But there are no stinkers, either — everything here is something I’d feel comfortable recommending to a friend or bringing out at a gathering. That’s a valuable resource, and I figure wherever I go, at least I can liven it up with some Job Job.