Why I still feel overly nostalgic for Jackbox Party Pack 10 despite its flaws
It's been a while, but I think I want to make my thoughts on The Jackbox Party Pack 10 clear.
Jackbox is one of the best party game franchises of all time. There's a level to behold of a concept of playing a party game from a mere website while only one player has to host a game. It's a concept that companies have tried...and many have failed miserably at making that concept good. What sells the Jackbox Party Pack games is that they're a collection of five visually unique ones. Most of them involve comedy and trivia, the tried-true formula of any party game. But Jackbox doesn't do comedy like Cards Against Humanity (though it can lean towards it sometimes), or trivia like...uh...any trivia game. Comedy games mainly are head-to-head, pitting your jokes against another player. Trivia games on the other hand, take a spin on how players play a game of trivia by making the experience so refreshing to play with others. Add in some other mixes, including some that involve outright teamwork, presentation, and drawing games, and Jackbox is a value proposition that continues to be outstanding in terms of quality and fun.
Now I have played these games ever since I was introduced to this series back in 2017. I know what I love and I know what I hate. There's a certain degree of fun for which Jackbox game I'd be happy to play or host, and if that game isn't making me laugh or have a good time, then I don't want any involvement with it. But everyone has their own subjective opinion on every Jackbox game they play and review, and while my opinion on certain games may clash every now and then...I can also see why people love and enjoy them. For many, the franchise peaked around 2020 with the release of The Jackbox Party Pack 7, and each of the games are so well thought out that people will still beg to play any one of them. But I wasn't there in 2020. Mainly because one other game zapped away my time and energy. So if everyone has a fondness over Pack 7...then here's the pack that I have the most fondness over.
The Jackbox Party Pack 10.
Widely regarded as the most disappointing Jackbox Party Pack in recent years, Pack 10 marked a turning point for the franchise moving forward. There was a lot going for Pack 10 given its name as the 10th entry: the fact that there was a game featuring previous Jackbox character (Tee K.O. 2) and a game where you played a medley of various Jackbox songs and themes (Dodo Re Mi). Meant to herald a new era of Jackbox, as indicated by its initial price of $34.99 USD. This wasn't the first time this happened, as the jump between Pack 5 and 6 saw a jump to $29.99 USD whereas before it was $24.99 USD. But was it worth that price then?
That price jump may be slight but it can severely affect public reception of the game as a whole. Remember that this franchise relies on one person to buy the game for others to play from their own devices. Pack 10 needed to come out to justify that price and make it worth everyone's time. Instead, everyone wasn't thrilled. There were better drawing games in older Jackbox Party Packs that people wanted to play instead of a sequel to Tee K.O. (even though Tee K.O. is a better drawing game than the "fan favorite" one everyone loves to cheer about but I think it's stupid and overly cryptic and not fun to play, you know what I mean), and the other four games had their own flaws that mostly were buggy and could not do what the intended gameplay could do.
Surely if the formula of releasing Jackbox Party Packs every year has had its toll, it was gonna be this game, seeing that the response from Jackbox Games after Pack 10 got its mixed reception was to shake it up a bit. We got the terrible Jackbox Naughty Pack and the welcomed surprise of The Jackbox Survey Scramble in 2024, the recent two Party Packs lacked a sequel game as a main selling point, and there is the recent release of Trivia Murder Party 3 and the incoming Fakin' It XL standalone game. Has the effort paid off? Well, considering how very little see of Pack 12, I don't have high hopes that the strategy has worked out well, but I digress.
It was fairly obvious that Pack 10 did not do what it needed to do and led the company behind it looking for newer pastures to shallow. But while I think everyone is mostly done with Pack 10...strangely enough...I don't think I'm over with this Party Pack at all.
In fact, I'm now more overly nostalgic??
There is just something about Pack 10 recently that makes me miss this era of Jackbox, and while I do have my reasoning why, I also think they're quite underrated in some way. Well not good, but fucking hell, I adore what they tried to do in Jackbox Pack 10 even if one of the games is not good. Think it's fair to look into a closer dive into what made these games click for me, and why it's safe to say there will never be another Jackbox game that will make me so pumped up to play extensively at or around launch.
Tee K.O. 2
Tee K.O. is the best Jackbox drawing game I'm sorry, I don't write the rules. It's the prime enjoyment for watching other people create a shirt made of other people's drawings and slogans and pitting it against other abominations. You could have the most visually stunning drawing of all time, and it will have something stupid like "ching on the bong".
This is the drawing game I can play and still have a good time. And hey, Pack 10 is making a sequel to this beloved game! Surely it'll still have that same fun energy, right?
Yeah! But not on the same level.
Tee K.O. 2 first off goes away with its Asian-inspired animal fighters for Jackbox characters. Honestly, considering what Pack 10 was meant to serve, I don't see this as a negative change, but it is a shame that all but the Rabbit are relegated to background characters. Second, taking its drawing interface from a certain drawing game that I refuse to name is a good change. The old Tee K.O. drawing interface did felt limited by its inability to draw under lines, so a new highlighter tool to aid in that visual concept is a fantastic one. You also have three shirt options which are...not very different, but hey! Good to make a hoodie in time for the colder seasons here (if you're a southern hemipshere person, hope you get something cool to drink!)
So Tee K.O. 2 should be a great and worthy sequel despite dropping the animals for Jackbox references. What's its major flaw?
The gauntlet.
This is a very complicated flaw, but let me explain. The original Tee K.O. had a victor gauntlet system where the shirt that won gets to fight the next challenger and so and and so forth. It meant that even if a shirt lost in a gauntlet, it could still make it to the final round based on how much it won in a streak. You could theoretically have four shirt at the final round, but there are chances you'll just have two basically sometimes a gauntlet winner can also be the streak winner so there is no second shirt from a previous round. Tee K.O. 2 does a tourney style gauntlet with each shirt fighting for victory and those victors fighting against one another for the top crown. So only one shirt is ever going to win per round. It's fine, though the problem really stems in the final round where you are asked to tap repeatedly on the shirt you want to win.
This is not a very good system, and one that is primed to be exploited. I remember one time I used an auto clicker to vote on the shirt with my drawing, and looking back on that, I felt bad. The other shirt was obviously better and not composed together by a piece of shit, but I won't digress. But you see what I mean. You have to repeatedly kill your computer mice or your phone's touch screen to try to pick the winner of the game itself. In terms of a final round, I think that's...fine, but it's not certainly amazing. If people are clearly clamoring for one shirt, they should not be tapping the shirt of choice for a prolonged period. Jackbox always has this issue with their final rounds not being fair or being incoherent with the rest of the game's underlying theme. In this instance, it's thematically appropriate, but not fair. At that point, I would've preferred a standard voting system to pick the shirt of choice.
Tee K.O. 2 is still a decent good game. I do bring it up every now and then, but it's either this or the original Tee K.O., and that's saying something considering that people still are playing Pack 3. It's a decent time, not worth the issues I pointed out, but this is a solid sequel entry.
Timejinx
Timejinx is a trivia game.
...by Jackbox Games.
Now if you're looking at my statement thinking "Oh, what's wrong with that? Jackbox makes incredible trivia games!"
It's Jackbox Games.
Jackbox has a history making incredible trivia games, and they aren't cutting the slack with it either. Their entire company history revolves around You Don't Know Jack, the trivia party game where pop culture and high culture collide. Even into Jackbox Games, we had Fibbage, Trivia Murder Party, Quixort, and maybe Blather 'Round that all create enticing games that revolve around trivia. Trivia Murder Party especially is the crown jewel of this initiative. Basic trivia questions, but getting one wrong gets you sent to a minigame that you have to play. It's a fun way to trivialize trivia games even if you suck at it.
So why am I singling out Timejinx alone? Let's look at how this game plays first.
Four rounds, three of which you go through three questions and answer them with the time of year it took place it. So a question like "The year when PanchamBro started playing Jackbox Games" you type in a year that corresponds. There is a range to help you out, and the closer you are to the correct year you gain less points (or zero if you get it precisely right), while farther gets you more and more. Basically golf rules where the lower your score the better. In between rounds you have intermissions where you answer trivia questions that gives you opportunities to lower your score. And the final round is basically the same "guess the year" scenario but adding an arbitrary number as well, though this round also let's you lose points.
This is a solid game from start to finish. It's pretty enjoyable to see when these events took place, and as a history buff who pays more attention to the years that things happen, this is up my alley.
...too much up my alley. I have considered this game to be virtually unwinnable for anyone involved.
Now there are instances where I didn't win in a game of Timejinx. One of them was due to a very bad slip-up that I couldn't recover from, and I got the very unpleasant sound of hearing an annoying fuck touting that they won (though they didn't win in the end, personally it just made me very unwilling to play Jackbox with that group of people when that annoying fuck is a reoccurring player). The other times, well...Kara/Neptune is a really good trivia player. And yet in the primary server that I play Jackbox in, Rhythm Haven, the biggest trivia buff out there John Dickard hasn't been able to win this game at all. He's a really good trivia player as well, but I don't think years are his alley which is why this game is virtually unwinnable when I'm involved save for a couple instances.
And yet what bugs me about Timejinx is that this is all just trivia. No interesting shake-up, you answer a year or a question, and it's all this game is ever going to give you. I love when games can still give players not good at trivia an advantage. Maybe they're a good liar, or they can survive a minigame or two. Maybe luck is on their side, even tho people have contested that The Wheel of Enormous Proportions is not good. Even Blather 'Round, which I don't think counts as a trivia game much in the same vein as claiming Nonsensory is a drawing game, it's a game of collaboration where you're trying to get everyone to get your subject using hints and clues provided by the game and others. Timejinx's main draw is that you can guess the year that "the crying Michael Jordan meme goes viral".
Isn't that fun?
I really enjoy the vibes of this game, and that atmosphere does translate well for a fun game night of Jackbox, but it does not translate into an enjoyable game for people to replay. If you're asking me, I think it's better that I don't join this game as much as I can, which is why I rarely pull this up when I do. The concept is solid and I think Timejinx is a fun time. But you're asking to suck poison out of my blood stream. And I do think other trivia games, especially from Jackbox, are just more worth your time.
Hypnotorious
Hypnotorious is notorious.
Possibly the most confounded and confusing game of the bunch, this game isn't well-liked across my circles and I don't really blame them. They tried to mixed the role-playing element that made Roomerang a hit for those that enjoyed it, with the social deduction element that Jackbox had done quite well with beforehand. The problem lies with how that social deduction is implemented.
The game works like this: you are given a role that would fit in a category. Depending on the size of the room, you could have two or three categories. And only one of them will have one player, who is the outlier of the group. Once you answer a question in a way that fits your role and purpose, you then group yourself together with other players, while also trying to find out who the outlier. Sound easy to understand, except the game does a poor job explaining these mechanics to a first-time player. Not only that, but there is a discrepancy on how points are given. You're the outlier, give yourself extra points by selecting yourself. Need to know who won? Well, you're in luck, because the game doesn't show you the scoreboard before the winner is declared. Nope, everyone else didn't matter. How do you know you're the outlier? Your guess is as good as mines.
I have tried this game numerous time, hell I modded my copy to insert custom prompts. But after a while, it just didn't seem like everyone was truly on board to play Hypnotorious, especially as other social deduction games like Push the Button, Fakin' It, Weapons Drawn, and especially Among Us are more liked and pretty keen to be played by those who want to play a social deduction game. Hypnotorious tries to be the social deduction game of the pack, and it fails.
I really do like that someone in the Jackbox community is so passionate enough to fix the game and get it working up to snuff. But people shouldn't rely on fans to fix things for them. If anything, the incompetence of Jackbox Games to fix the issues they have with their older titles has been constantly problematic for years now. Case in point, look no further than their failure to fix Civic Doodle and its myriad of problems and...
FixyText
It's the most broken game of the pack. Missing words here and there, sometimes you'll have a game where nobody can type their thing in and nobody can vote on what word to pick so it's just soft-locked until the game has to end. How do you win? Just type words in other people's words to score the extra points that you claimed from their hard work.
The only fun you'll ever have is a text-to-speech voice reading your messages. It's the worst game of this Pack and I do not have any reason to defend it. Justifiably all the reasons to hate this game are valid.
Moral of the story: don't make Word Spud 2.
Dodo Re Mi
And that leaves Dodo Re Mi, obviously the real crux of this Party Pack and one that is probably the one I feel the most nostalgic for. I'll leave why that's the case for later, but let's talk about the game proper and why I think it's also highly disregarded amongst most Jackbox fans.
This is a rhythm game that requires synchronization to play. If you have recently played Rhythm Heaven Groove, you'll understand why this game requires you to sync your phone/device before playing each music track. Selecting from a tracklist of mostly public domain songs remixed, with some original tracks, and a lot of theme songs from other Jackbox games including its own credit song, the longest track yet. Once a song is selected, an instrument is given, with each varying in difficulty. Most instruments are also wacky sounds that will add some spark to your musical creation, and then others are cannon.
It hurts my ears.
After the instruments are finalized and devices are synced up, the rhythm game starts for everyone. Some are simple three lanes tracks, others are four to six. Some are free-moving, requiring you to move to where the line will go, similar to how Trombone Champ is. Once everyone finishes their song, the game processes the performance and evaluates how well you performed. Get all five stars lit and you'll survive, and you can even earn bronze, silver, or gold. Failure to get all five stars lit however, and your chances of survival are...not slim...just over. It means that your group must be locked in at all times. If you or someone else is unable to get their notes in, everyone loses. The game can run as long as everyone wants, and when everyone's done, they can choose to end session to see who got the longest combo and who actually won.
Now, technical problems aside, this game is really, really good. They really took their time to learn from their fumbles regarding Zeeple Dome and made it so that people who are watching through streams with notorious latency can actually play. Watching everyone perform their notes is really enjoyable especially if someone wanted to see if they did a full combo, or really locked in and perfected all their notes. Or it can make for some hilarious moments where someone isn't locked in and they fumble the bag with their notes. Hell, in most cases I've heard players testing their notes every time before playing every note in the game. If this was Rhythm Heaven and everyone was aiming for a Perfect, we'd all fail.
But with the technical problems, it's harder to gloss over the issues that Dodo Re Mi presents. Some players may not be able to hit their notes right because their devices lagged. Players may get kicked out due to internet problems and they will miss most if not all their notes leaving everyone to their doom. Then in some cases, the performance made may not even load at all. It's all dependent on how good everyone's Wi-Fi is and how well of the performance that Dodo Re Mi, the jackbox.tv servers, and your device of choice all work out. I've had issues where users are duplicated without notice, or seen players kicked out because something messed up on their end. Whatever is the case, Dodo Re Mi has been technically flawed since day 1.
But god damn do I miss the hype around this game.
Dodo Re Mi just felt like the perfect culmination to everything that Jackbox had done over the past 10 years. From their small start of just simple-to-basic party games to sophisticated and excellent party games that everyone will enjoy. This game had so much going for it, yet unfortunately like every other game in this Pack, no one seems to be in the rush to play this game again, and that's a shame. The last time as of writing this blogpost that I played this game for a Jackbox game night was back in August 31, 2024. Now I have not been playing a lot of Jackbox with other people as of late, so it could be my fault for not branching out to other servers hosting Jackbox, but when I'm usually hosting Jackbox, I can read the room, and I doubt people will be so invested to pour their heart and soul into every note they pull out.
It seems like with Jackbox, there just seems to be a reputation held up in place that it needs to center its focus on its core genres: head-to-head writing, trivia, and drawing. It's easy to see why people felt so happy to play games like Quiplash, Trivia Murder Party, Tee K.O. and that other drawing game, and sometimes even a Drawful, a Fibbage, and the various Quiplash clones like Job Job or Doominate.
So why nostalgia?
I guess the simple answer may be because during 2023 I was so heavily invested in Jackbox at the time. So many memories made of playing these games around the middle of summer, where I would pour my heart and soul into trying to score big at these games (I didn't win a single thing until September).
The lead-up to Pack 10 will go down as my most fondly remembered moment of 2023. It was fun to hear every single penny's worth of information regarding each title in the series, how each of the game will fare, and what to expect going into October. I still remember the OST, hell Dodo Re Mi's credit song is by far one of my favorite Jackbox songs ever, and even if FixyText is a mess...its credit song is still a banger to listen.
What helps my nostalgic love for Pack 10 was during a period of four days from October 19, 2023, the day Pack 10 launched, to October 22, 2023, where I went to seven different Jackbox sessions, hosted three of those, and partook in every single game that was played from Pack 10. This easily was the peak of my Jackbox interest, for better or worse. While it didn't decline sharply afterwards, it was a slow one, eventually dropping hard around late January 2024 and fell deep forward in disinterest by 2025, only resurfacing when Pack 11 dropped.
And yet compared to Pack 10, I have no real nostalgic feelings towards Pack 11 after a year of its release. Rather, it still feels to me that Pack 11's games are still new to me. I don't have too many amazing memories of playing Doominate or Hear Say compared to Dodo Re Mi or Tee K.O. 2, or Timejinx, Hypnotorious, even fucking FixyText.
I think that's a good time to mention how Pack 11 just played it too safe. Doominate is the Quiplash clone; let's not lie to ourselves that it's anything but, what you ruin is just your cue to put a joke. Cookie Haus is a drawing game, another one of the bunch that does follow cues from that other drawing game except now you're baking cookies so everything is cookie-coded. Suspectives is yet another social deduction game that is fairly unique but still does lend itself to the same mechanism seen in other social deduction games especially from Jackbox like Fakin' It or Push the Button. Legends of Trivia is also another standard trivia game in the same vein of Timejinx, though it does make it cooperative with a battle system. I don't know if this is enough to convince me or others that this game is worth a damn. The only title safe enough to break it out of the park is Hear Say, and it's better than having to deal with Earwax's restrictive sound pool by making your own sounds that will play against a video clip provided by the game.
Listen, I love some familiar funk, I just think it's kinda lame they didn't take huge unique spins on games for once. But that's the consequence of making these yearly releases every so often. Pack 10 did take risks with a broken text-based game, a rhythm game that truly blossomed but lacked attention from the general audience to be worth the price tag, and a social deduction game that does try to add some roleplaying elements to it and trying to make that work...when it works. Even I'll admit that what they wanted to do for Tee K.O. 2 and Timejinx took a bit of risk, the former going all in for a Jackbox crossover and the latter with its unique point system.
What complicates this way more is that I see more of the flaws in Pack 10 than ever before. Tee K.O. 2 is fun but some of the changes might be a hit and miss for many. Timejinx is just a trivia game with nothing fancy to suit its boat. FixyText is awful to play and Hypnotorious can be difficult for first time Jackbox users to get a grasp at. And while Dodo Re Mi is still a good time, it's nowhere near the same amount of fans that adore other more popular Jackbox games and I think people would rather play those games than a rhythm game. And not just a rhythm game, a rhythm game by Jackbox Games. Being the name associated for party games, it's no surprise that a majority of people are willing to stick by familiar games that do less effort than a rhythm game would impose. After all, the marketing for Jackbox Games as of late is leaning towards their games being cozy and comforting. I don't think any Jackbox game nights I hosted are those two things combined.
So what makes Pack 10 for me? The experiences I had playing these games or the friends that I played with along the way? Maybe I'm taking too much of a roundabout to get to this point. If you just want the simple answer: sure, my interest in Jackbox happened to coincidence with the hype around Pack 10 and I had a ton of experience playing these games over the span of four days.
My complicated answer feel more in line with the feeling of the passing of time.
You see things in a positive light because everything after doesn't feel the same
Nostalgia is a hard drug. You feel a surge of emotions looking back on a certain thing that happened, and it's enough to make you look back fondly on that and gloss over the many issues that had arisen. Media is powerful enough to put a good impression on an individual for a lifetime. And yet, the reliance on that can also be detrimental for moving forwards.
I've hated when a piece of media take too much banking on the familiar that they end up always being bad content to splurge on going back. See my hate for Digimon Adventure Colonoscopy (or 2020) and its usage of the Chosen Children/DigiDestined as bland shells of their original selves. And while Pack 11 isn't bad, in fact, that Pack is quality enough and solid to hold on its own compared to Pack 10...I also think Jackbox shouldn't be stuck making what is familiar to us and assuming that will work next time. This rings true into Pack 12: as of now the only game that feels largely unique and has people clamoring for more is Hyperface. And looking at how many people are actively playing Pack 12, is it no surprise that the aftermath of Pack 10 left a huge gaping hole (that being no sequel game included) that has made people less excited for these games than before?
With Pack 10, the memories I can recall are so visibly painted in my head. Making a shirt in Tee K.O. 2 with a pogging Akfamilyhome and the text "a" that got a lot of people laughing, proving my worth as a history buff by outsmarting the competition in Timejinx, making stupid bullshit in FixyText, playing a bad rendition of "The Wedding March" with my friends in Dodo Re Mi, and having three other players repeatedly leave their jar upon seeing my answer in Hypnotorious that left me in an uncontrollable state of laughter. I've made so many memories of silly moments like these, stuff that while I'll get every now and then still won't compare to how it was before. I love when these silly moments happened that made me miss these olden days.
But that's far from over.
Since last year I've taken my duty to only play one or two sessions of Jackbox per month and only ran into a game of Tee K.O. 2 and Timejinx once within a year or so. I've never had the opportunity to re-explore the broken shit-stain of FixyText, nor the cryptic feeling of Hypnotorious, or the joyous sounds of everyone in Dodo Re Mi. I love all the memories made in Hear Say and Doominate so far, and all the new ones I've made in Hyperface, but the memories still won't fade away.
They still loom on, lodging on all fronts and reminding me that I will never have another experience like the Jackbox Party Pack 10.
Jackbox Pack 10 is not my favorite Party Pack. Far from it. But it's the one that I remember deeply the most and it's something that I think about time to time. Sure, there are other moments from other games in other Party Pack around the time of Pack 10 that I still remember the most, but was survival a maybe? Was the rizz trash? Was the mission ever the future? Or was I living a life of dreams? I could be right to assume Pack 10 was the Party Pack made for me...but then I could also be wrong about it as well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that...
I miss playing Jackbox frequently.
See you next time.