Recent reviews by timmaturtle

Quick overview over every game before I give my overall take on the pack itself:

Quiplash 3 is, in my opinion, the best Quiplash that has been released as of July 2024. The biggest problem with the first two games (including the original and XL as one) is the final round: both games reveal all jokes at once, which hinders the presentation and makes the jokes less funny. This edition fixes that problem, and since Quiplash is a proven formula and popular party game already, its inclusion makes the pack a safe buy if you do not already have a pack with a Quiplash installment.

Champ'd Up is among the best drawing games that Jackbox has released. It is somewhat similar to Tee K.O. in design, but is slightly different in concept, designing "champions" of certain categories rather than designing T-shirts. I won't go much further into it, but as someone that is not good at drawing whatsoever, I have had TONS of fun with this one and it may be my personal favorite Jackbox game period.

Devils and the Details is an interesting game with a much different approach than anything Jackbox has done in the past, perhaps aside from Push the Button. I have heard everything from very positive to very negative opinions on the game. Personally, I'm somewhere in the middle, but have enjoyed playing it. It is definitely worth a few tries.

Talking Points is among the best presentation games in the Jackbox series. While many are not comfortable with standing up in front of people, if you have a group of friends that know each other well or are willing to have an audience, this game will give some of the best and funniest memories in the whole series.

Blather 'Round is very solid. It may take some time to understand for some players, but I find the game to be very underappreciated. Most of the other games in this party pack are very high-energy (which makes sense, because it is called a "party pack"). While that is not a criticism of those games, Blather 'Round is not a game that takes a lot of energy or effort and instead has a lot more of a general appeal. It is similar to Charades or Heads Up! in a sense, and although it isn't a "wild party" vibe, it is a very welcome addition in this pack.

Possibly the best pack purely by value. None of these games feel like misses to me, and chances are, most people will REALLY like at least 3 out of the 5 games in this pack: it has a Quiplash adaptation, potentially the best of two kinds of games (drawing in Champ'd Up and presentation with Talking Points), an interesting idea in Devils and the Details, and a nice wind-down game in Blather 'Round.

If you are a series veteran, I strongly recommend adding this to your collection solely for Talking Points and Champ'd Up. If you are new to the series, I think that this is one of the best packs to begin with (that and Party Pack 3, which is also critically acclaimed).

This game is 100% worth the price of admission. It is a quick, easy-to-set-up, and fun party game that is rightfully a classic in the Jackbox lineup and may be its most popular game. It is regularly considered among the best games in the series. Even in groups of friends where senses of humor differ, the game often holds up solidly regardless. There are only two points of concern I have with Quiplash.

Firstly, the final round is significantly worse than the first two. Round one is the standard Quiplash gameplay, while round two is the same thing but worth double points. The final round takes a different approach by having all players answer the same prompt, putting them all on screen at once, and giving points proportionally by votes. This sounds fine in concept, but is functionally less funny than the other two rounds due to the presentation of all jokes at once. Also, the final round doesn't feel like it is weighed as much as it should be, as it rarely impacts the final results as much as round two unless one person wins nearly all of the votes.

Secondly, it is a game that has been remade, and in my opinion, improved on, several times by Jackbox Games. Quiplash XL is included in Jackbox Party Pack 2 (which is effectively the same game with more prompts), Quiplash 2 is in Party Pack 3 (which improves on the final round), and Quiplash 3 is in Party Pack 7 (the best game in the bunch in my opinion). I believe each one of those party packs are worth buying, but if you have done so, it renders buying Quiplash as a standalone game a questionable value choice.

All in all, if you are interested in seeing how the series got its start, are interested in supporting Jackbox Games, or are not interested in getting any of the party packs but still want to lash some quips, this is definitely a game worth buying and one you will get plenty of time out of at parties, family gatherings, and the like.

I have played this game for years and I love it to death. Many fond memories playing this game, both with friends and online with strangers. But if you are genuinely trying to see if you would like this game and have not tried it before, I think there are a few things to note.

Firstly, this game has a medium skill floor. If you don't know what this means, it means it is not the easiest game to hop into right away, though it isn't the hardest either. This game was enough for me to hop right in and have fun playing it, but many of my more casual friends were not able to enjoy it that much on their first few playthroughs. If you're not familiar with ToS, I'd recommend at minimum starting on Classic Mode. Watching some YouTube gameplay/tutorials may help as well.

Secondly, your experience with ToS can be HEAVILY based on who you're playing with, and to be abundantly honest... it's not always the greatest. Unless you manage to get a party of 10-15 people to play full games together (which I imagine is uncommon to say the least), you're going to be playing with some randos, and they can sometimes make or break the playing experience. Not only are they sometimes not good and can critically mess up making you lose, there are a pretty considerable amount of gamethrowers and trolls as well. Not enough to stop me from loving this game, but similar to the skill floor, enough that it drives some people away.

On the above note, the online community is the sole reason I find this game to be not suitable for children at all and probably not for many young teens either. The lobby chat can sometimes be comparable to bad XBOX live chat. Usually there's just angry tryhards, but at its worst, it can be racial slurs and expletive epithets that are spelled to bypass the swear filter.

Finally, this game now has a sequel. Normally this isn't too big of a deal, especially when the sequel is similar to the first game (think MK8 compared to MK8 Deluxe), as most people just switch over to the second game. However, both games are technically online and differ in a number of ways, so the fanbase is often split. Since the playerbase is much smaller than for other games and it does not use bots like Fortnite or PUBG, this can mean that certain lobbies will take a while to fill up. I remember I purchased the Coven extension for ToS1 and to this day I have only played like 3 games with it because nobody was ever online in those queues.

All in all, the game is great. A lot of depth and a lot of fun to be had. You can always try it for free on browser or just drop a few bucks on the Steam version, so if you think you might like it, I say go ahead! No reason not to try it. But that being said, I find this game to be much less fun in practice than it should be because of the aforementioned issues, which is sad to say because most of them are not the fault of the developers.