[Multi] You Don't Know Jack Review

[Ghostbear]

You Don't Know Jack Review

Title: You Don't Know Jack
Platform: PC/360/PS3/WII
Developer: Jellyvision (http://www.jellyvisiongames.com)
Publisher: THQ (http://thq.com/us)
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: $29.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/You-Dont-Know-Jack-Xbox-360/dp/B00498PSZQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1298058842&sr=1-1)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/You-Dont-Know-Jack-Playstation-3/dp/B00498T500/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1298062454&sr=1-2)/Wii (http://www.amazon.com/You-Dont-Know-Jack-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B00498RQEW/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1298062454&sr=1-3)/PC (http://www.amazon.com/You-Dont-Know-Jack-Pc/dp/B004FZAWOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298060546&sr=8-1))
Editor: Jeremy 'Ghostbear' Spurlock

What's Hot: Hilarious trivia with your friends.

What's Not: No online support for PC and Wii.

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You Don’t Know Jack was once a pretty popular trivia game, its mash-up of humor and trivia struck a chord with many in the late nineties. It filtered questions through a lens of pop culture that often made you laugh so hard that it was sometimes hard to answer the question.

Like any trivia game you are asked a series of questions that will test the range of your knowledge. The difference here being that the way the question is asked is almost as important as the answer. An example being; when you are asked whether something is either a city in southern California or a Taco Bell menu item you can’t help but second guess yourself. Each game is split into ten rounds with varying question types, ranging from “normal” to questions based off of fortune cookies.

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For you Jack veterans out there, there are some changes to note. Everyone can now answer questions at the same time. You gain more money the quicker you answer though, so be fast! You can still force opponents to answer a question by screwing them, but be warned, if they get the answer right anyways, you lose the money. The biggest change for the game though, has to be the “Wrong Answer of the Game” sponsored by a fake company. If your wrong answer is sponsored by the Banana Toaster company be on the lookout for an banana or toaster related answer somewhere in the game. This has the effect of forcing people to look for the “wrong” answers to questions in order to earn some bonus cash.

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This game really shines with multiple players, be it online with up to four players or in your living room. Sharing the jokes and laughter makes it that much better, which only makes the lack of online support for the PC and Wii versions all the more glaring. Let’s hope that this is corrected and those who want to play this game on those platforms get the chance to enjoy it with pals over the Internet.

You Don’t Know Jack is the trivia game that you need to own. With more than 70 rounds out of the box and plenty of DLC on the way, you’ll have lots of questions to plow through. It takes every trivia game before it and turns it on its head. With the game being $30 it seems silly not to go out and get it.


Score: 4.5 out of 5 CoGs
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Jeremy says, “You Don’t Know Jack has returned and it is glorious. No other game has made me stop playing because my sides were aching from laughing too hard. You need to own this game.”

*Note - Review based upon the Xbox 360 version of the game.

[Ink Asylum]

I wholeheartedly endorse everything in this review.

[National Kato]

If it wasn't for the PC/Wii online function missing, it'd have to be a 5 out of 5. Just a great return to form! I hope sales reflect the quality so we get more episodes.

[Ghostbear]

If it wasn't for the PC/Wii online function missing, it'd have to be a 5 out of 5. Just a great return to form! I hope sales reflect the quality so we get more episodes.

That's exactly why I docked it a tiny bit.

[Ink Asylum]

Seems a shame to dock the otherwise perfect PS3 and 360 versions for the faults of other SKUs.

[Ghostbear]

I have to look at everything, can't do separate reviews based on sku (unless they are different games obviously.) Let's not let this turn in to a silly conversation about half a point. Just buy the game!

[Chimpbot]

Since my 360 is MIA due to the Kinect killing it, I'd have to snag this for the PS3; anyone out there planning on getting that version instead?

[Vandabo]

This is a great game. The only thing I might change about it is how much the Jack Attack questions are worth. When you compare the earlier Dis or Dat round ($300 a pop) to the $4000 dollar Jack Attack it starts to become kind of pointless. I would rather see Jack Attack worth about half to a quarter what it is now.

[fitbabits]

Nice. This may be the perfect game for something I have in mind. Very timely review, sir.

[Wolvie]

Here's Wolvie's bonus review:

It rules! Buy it. Now.

[Mike Kelehan]

I was a big Jack fan in high school, and I was afraid that this would slip under the radar. It's great that the new game is just a complete return to form, and it's being recognized for it.

[BabyJesus]

Can you use the big buzzer controllers?

[J Arcane]

You Don't Know Jack on 360 is the best game since the original You Don't Know Jack.

Shame about the PC version though.

Also, at least according to what I have heard, the 360 Scene-it controllers do work with it, though I cannot personally confirm it.

[shodan2020]

Can you use the big buzzer controllers?

Yeah, but they are kinda superfluous. The 360 controllers work fine. :)

I totally loved the original and I totally love this game. Playing with you guys is totally awesome.

[Mike Kelehan]

You Don't Know Jack on 360 is the best game since the original You Don't Know Jack.

Perhaps the best since The Ride.

[AboveAvgCharles]

I have to be the nugget of negativity amidst all this glowing praise, but I really don't like the "episode" structure. I mean, setting the game up in episodes does a great job of encapsulating the play into bite size portions. But what I don't like is that each episode always plays out the same. There is no randomization in the questions.

This means after you play all the episodes once, you're essentially done. You know all the answers, all the Wrong Answers of the Game, and what order they'll be in. This means it's either boring or unfair to the other players. A lot of this would have been alleviated by a randomized "free play" option that did away with the episode scripting and just jumbled questions together. I think that would extend the game's life a lot.

Bear in mind, however, this is based on an evening of play on a borrowed copy a friend brought over. If there's something wrong about my assumptions, please correct me.

[J Arcane]

As someone who played the shit out of the original, I can say with authority that you'll get to the same "seen it" level in random given time.

The difference is, in the random system of the old games, you had a chance to get a repeat at anytime in the game, whereas with the episode structure, as long as you haven't played the episode yet, you're guaranteed to get new questions all the way through.

I don't really see thay a shuffle option would alleviate things. You'd still know all the answers, which is what eventually killed each of the originals eventually too, the difference is, in the originals the odds meant repeats showed up earlier in the gams's lifecycle, and thus pushed the player away faster IME.

[Ink Asylum]

Shuffle would unfortunately break a lot of the excellent scripted humor that ties many of the questions together. I wouldn't want to give that up for a bit more replay value. For $30 you get 70 episodes. At about twenty minutes each that's a solid bit of gaming. For $5 an expansion pack you'll be able to buy 6 of them before this game costs as much as most retail console titles.

[Wolvie]

And to add to Ink's point; each Jack Pack adds 10 episodes. If they pump these packs out at a steady rate they should be able to keep the game fresh for awhile. I voted with my wallet and gave them the $5.

[Wackman3000]

This is a blast from the past for me. I came across this game years ago at a friend of a friend's house who actually owned a proper computer that could to more than word processing, and I was shocked at how entertaining and hilarious a trivia game could be.

That said, I feel incredibly stupid playing with a few of you guys. :P

[Mike Kelehan]

I have to agree that the episode structure is MUCH more fair when it comes to repeat questions. Once you've seen every question once, and gotten all the DLC, it's time to take a break, and come back to the game in a few years. Or, start playing on XBL with random opponents and make it a test of memory; that's probably what they're doing.

[MagGnome]

I was really excited about this game until they released the PC version without multiplayer, which is a total slap in the face to longtime fans of the series who want to play on PC.

I guess I saved myself $30, but it's a shame.

[Food Nipple]

I have to look at everything, can't do separate reviews based on sku (unless they are different games obviously.) Let's not let this turn in to a silly conversation about half a point. Just buy the game!

That seems kind of crazy, there's a DS version that has half the questions and no online, does that cost it more points?

[MagGnome]

Why would the game get 5 stars anyway? No game is perfect.

[Mot Wakorb]

That seems kind of crazy, there's a DS version that has half the questions and no online, does that cost it more points?

In my mind, yes, it would. It's less of an experience - if all the features aren't there across the majority of platforms (360, PS3, Wii, and PC all contain the same number of questions), but platforms like the Wii lack the ability to expand via DLC and online play, as well as the PC version limits the number of players, has no online play, and does not allow for DLC right now. That damages the score as a whole. That said, he only covered the consoles and PC, and left out the DS version.

In short: I believe docking points is completely valid for the platforms he did choose to cover.

[Mot Wakorb]

I was really excited about this game until they released the PC version without multiplayer, which is a total slap in the face to longtime fans of the series who want to play on PC.

I guess I saved myself $30, but it's a shame.

If you own a console, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. It's so very worth it. Honestly, 99% of my play is local anyway, and on Wii, it covers the same things 360 and PS3 do sans the DLC.

[Ghostbear]

even taking all that into consideration, I still don't think it's a 5 out of 5.

[Wolvie]

Seriously, the no on-line thing for PC is an easy fix; buy it on the Xbox or PS3. And if you don't have a console, well this is a perfect example of why going PC or console only is bad idea. You miss games or get stuck with inferior products.

[axion]

Unless you have a Wii and a PC :(.

[Wolvie]

... yeah, that's kinda why I mentioned the Xbox and PS3 specifically. If ya can afford to, it's nice to have choices. If not? Well I guess you can wait and hope the PC version gets patched to allow online play.

[Vandabo]

i played it with the big scene it controllers and while it was kind of fun, it made some parts of the game more difficult, such as dis or dat. this is mainly because you cant hold the controller sideways because it has to aim at the ir receiver.

[MosBen]

Wow, I didn't know this game was out, but I'm going to buy it today. I played pretty much all the Jack games through The Ride, and there was a time when I had firm opinions on favorite hosts. I think the episode format is probably a smart way to do it, and as has been said, it sounds like there's 20+ hours on the disc, and at $5 a pop you can get another 20 hours of gameplay for another $30. That sounds like a pretty good value to me.

[Wibble]

I played the British version of YDKJ and it really was just the best game I played for that time (Sequel Questions and Pub Quiz ftw)

But I have two questions:

1. They removed the Online YDKJ episodes before the release of the game, are these episodes a part of the game now, if so, that is a big loss of value for money and if not, it seems odd to remove them.

2. Is the humour global? I know I found the British version funny, but some of the online episodes just didn't grab me as much.


Anyway, as with most people I won't be buying it unless it comes to Steam of another digital download store and if it cannot add multiplayer. I mean I am away from home for a year, so all I have is my PC and apart from not being a console fan, if worse comes to worse I can pick it up for $5 in a years time when I get back.

[MagGnome]

It's already on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/99200/?snr=1_4_4__103_1).

No online play though, as mentioned previously. It's such a glaring oversight that I'm still surprised that they didn't include it.

[Ghostbear]

I played the British version of YDKJ and it really was just the best game I played for that time (Sequel Questions and Pub Quiz ftw)

But I have two questions:

1. They removed the Online YDKJ episodes before the release of the game, are these episodes a part of the game now, if so, that is a big loss of value for money and if not, it seems odd to remove them.

2. Is the humour global? I know I found the British version funny, but some of the online episodes just didn't grab me as much.


Anyway, as with most people I won't be buying it unless it comes to Steam of another digital download store and if it cannot add multiplayer. I mean I am away from home for a year, so all I have is my PC and apart from not being a console fan, if worse comes to worse I can pick it up for $5 in a years time when I get back.

I have no idea if they included questions from the web game, but I doubt it.

[shodan2020]

I played the British version of YDKJ and it really was just the best game I played for that time (Sequel Questions and Pub Quiz ftw)


Does Cookie speak in a British accent in those games?

[Mike Kelehan]

Does Cookie speak in a British accent in those games?

There's a different host for the British versions.

[Ink Asylum]

I played the online version and they were entirely different from the ones in the game.

[Wibble]

It's already on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/99200/?snr=1_4_4__103_1).

No online play though, as mentioned previously. It's such a glaring oversight that I'm still surprised that they didn't include it.

Ugh, ouch. Not available in the UK? Guess I won't be grabbing it at all if they don't think it can manage that far afield.

Glad it didn't use the web questions though, but a shame to take them down in any case.

And yea, different host for UK version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHLsoPF-sRo) If you can stand the terrible quality that is the game.

Downside is I cannot get YDKJ to install anymore unless I can find a PC with an old OS and transfer the installed version of the game over to the computer I intend to play on. Damn registries :(

[Mike Kelehan]

And yea, different host for UK version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHLsoPF-sRo) If you can stand the terrible quality that is the game.

What's wrong with it? Looks pretty much the same as our versions.