Jackbox Games has hit on a winning formula with the Jackbox Party Pack — the developer has released 10 successful collections over the past 10 years. These game packs feature a bunch of pick-up-and-play minigames. One player is the host, and everyone else joins in using their mobile devices. Most of the games are family-friendly and revolve around joke-making, improv comedy, trivia, or simple tests of skill.
The eleventh suit, The Jackbox Naughty Packbreaks the mold; it’s smaller (and cheaper), with just three mini-games, and those games are designed to be a bit more daring. The smaller package and defined focus make it one of the most intriguing packs yet, and the collection dances between salacious and silly.
The Jackbox Naughty Pack is led by Faking all night longa social deduction game. The fakingthe original version of Party Pack 3, often dirty twisted, and All night long takes advantage of that. It’s a full sequel that adds a Remote Play feature, broadening its appeal.
There is also Dirty pulla delightfully crude version of the beloved drawing game that encourages players to draw lots of dicks. And finally, there’s the new game Let me finishin which players argue over issues such as “where is the butt on a mailbox?” and “how do you give this particular mechanical device a blowjob?”
“One thing that’s really cool about Jackbox Games is that we give players the ability to take things where they want to take them,” creative director Brooke Breit told Polygon. “We give you the diving board to jump off of and really make the game your own for you and your group of friends.”
Games like Quiplash (filling in jokes based on pre-written prompts) and Survive the Internet (writes horrible internet comments to attribute to your loyal friends) has already inspired some pretty mature responses, and a NSFW pack was a common request from players. Jackbox opted to focus on the theme, using three games instead of five. “It feels like a very manageable pack of games,” Breit said. “This is something new for us, in terms of our first mature-rated game. So it felt good to have a more subdued product where we could try that out.”
The Naughty Pack can be a game night in itself; while the recent umbrella client Multipicker allows players to navigate through all 10 packs, it’s not a perfect system and players still have to open and close packs when switching games. It’s a much more sociable experience to be able to settle in and enjoy one pack, and the Naughty Pack games all share a certain humor.
While these games all encourage racy answers or racy drawings, Jackbox has done playtesting to ensure that it doesn’t degenerate into a race for the easiest, crudest joke. In Faking all night longThe social deception part of the game is crucial to winning. “The way we approach it is that people don’t necessarily say surprising or rude things,” Breit said. “You admit something, or you hide something, and then it’s like, ‘Well, no, no, listen to this!’ It’s a fun conversation that gets things going between players.”
In Dirty pull And Let me finishThe sexual jokes are balanced with absurd prompts. Additionally, the team worked to make the jokes welcoming, if not necessarily healthy; prompts aren’t negative about specific people’s bodies or interests. “We really try to approach the tone of the prompts in a way that’s inclusive — fun, comfortable, maybe pushing you a little bit out of your comfort zone, but it’s a fun, equal-opportunity time,” Breit said.
This smaller, more focused Naughty Pack offers an intriguing twist on a very successful formula. Seeing a themed Party Pack piqued my interest; the fact that it has so many crazy blowjob jokes is just the icing on the cake. The Jackbox Naughty Pack is scheduled for release on September 11, 2024 for PC and consoles.