The Jackbox Party Pack 5
By Chad Sapieha,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Odd, wacky party game features user-generated content.

A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this game.
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
The Jackbox Party Pack 5
Community Reviews
Based on 1 parent review
good
Report this review
What’s It About?
THE JACKBOX PARTY PACK 5 is a collection of five games designed for two or more players, locally or online, who visit a website on their mobile device to answer questions and draw pictures. The primary mode is You Don't Know Jack, a humor-infused trivia game in which players earn virtual cash by correctly answering questions with diverse subjects ranging from movie musicals to scientific facts while trying to "screw" other players by using game altering power-ups awarded for poor performance. Mad Verse City sees players dueling with each other by coming up with rhyming rap lyrics that others cheer for and eventually vote on. Split the Room tasks players to devise hard choices that others won't agree upon, such as whether to eat something disgusting or suffer an equally unappealing injury. Patently Stupid is about drawing pictures of inventions that solve bizarre problems -- such as how to keep people from thinking about cat tails -- and then coming up with a name and tag line for it before trying to raise funding from fellow players. A fifth activity, Zeeple Dome, is a simple arcade-style game that involves working as a team to fling brightly hued creatures at aliens via a slingshot. Each game provides players with a variety of preferences, including censoring options to keep them clean and the choice to keep play local and private or open it up to other players and audience members on the web via Twitch. A minimum of either two or three players is required to start a game.
Is It Any Good?
Like most You Don't Know Jack games, this collection of games is at its best when it sticks with what the series is best known for: trivia. The Jackbox Party Pack 5's primary game show-like question and answer mode is loads of fun, with cleverly written questions, cool ways for players to interact with one another, and terrific presentation and hosting. It's a great way for a big group of friends to play together, especially since everyone just uses their own phone to play rather than needing a controller. Three of the other games -- Mad Verse City, Split the Room, and Patently Stupid -- can be entertaining, too, but are more dependent on player interests. Players with no fondness for either drawing or hip-hop, for example, likely won't have much fun with Patently Stupid or Mad Verse City. And while Split the Room can cause some humorously heated debates between players stunned that others would choose one thing over another, it works best among a group of outgoing players, as quieter competitors are likely to be overcome by louder ones.
The one real dud in the mix is Zeeple Dome, which feels like an odd duck simply because it doesn't involve trivia knowledge or any sort of creativity. It's more like a collaborative version of Angry Birds, with players forced to cooperate and ensure they're targeting the proper aliens at the right time. But even if you decide to skip Zeeple Dome entirely, the other four games -- especially You Don't Know Jack -- make The Jackbox Party Pack 5 a good option for people who want a party game that can engage a whole room full of people for a couple of hours at a time. It's not exactly a marvel of innovation, but it's well polished and funny, it delivers plenty of content before repeating, and it has an almost non-existent learning curve. It's an easy recommendation for fans of social and party games.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about cyberbullying. Online interactions in The Jackbox Party Pack 5 are generally clean and friendly, but what steps would you take if you encountered a player or audience member who began bullying you or your fellow players?
How do you benefit when streaming your games for others to see? What does the community of viewers gain by watching you? What responsibilities do all of you share?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Jackbox Games, Inc.
- Release date: October 18, 2018
- Genre: Party
- Topics: Sports and Martial Arts, History, Science and Nature
- ESRB rating: T for Fantasy Violence, Sexual Themes, Drug Reference, Mild Language
- Last updated: March 16, 2020
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.
Suggest an Update
Where to Play
Our Editors Recommend
Multiplayer Apps
Party Games for Families and Friends
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate