You Don’t Know Jack

Welcome back!

Posted 2 years ago By - Jay Acevedo

Let me wind back the clock to the cool and outrageous nineties. Will Smith was still living with his aunt and uncle in Bel-Air. Mr. Pink explained to his Reservoir Dog posse why he didn’t believed in “tips”. The Spice Girls were still promoting Girl Power across the globe. And PC gaming was still on top of its game.

In 1995, a company called Jellyvision introduced “You Don’t Know Jack”, a trivia game “where high culture and pop culture collide”. The first game was so popular that more than 25 standalone quizzes and compilations were released. Heck, even a game show - hosted by Pee Wee Herman - was created for ABC in the early 2000s.

When THQ announced its plans to bring back the old YDKJ franchise to consoles, many of the 90s generation were both skeptical and excited. After all, several trivia games (from Scene It? to Trivial Pursuit) were brought back to the market in video game form. Questions is: does this new version capture everything that we loved back then?

Of course, not everyone knows about You Don’t Know Jack, so here’s a quick rundown.

Everything is presented in the form of a quiz show. There are ten multiple-choice questions separated into two rounds, with the Jack Attack round being the last one. During the first two rounds, you’ll get to answer questions in less than 20 seconds, earning money in the process. The quicker you respond, the more money you get. To spice it up, some questions will be asked in special segments like putting the choices in chronological order, deciphering what the host’s fortune cookie fortune is trying to tell you or quickly categorize a list of seven words and decide if the clue is a “Dis” or “Dat”. In the aforementioned “Jack Attack” round, you will need to find the link or association between two phrases or words based on the clue given by the game host.

The “Screw Your Neighbor” feature also makes a comeback. Activating the screw (one per game) will allow players to force an opponent to answer the question within five seconds, for the money value currently on the clock. If your opponent gets it right, he wins money while you lose the same amount. Or vice-versa.

Oh, and don’t worry about answering wrong if you don’t know the correct answer. You Don’t Know Jack features a little funny feature called “The Wrong Answer of the Game”, which gives players a cash bonus to any player who answers (or guesses) the wrong answer. Each episode is being sponsored by a certain wacky company. If you listen closely to what the intro says, it will be easy to recognize the wrong answer among the “correct” ones. As if the game wasn’t crazy enough, now you’re looking to answer wrongfully.

The disc packs 73 shows in total, with the possibility to expand the experience via downloadable content. Of course, just like any other console-based trivia game, replay value will come down to how many times you play through and how fast you’ll cycle the on-disc questions. Since they’re separated into shows, the questions - not their order - change. Meaning that a hardcore YDKJ fan can burn the 73 shows in a weekend, memorize the answers, jump online and beat others easily. This issue isn’t major simply because of DLC, provided THQ continues to support the title in the future. Note that the game is playable with up to four players, both local and online via Xbox Live. There’s also personal ratings based on your average score from the games you’ve played and online leaderboards. You know, to see how you stack up against your buddies.

Conclusion

The “irreverent trivia party game” is back and hopefully, will stay for a long time. The funny faux-commercials at the end of each episode, the hilarious pop-culture references while you play courtesy of Cookie Masterson...You Don’t Know Jack is a must buy and certainly the best party game on the market. And carrying a $40 price tag, it puts to shame everything else.

Welcome back, Jellivision Games! Smart move, THQ!