You Don't Know Jack - Review

Do you like your trivia with a heavy dose of comedy?  Are you looking for a new party game?  Yes?  Well then let me tell you about the revitalization of a series from the 90's, You Don't Know Jack.  YDKJ has been around since the mid 90's, and put out ~20 different versions over the years before a short lived web presence and then disappeared until we heard an announcement in 2010 that THQ would be bringing the series back. 

Questions take pop culture and add twists to them to create comedy gold

Among the first few threads on the GameFAQs forums was one entitled "Cookie?" referring to what could be argued to be the most popular of the series' various hosts, Cookie Masterson.  Cookie takes you through 70+ "episodes" consisting of 10 questions each and a final lightning round called the Jack Attack.  The episodes are a great way to keep from having repeat questions, and even allows for some continuity through them.  For example, Cookie will order a pizza in the beginning of the episode from Domino's asking what those divots are called, and then at the end, have the pizza come in and then ask how many of those divots are on the Domino's pizza logo.

It's 3, and they're called "pips"

Questions come from a wide variety of topics, but tend to fall into the categories of Animals, Movies, Food, History, Geography, Literature, and TV per the achievements in the game.  Cookie will announce the topic, usually a bad pun, setup the question, read the question, and then begin a timer while he reads the answers.  Waiting for him to read through all of the answers isn't advised as the longer you wait, the less money you will win and some can bring the timer all the way from 30 seconds to 5 seconds before being done.  Each player answers as they're ready by pressing the corresponding button on their controller, right answers winning money, wrong answers losing money, and no answers offering no penalty.

It's possible and highly encouraged to "Screw" your opponents and force them to answer the question in 5 seconds.  A successful screw will cause them to lose money and for you to gain it, while eliminating one of the possible answers on screen.  If your opponent successfully answers though, the tables get turned and you lose what they gained.  It's risky, but highly rewarding, especially in late game when values are doubled.

Screwing, not just for the ones you love

The episodes last about 15 minutes each, giving you hours and hours of game play, and additional packs are being offered as DLC.  The length of time allows players to swap out between rounds, making it a great party game to enjoy with more than four people, something usually reserved for rhythm games like Rock Band or Dance Central.  

Alright, complaint time.  Playing online is a waste of time.  Because of the episodic nature of the questions, somebody can easily learn an episode's worth of answers and beat the tar out of their opponents.  Playing with friends who have copies of the game while at somebody's house is a little rough because they'll be playing the same episodes twice while trying to get their own unlocks and achievements.  Finally, the game offers a "Wrong Answer of the Game" which cannot be selected if you get screwed.  That's pretty lame.

Otherwise, this is a fantastic game that any pop culture trivia buff should have as part of their collection.  The game retails at a very attractive $29.99, and seems to be destined for some success.  When I picked up my copy, one store was sold out, but I grabbed the last Xbox 360 version that another store had, and heard similar stories from friends.  One more thing, with the loss of 1 vs 100, this is begging for an Xbox Live / PSN Network version of it, THQ, see what you can do about that, and we here at VG30 definitely want to see more.  And please keep Cookie as the host, he's the best.