If you are looking for some lively entertainment to spice up a house party, work conference, backyard barbecue, or anything in between, look no further than a Jackbox Party Pack. They are a mix of lively party games and trivia that can be played in person or virtually up to eight players and over one thousand audience members that can influence the games. Best of all, you only need a smartphone to play, which makes setting up a breeze and allows everyone to join in on the fun. Each party pack contains about five games that can be played. What's so unique and fresh about these games is that they are a different experience with every group that you play with, and that they bring out the excitement and the best in people. Friends who were often shy and reserved ended up being the funniest. I had a group of friends come over to play party packs four, five, and seven and ended up having a blast with lots of laughs throughout the night.

Jackbox Party Pack Four includes Fibbage 3, Monster Seeking Monster, Survive the Internet, Civic Doodle, and Bracketeering. Fibbage 3 is a three-quel to the popular trivia game Fibbage, which allows players to make up lies to hilarious trivia questions and then decide which answer is actually correct. Players get points for both fooling their friends and choosing the correct answer surrounding the lies. It also features a side game called Fibbage Enough About You which is this time, where players earn points for getting answers correct about their friends and making up lies about them that the other players might guess. The final round features a "two truths and one lie" type of question. Both trivia games are extremely fun to play and as an added bonus discovers new fun facts about your friends (not to mention the soundtrack is superb). Survive the Internet is my favorite game in this pack and is about twisting your friends' statements into things that others would find offensive or shameful. Each player is asked a question such as "how do you feel about Justin Bieber?" the other players must twist that answer into something absurd, which often results in hilarious answers. Players earn points by other players voting for their combination, and some points for being the butt of the joke. Monster vs. Monster is a role-playing dating game where players try to earn hearts and date other players. Each player has a secret ability that isn't revealed until later in the game. Text messages are displayed for all to see at the end of each round which can either be amusing or awkward. My problems with this game is that you can only send four messages with a limited character count each round, and names aren't hidden meaning that you could easily pick favorites. This game would be best for players and up to get the full experience. Civic Doodle and Bracketeering are my least favorites in this pack. Civic Doodle is a spin off on Drawful where players have to create drawings to help develop a city, and you get to see each other's drawings unfold on the screen in real time. While it was somewhat entertaining for the first round, I don't see myself playing it again anytime soon. Bracketeering is a bland game where players answer questions and go head-to-head to see what is the best answer. While it might be somewhat entertaining for the first few minutes, it gets old very fast. Overall, I would give this pack three stars out of five.

Next up is Jackbox Party Pack 5 which includes You Don't Know Jack, Mad Verse City, Patently Stupid, Zeeple Dome, and Split the Room. You Don't Know Jack stays true to its original roots with fun but mind-twisting trivia questions. Being someone who enjoys freestyle wrapping, my favorite game in this pack is easily Mad Verse City. Players come up with raps first by filling in a mad lib and then free-writing the next verse on their own. Then, their corresponding robot will come out and spit out the bars using text-to-speech. I love the creativity that you can have with this game which results in hilarious, rib-tickling raps depending on who you play this game with. Patently Stupid is a Shark Tank spin-off where players come up with solutions to problems, and then the other players must draw an original invention for that problem along with a catchy title and tagline. While I am not good at drawing, it made the game more fun, especially when I had to stand in the front of the room and convince my friends to vote for my product. This game is guaranteed to be fresh everytime with a high replay value. Split the Room and Zeeple Dome were easily my least favorite in the pack. Split the Room is exactly how it sounds: players are given different scenarios with fill in the blanks. The players must fill the blank with something that they think would have half saying yes, and half saying no. While it was exciting and thought-provoking to come up with these mind-bending scenarios, it does not give any room to be funny or witty. While I appreciate Jackbox going "out the box" with Zeeple Dome, it's an awful attempt at an arcade-type game with no replay value whatsoever. This pack is worth it for a majority of the games, and I give this four stars out of five.

Jackbox Party Pack 7 is a winner. It features the classic Quiplash 3, where players are given fill-in-the -blanks and have to write in the funniest response to each question paired up with another player in the room. Even better, you can create your own questions for players to fill out, which makes this game a winner for hours of fun. However, Talking Points is the highlight of this pack and easily the best Jackbox Game ever created. Like an Impractical Jokers episode, players collaborate on making absurd presentations that the other players must stand up and make a speech on, which results in hysterical improvised comedy. A random player is given the role of the "assistant" who picks out the pictures and text for the player to present each round. Players create feedback on each speech and custom name awards are given out at the end for players to vote on. This game had me bursting out laughing at my friends' attempt to give each speech. Even better, the game features a free-play section where other players can make the presentations from scratch where nothing is held back. This pack easily gets five out of five stars.

At less than thirty dollars per pack, Jackbox games are a must-have to make any get-together a night to remember.