Jackbox Games Excites the Mental Peer Group

Video games can be a great way for people to relax. These games allow others to enjoy quality time with friends or to enter a world of entertainment. On Halloween of 2023, I joined the Mental Health Peer Group to play games from the Jackbox Party Packs with the group members. It was my first time checking out this peer group, but it was not my first time playing Jackbox. Though, for the peer group members, the opposite was true as they all started a Jackbox game for the first time.

First things first. What is Jackbox? This long-running series of video games is the perfect ice breaker for groups of friends and families. At the time of this writing, there’s a total of 10 “Party Packs!” Each party pack has its own version of 5 different games. The games task each player with various objectives like creating humorous comments, to answering tricky trivia questions, to solving chaotic mysteries. Needless to say, there are many different games to play and surely enough, there’s going to be something for a group to enjoy.

The Mental Health Peer Group decided to start on Jackbox Party Pack 6, to play the highly popular “Trivia Murder Party 2” game, which was quite appropriate for Halloween. On the game screen, it would tell us to go to the Jackbox.tv website and input the room code that was provided in the game. This would allow us to all connect together via our Smartphones. Once everyone was logged into the game, it was time to begin.

The gameplay of Jackbox Games’ Trivia Murder Party has the players answer questions being asked by an unsettling creepy voice. The setting of the game is a haunted house of sorts, so the dark tone makes sense. Though, some humorous puns and remarks end up slipping through the cracks as the haunted house owner attempts to kill us. To clarify, “kill” in this case means that one of the players in the game, designated by a crocheted animal, gets destroyed in a various way. Getting a question wrong sends you to a penalty mini game that lets you get a chance to stay alive. Otherwise, your poor crocheted animal becomes a ghost.

The final round starts when only one player is remaining. If there are no players remaining, the person with the highest points, in the form of in-game cash, gets revived. During this final round, all players try to determine which answers match the category that the question asks for. For instance, if a question asks for “Vegetables,” with answers of “Orange, Spinach, and Broccoli,” you should select broccoli and spinach to be correct. By the way, sometimes there are no correct answers. In this situation, just don’t select any answer. Correct answers send you closer to the exit as you try to escape away from a dark hallway. The first person to cross the finish line wins the whole game.

The Trivia Murder Party is quite popular. But there are many other games too. With there being 10 Jackbox Party Packs, each with 5 games, you are looking at a total of 50 games for a group to enjoy. One of the games that I like is called “Dictionarium,” which has the players create a new word and also the definition to said word. There’s also “Talking Points,” which has players create a lecture to unusual topics while also be supplied random images for assistance. With the amount of games available, chances are, there will be something that every one in the group enjoys.

One of the games we played, from the Jackbox series, is “Quiplash.” This game is yet another popular game with multiple iterations. We loaded up Jackbox Party Pack 7 and started a game of Quiplash 3. The objective of this game is to come up with answers to prompted questions. Your answers get paired up with the answers of another player that was asked the same prompt. Then all other players would vote on which they think fit the question more. Generally, you want to put in witty or funny answers as that will make other players laugh and smile, increasing your chances of getting a vote.

Following two rounds of Quiplash, a final round, known as “Thriplash,” starts. This round gives triple the number of points. The difference between this round and the first two rounds is that Thriplash asks for 3 separate responses. Now this can be taken multiple ways, and as such, many players will have a vastly different response to the scenario. I personally like to have two answers build up tension, then have the third answer deliver a punchline of sorts.

The Mental Health Peer Group informed me that they had an enjoyable time playing the Jackbox games. Most of the members were a lot older than me, so it was good to know that this game series really does work for people of all ages. Having an event that is full of laughter and joy is quite fantastic for people going through mental health issues. I hope the peer group members show their friends and family this game series and that the joy, that the game brings, gets spread as well.