Jackbox Games broke tradition last month by skipping what many thought would be Jackbox Party Pack 11 in favour of releasing its Naughty Pack, a smaller bundle of party games with a focus on cruder prompts and tasks. The end results were… underwhelming to say the least, but the developer is back once again with another dash of party game shenanigans in Survey Scramble.
The Jackbox Survey Scramble at its core is one of the developer’s more straightforward efforts taking on the form of a Family Feud/Fortunes-style game with players trying to guess popular (and unpopular answers) to questions Jackbox have surveyed its panels (through a series of email surveys and other means I must imagine). The difference between the game show Family Feud and this though is you aren’t simply looking for the top five or so responses with some questions having upwards of 500 possible answers surveyed individuals offered. That means a simple request for one-word movies can range from the obvious big hitters like ‘Titanic’ all the way down to the more obscure like recent horror movie ‘Smile’.
Players have four modes to play, each one feeling unique despite essentially boiling down to the same gimmick of guessing answers. It’s to the credit of Jackbox Games that it’s managed to take such a simple idea and twist and turn it into four different experiences.
HiLo is very simple. Players have two attempts at guessing the most popular answers on the list followed by two attempts at then guessing the least popular answers. As fun as it often is trying to score a higher-ranking guess than your opponents, forcing your brain to then search deep for suggested answers that might just barely make it in is definitely a fun challenge. Scoring is simple too, the better you perform in a round, the higher the points awarded with players guessing the same answer having to split the pot. One final question tasks players with choosing which they feel is likely the more popular answer between two and then that’s the end of the game. It’s super easy to get into and super quick to fire through.
Speed – as its name might suggest – is basically a free-for-all, players typing in as many answers as they can until a timer runs out. The more answers you provide first the more points you earn. Brief breaks offer a moment of reflection on what others have entered before diving back into the action with multipliers added as the list gets fuller. It’s simple. It’s chaotic. It’s a lot of fun.
Squares has proven to be a favourite of the four modes available, players split into two teams and taking turns to guess potential answers in what essentially plays out as a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. To claim a square, you’ll need to provide an answer that ranks within its range (the top left square for example can be claimed should you offer an answer ranked as first or second while the bottom right square only needs an answer at rank 71 or below) until one team creates three in a row. Interestingly, teams can steal squares should their answer rank higher than the original guess within that range. I like this mode’s focus on trying to choose answers that fall within certain ranges helping create a mode that’s a little more strategic than the others.
Bounce is probably my least favourite of the bunch, players once again split into two teams and trying to keep a ball bouncing off a paddle sort of like a game of Arkanoid only to physically move said paddle you’ll need to provide answers. More popular answers will move the paddle left while less popular right. It’s certainly the most ambitious idea of the four, however, we found it a real struggle to move the paddle into the right place in time, especially as things start to speed up. More often than not, rounds would wind up simply seeing the ball falling out of bounds immediately as a team failed to find just the right answer to move the paddle where it needed to be.
So, three out of four games isn’t a bad ratio truth be told and with the promise of more modes and updating of surveys, I can’t wait to see how the team tweaks the survey guessing formula in other ways.
Playing the Jackbox Party Packs has often been with friends as opposed to family members and older players due to their range in complexity and temptation to be crude. What I love about The Jackbox Survey Scramble though, is that the game works for everyone. The questions are ones players can all relate to, like morning routines, things to confuse elders and names beginning with the letter ‘T’. With so many potential answers too, even younger players are bound to find a few of their own. Of all the games the developer has released, this one has easily seen a wider range of groups involved thanks to its wider appeal.
We had a lot of fun with The Jackbox Survey Scramble. Sure, it’s not as complex or wacky as the sorts of ideas you’d see in the Jackbox Party Packs, but its brevity and simplicity make it perfect to fill an evening with friends or family. What it may lack in laughs, it makes up for with genuine intrigue, offering a glimpse into how the minds of others operate… for better or worse that is.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review copy provided by Jackbox Games
