Cleril Reviews: You Don't Know JACK

[Cleril]

Going old school this time folks. You Don't Know JACK (Referred to as JACK from now on) is an old game from back when Windows 95 was around. It's a game much like Scene it! or that last level on either Banjo-Kazooie or Banjo-Tooie, a quiz game. However what makes it different is it's presentation, it's humor, and it's gameplay.

There's no plot to speak of in the game. You are some lucky guy who is on a quiz show with senior Jack who gives you questions about....anything and everything actually. The game has categories to choose from such as "Puppetry & Heavy Metal Music" or "Scientific Experiments * Bad Karma." None of them make much sense but the games humor never stops your lungs from choking on air.

The controls for such a game are simple. You are given a specific keyboard letter to use as your buzzer. If you know the answer then buzz in and then click the number on your keyboard corresponding to the answer you want to pick. However some questions require you to type in answers directly. For example, you are asked to figure out what this says: "Quelp, jive gollen, man pie rant smet pup!" and as your host gives you hints the money you'll receive for a correct answer slowly trickles down until it reaches 0. If you answer any question wrong, you lose the amount of money the question was worth. Answer correctly, you earn the money. Simple, no?

The final round of the game, the fourth one, doesn't have any questions for you to answer but instead it's a matter of matching similar or different things together. You will get a clue as to what goes with what and the main subject matter gradually zooms in while the possible answers pop up around it and by pressing your buzzer key you find out if it matches the subject correctly, earning you money, or if it's wrong in which case you'll lose 2,000 bucks.

The game ranges from easy to difficult in terms of difficulty. The questions that have you type in the questions are likely the hardest since you have to fill in the answer instead of picking through pre-set choices.

There is multiplayer might I add, over a local connection of course. You can have up to 4 players huddles around one computer, each with a different buzzer key. In multiplayer mode you each are given "Screws" which you can use on any question in the first 3 rounds in order to screw your opponent over and force them into answering the question. It simply adds to the humor of the game and pumps up those fun hormones.

The sound is composed of original music and top notch voice actors who do the parodies and the host who gives you questions. You never see any of these people and you never see the studio your in. All you ever see is text, a black background, and a blue background. The graphics are nil and if anything only add to the charm and humor the game offers.

Let's talk about the humor actually. When the game starts you have the option of listening to the booth folk doing parodies of commercials and such which will make you laugh. There are even certain "cheats" in the game or rather easter eggs which will bring out some hilarious moments. The questions where you type in the answer...if you type in "**** you" for example the host gets mad and takes away 50,000 or 100,000 dollars. He may even change your name to something like "Ass." Do it a second time and he'll say how it's not original anymore. Do it a third time and he'll close the game, leaving you to your desktop all alone. That is humor people, get used to it because there's plenty to be found.

Okay, so do I get it?

If you can find it and it works with your fancy Windows Vista or Windows 7 then sure, go for it. It's likely five bucks at this point. There are also other specific versions of JACK like "TV Edition" and such if you're interested.

10/10

[LemonRising]

Sounds like a fun game to bring out when friends come over.

Thanks for the review! Great info.

[Cleril]

Sounds like a fun game to bring out when friends come over.

Thanks for the review! Great info.

Made a mistake, only 3 player multiplayer, sorry about that.

Not a problem, I already typed up around 10 on another site so I just copy/paste over to here.