You Don't Know Jack (2011) Member Review for the PC

The Good: Hilarious, pop culture fusion is great, tons of questions, cute animated videos

The Bad: Crass humor may offend some, only two players, no game pad support, no online play, feels very bare bones

Trivia games can be very poorly made in video game form because they need more than just a button to press. You need unique ideas that game shows on TV can't do, but video games can. These can be stuff the FCC won't allow TV to air, extra modes, and extras like unlockable characters, or things of this nature. YDKJ doesn't really have any of those, but it is snarky, and funny enough not to need it. It also has 75 eposides with 10 questions each (do the math!).

The game's character is all about trivia that is fused with pop culture in a smart and unique way. Questions range from history, science, english lit and the usual categories, but it's all random. Each question's name even has a unique twist on word play and often the questions are laugh out loud funny and ridiculous. The games host voices everything and even some questions have little stories thrown in between. If you get a question right or wrong there's some funny smart remark to what you chose and its either insulting or funny depending on how you view the world. The game doesn't curse much or anything, but this game isn't for little kids. Before each round you are shown the "Wrong Answer of the Game" which gives you $4,000 if you find the clue they say that relates to an answer somewhere in the round. If you get it you unlock an extra that's a 3D model of what the clue was.

There are three rounds in each episode and four questions in each round. The second round doubles the score (in form of unusable cash) and the third round is a Jack Attack. The second round also consists of a Dis or Dat round which has two subjects and you must match the word that comes up to either or. A Jack Attack is just like a Dis or Dat, but it's just one subject and they are worth the most out of the whole episode. Mash buttons and you'll drop your score quickly. If you have two players you can "screw" the person by pressing a button and they will have 5 seconds to answer the question. If they get it right you get screwed instead, so it's a fun twist to get back at the other person.

That's really all there is to the game play, and it's pretty bare bones. The visuals are as well, but each question opening has a cute little video to it, but they repeat constantly and it can get old fast. While you can also skip instructions some can only be skipped almost near the end so this grates on your nerves during long play times. YDKJ has a lot of problems by the fact that it's so bare bones. I would love to see more animated videos, be able to use the cash I earned to unlock stuff, and be able to include more than one player. There is also no gamepad support so players have to huddle around the keyboard.

The only real game play problem is that the questions can be hidden inside the pop culture reference so deeply it'll take more than 20 seconds some times to figure it out. Some questions had me sitting there thinking and thinking what the questions actually is until I just guessed. Despite that one flaw I'd also love to see online multiplayer, but alas we get a ton of content instead. Despite these flaws Jack is a great game to play with someone else or during sleep overs, but not very fun by yourself.