There’ve been a ton of Jackbox Party Packs over the last near-decade, each following a fairly similar structure: one or two standout games you’ll want to replay, a couple you might dip into every now and then, and at least one you’ll try once and then never bother with again. With 10 different packs to pick from, it becomes an increasing fuss to remember which pack has which game in, and then boot it up just to play its highlight before repeating the process when you choose to play something else.
Developers Jackbox Games seems to be just as aware as anyone, announcing the thing we’ve all been waiting for since at least Jackbox Party Pack 5: a single, unified launcher for all of the collected Jackbox Party Pack games that will let you jump between each of the more than 50 games released to date.
The Jackbox Megapicker, as they’ll christened it, will be out sometime next month on Steam, where it’ll be free to download. It’ll let you view all the Jackbox games you own, filter and sort them - it’s not clear what those options might be, but I’d assume things like player count - and then boot straight into your chosen game.
As someone who has found Jackbox to be a fixture of pretty much any social gathering in the last 10 years, it’s very welcome news. For what it’s worth, my favourite Jackbox remains Party Pack 3 - it’s hard to top Tee KO, and the rest are all good-to-great in a rare no-misses offering - though Mad Verse City from Pack 5 is an absolute banger thanks to hearing robot rappers spit awkward diss tracks about your friends.
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