You Don’t Know Jack has been absent from gaming for the past 8 years. Eight years is a long time for developer Jellyvision to not have anything on the store shelves. With Jellyvision being absent from the trivia game scene for so long, are they able to come back and retake the trivia game thrown?
You Don’t Know Jack
is a trivia game that features trivia about movies, TV, history, and other
random facts. The first thing you will
notice is the humor and the commentary of You Don’t Know Jack. When you first start up the game you will
hear commentary in the background as if you were in a control room of a game
show. You hear producer type people
talking about how long until title cards and to display the legal
information. You will also hear audio
commercials and random conversations while sitting at the main menu waiting to
choose a game. It is great to just put
the control down and listen to the craziness that some of these people are saying. 
You have your choice of 73 different episodes of questions. Each episode houses 10 different questions with three rounds per episode, but they are the same 10 questions every time you go back to that episode. At first I didn't like the way the game was setup but it became clear to me that, since there is such a huge list of questions you are able to play, you will never run into the same question unless you play a group of questions that you have already played before. Since there are 73 different episodes of questions with 10 questions per list that means there are 730 different questions in the game. Which is huge for a trivia game to be able to hold that many different questions and have them all be voiced by Cookie Masterson.
Cookie returns as the host of You Don’t Know Jack. Cookie is a very interesting character who talks about his dreams and what he likes to do in his free time. Cookie reads off every question and not only gives you the answer but also gives you an explanation to the answer. Most of the questions are broke up into multiple choice questions. Cookie asks you the questions and you just have to press one of the face buttons that corresponds to the answer you think it is. The faster you do it the bigger the score you get if you get it right. If you get it wrong, the points are then taken from you. The fifth question is always a "Dis or Dat" question. During these sections the game lays out two possible answers that you can choose from. The game will show a word on the screen and you have to determine if it belongs with this item or this other item. For example, there is a Dis or Dat where you had to pick whether it is a Britney Spears song or the name of a Pope. The faster you do it the more points you get, but if you are playing with other people then they are able to steal the points if you choose the wrong answer or they ring in before you. These sections help to catch other people up in score and are fun to play.
Screw your opponent;
with every episode each player is given a screw. If you get to a question that you think your
opponent doesn't know then you can lay the screw on them and they have only 5
seconds to answer correctly if they get it wrong you get the money they lose,
if they get it right however, they win the money and you lose your money. Each set of 10 questions are sponsored by a
ridiculous made up company or product like "Romantic Tandem Toenail
Clippers". Every episode has a “Wrong
Answer of the Game”. If you happen to
pick the special wrong answer, you win a prize and a ton of points from that
sponsor. So if anyone needs any
"Romantic Tandem Toenail Clippers" let me know, because I have the
hook up. The silliness is done great in
this game. It helps make the experience
a good one and you will not believe the stuff that they say. It really adds to a party type atmosphere.
This brings me to the bad part about You Don’t Know Jack. The game is best played with a group of people, never by yourself. When you are playing by yourself the humor just doesn't seem to be as good nor do you really care. If you are playing with other people then the atmosphere is live and loud and everybody wants to have a good time and the game plays to that strength. Even having just two players adds a whole lot to the game that you would not be able to get by playing by yourself. The game does support Xbox Live where you join a room or create a room that can house up to four players. The person that created the room then chooses what episode everyone plays. Which if you have already played that episode before then you will most likely know the answers. That is if you are able to find anyone to play with. I had trouble finding a game and when I did most people left before it started. So if you are going to play this game make sure you have someone to play it with, preferably local.
Jellyvision has put together a great game that works well for the Xbox 360. The presentation of the game is amazing and it offers a lot of fun and excitement to any party atmosphere. Not only is this one of the best trivia games out there, but the game also launched at a price tag of only $39.99. You Don’t Know jack has tons of content to choose from and even downloadable episodes you are able to buy. This game should be at the top of your list for bringing out at parties. It offers something for everyone to enjoy. If You Don’t Know Jack yet then grab a couple of friends, get a copy of this game, and enjoy.