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This game is great! Well worth the money. I always loved the YDKJ games (had every one on the PC).
The rest of this review is only for people who played it on the PC as only you will understand.
They did mess up a few things about the game from the PC version. I couldn't wait for this to come out on the PS3 for 2 reasons (1) Up to date content and (2) Individual controllers means 4 (instead of only 3) people can play and they don't have to huddle around a keyboard. They nailed #(1), but they changed the game in ways that I think take away from the fun of the PC version.
Here are the issues I see:
A. No buzzing in factor. Yes, you buzz in your answer, but EVERYONE gets to answer (or not, you still lose points for a wrong answer, so you may not want to answer at all). So there is no need to make a quick decision if you want to buzz in or not. In the original game, only the 1st person who buzzed in would get to answer and then if they were wrong, someone else could try and so on. Like Jeopardy. (gee, I wonder if the Jeopardy formula is time tested and solid???). In this new YDKJ, all 4 people buzz in their answer (with no indication on the screen so you can't copy off of others (that's a good feature)). You get 30 seconds to answer, so once again, it completely removes that "I'm not sure if I know the answer to this but I better buzz in before someone else does" factor. You can now carefully read the question and decide if you want to answer or not. I never saw YDKJ as a triva game as much as it is a Game Show simulation. Basically, what I am saying here is that they replaced the need for quick reflexes and decision making with the ability to think more clearly about the question before answering.
B. No REAL screw factor. The difference from (A) above makes Screwing another contestant MUCH less useful or fun. In the old game, you would see (from no one buzzing in) that no one was probably going to answer. Then you pick the screw and pick a "victim". Forcing the other player to answer when they don't want to is the thing. In the new version, you don't really know if the other players are planning on answering or not, since they have 30 seconds to decide what their answer is. In other words, what is the point of forcing someone to answer a question that they were going to answer anyway?
C. 7 or 21. The old version gave you a choice of a 7 question or 21 question game. We always did 21, so the new 11 question version is not working as well for us.
D. No Gibberish question. This is the only one that I understand. It would have been hard to quickly type in the answer without a real keyboard. I still miss the feature.
E. Multi-player DIS or DAT is not REALLY multi-player. DIS or DAT was always the least fair thing about the original YDKJ because it would basically let the person who selected the category for that question, do the DIS or DAT. So now they advertise mutliplayer DIS or DAT and have a chance to fix that inconsistancy, but instead, it is only that if the person selected for DIS or DAT gets one wrong, others can steal it. Why not just let everyone play equally and get the points they earn? What did the player do to earn the right to do DIS or DAT anyway?
F. Pre-determined questions. What I mean by this is that the "episodes" as they call them are all exactly the same. When you play episode 1, it is always the same questions. You get to pick the episode so that you can make sure you are playing a fresh one, but the old way which just randomly arranged questions was much better. Sure, there would be times where there was a question or two that you had seen before, but it felt more realistic that way instead of these totally identical games. I think there are only 73 episodes. I can burn thru those (especially with 11 question games) with 2 nights of playing with friends. Maybe the download feature will help with that.
OK, so you may think I hate this game. I do not. YDKJ is such an awesome game that I still think it is well worth buying. That's why I gave it 5 stars.
Here are some good things about this version:
A. Individual controllers AWESOME. But that's really the PS3's doing.
B. Wrong Answer of the day this is very cool. It is funny and gives someone a pretty decent reward for getting a wrong answer. Very in line with the YDKJ francise.
C. Graphics are great.
D. Still the same sarcastic, funny bantor that really gives you the feel of some kind of production going on.
E. Up to date content.
Hopefully, they will put out new content at a regular pace and provide more specialized versions like they had on the PC (Sports, Movies, TV, etc.)
I added this weeks after the original review. There is ONE thing about buzzing in quickly which is that you get more points the quicker you buzz in, but it is not enough of a factor to give you that anxiety of rushing.
ALSO, and this one may only affect some people. The game has 73 episodes, but they only unlock 5 at a time. IF you play it on other peoples systems, you may have a hard time playing an episode that you haven't already played. Simple explaination is this. Let's say the same 4 friends like to play this game and they gather at two different houses (diff PS3s) on a regular basis. On the first night they play 10 episodes, then on the next night they are at the other house. The game will only let you play the first 5 episodes, even though you know all the answers already. And yes, I did look for an unlock code and no one has one. I do have a crappy solution for those who care. You can start a game with one player and it will play all the way thru without any intervention. This way the system thinks you played it and will unlock another game. You can turn the TV to another input or at least turn down the sound so you don't have to listen the games you played already. It takes about 15 minutes to burn thru an episode. Of course, it requires pre-planning. If you haven't done this already and you are ready to play, oh well..........
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***Updated 7/7/2011 update marked below***I bought this after having last played You Don't Know Jack ("YDKJ") on the computer with my girlfriend way back in 1997 it was on a Gold Box sale here so I picked it up for about $17. I always liked and still do how it feels like a game show.
As a "head's-up" to parents out there, I would say enough of the innuendo and language makes this game more geared towards late teens and adults this probably is not too appropriate of a game for children to play, in other words.
With about 72 or so total different games if you're playing it by yourself non-stop I'd imagine it doesn't take very long to play out the entire game.
It's fun, it's irritating, it's unique, it's repetitive. It is a fast-paced trivia game still, where the type of answers you have to come up with are of varying types (where you have to think from the perspective of the opposite of the obvious answer, or just have to know obscure answers, or be able to figure out word association quickly).
The first two rounds are multiple choice. In one of them you get a "Dis or Dat" where you choose whether a word is associated with one of two possible answers, or both sometimes. The final round is word association, where you have to quickly choose what is the correct word associated with another base word.
This is a very fun game with at least one other person sitting next to you, and preferably a group of people who all have controllers. You can "screw" your opponent(s) once in each game by forcing them to answer the question in 5 seconds. If they get it wrong they lose money and you still have a chance to swipe the answer.
I didn't like how easy it was to see-saw the scores it's good that a person isn't completely out of the game at any point, but the ability to fluctuate scores was too much. Example: in the final, word association round my friend happened to be terrible at it and I happened to be good. So he'd be killing me in the first two rounds but we both knew it didn't matter since I'd clean up in the final round and win the game because of it.
I also found the videos to be repetitive and irritating, though that's just the nature of YDKJ to be slightly irritating. I did like how the game was really up-to-date. It's a quick buzzkill to play a trivia game where "current events" ask questions from years ago.
***Update***
I have found since I first wrote my thoughts on YDKJ that there IS downloadable content you can purchase. For $4.99 each you can download four sets of 10 additional games to your PS3 from the PS Store online. Because of how fast games can go and the mechanics, it still can be lopsided for players with that final round and you can burn through the games quickly the fewer players you have, but I'm changing it to 4 stars since you can purchase additional games for a relatively inexpensive price, plus the game itself is now available for under $30 regularly priced, it appears.
***Original comment/end of my review***
I think the game could have great potential with downloadable content. For example I think it would be great if for a small price (like $5.99) one could download "category-specific" add-on games, like sports or history. I would not buy a new game with each category, but I'd pay a small price for downloading it. Profit for the creators, fun for me.
Smallish thing but still a little irritating: every time you turn the game on fresh after being turned off, then you have to remember to go to manually choose a game and find the next one on your list you haven't completed since otherwise it will always start you at the first game which you've already beaten.
Random note: this is a good drinking game.
Bottom-line: this game is addicting and fun enough with a group or even just one other friend it seems designed indeed for more than just one person. But with a limited number of total games (which probably could last awhile if you don't play unless there are people over) and its simplicity this would be a stretch to pay any more than about $30 for.I love playing this game! It's hard to stop after one game, so we played six last night! The trivia questions are fun, slightly punny, and really are creative. The writers and developers for You Don't Know Jack are really creative; while I was playing it I was entertained with humor and challenged with facts.
I highly recommend this game to anybody (NOT KIDS!)-ok any adult -that wants to play a game, be amused and entertained all at one time. How fun!
Read Best Reviews of You Don't Know Jack Here
I had this game when I was growing up. Back then it was a computer game and everyone had to sit near the computer keyboard in order to buzz in with your assigned keyboard letter. It was so much fun to all be there trying to buzz in first. The game is still so fun and I love the commentary.Want You Don't Know Jack Discount?
Jack took a decade off to relax and came back better (and funnier) than ever before! As always with this irreverent trivia party game, playing with friends is an absolute blast. It's also nice how the game goes through all available games before repeating a single game or question. Very refreshing to finally get a trivia game that doesn't ask you the same questions after 2 or 3 plays. My only complaint -and it's not a fault of the game, but a fault of the game not selling as well as a Call of Duty or Killzone -is the difficulty in finding a multiplayer game online. When online multiplayer works, it works well. But as often as not, I have ended up waiting in an empty lobby for 15 or 20 minutes before finally giving up and trying again later (also, a "couch mode" would have been nice, allowing teams to compete against one another online). But offline? Whenever we have friends over, this is now our "go to" game. With new question packs being released, Jack should be around for quite a while! Definitively worth a purchase.
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