Okay, it's a computer game. And not even a computer version of a board game, so I really shouldn't be reviewing it here. But dammit, You Don't Know Jack is one of the slickest products I've seen in a long time. It delivers on everything it promises, and what it promises is a damn good time.
You Don't Know Jack is a trivia game. Actually, it's more of a trivia game show. It's meant to be played by two or three players, and will make fun of you if you play it alone (which is not nearly as much fun). It bills itself as the game where pop culture and high culture collide, and it's not kidding.
A full game consists of twenty one questions (a shorter, seven question game is also available for parties where lots of people want to give it a try) read by the faux-hippest announcer this side of David Spade. As in Jeopardy, the player who answered the previous question correctly gets to choose the next one, and he always gets three categories to pick from. But you won't find Potent Potables among them. The "categories" are really just off-the-wall clues to the subject of the question. "Zoiks! and Forsooth!" brings up a question about similarities between Scooby Doo and Hamlet, while "Just Give Her a Wedgie, Reggie" asks a question about a Paul Simon song. Questions are multiple choice, with the first person to "buzz in" by pressing their assigned keyboard key getting first crack. A wrong answer is usually accompanied by a jibe from the emcee, frequently tailored specifically to that wrong answer.
Tossed into the mix are a bunch of "gibberish questions" in which you're shown a nonsense phrase. If you buzz in, you have to type in the well-known phrase it rhymes with. The sooner you buzz in here, the greater the point value.
To make things a little more interesting, players have a limited number of screws usable to force an opponent to answer the question— great if they don't know the answer, but if they do get it right not only do they score, but you lose points.
The final question of the game, the Jack Attack, is actually a series of seven questions where a bunch of answers fly by and you need to buzz in when you see one which matches the clue. For example, if the Jack Attack clue is "That Was No Lady..." and "Fred Flintstone" appears, you want to buzz in when "Wilma" flies by ("... that was my wife."). Don't be surprised, though, if "Betty", "Pebbles", or "Barney" fly by to throw you off.
The gameplay itself works very well, but that alone wouldn't be enough to rave about this game. I rave about You Don't Know Jack because of its slick execution, panache, and humor. The categories are funny. The questions are funny. The jokes are funny. It's an audio tour de force. And it all adds up to a tremendously fun activity. In lesser hands, this game could have fallen flat on its face. Instead everything works, and works well. Each question number is introduced by a different jazzy tune (question #4 is especially amusing). Be sure to hang around for the commericals which play over the game's end credits. They're randomly selected and worth hearing.
The game's 800 questions— enough for almost 40 full games— are tracked by a database so they don't repeat. You Don't Know Jack has done well enough for Berkeley that they've released an add-on disc of 400 more questions, and I've heard rumors of themed discs (Sports, Films, etc) to come.
Available for both Windows and Mac, if you don't pick this one up, then you really don't know jack.
5/26/97 Note: Sports, Movies, Volume 2, and XXL (with even more questions) editions are now available. Volume 2 and Movie editions include new types of questions, including Fill in the Blanks and "Dis or Dat" questions where a list of 7 items is provided, and a player must decide to which of 2 or 3 groups those items belong. You can also play the game for free via the Web, at the You Don't Know Jack Netshow