Earlier this year, there was one email I was expecting to see in my inbox that never showed up. Each year, around PAX West time, we generally receive an email inviting us to preview the latest Jackbox Party Pack. This year, despite RSVPing to PAX West, no such email was received, which left us wondering, “Would Jackbox Party Pack 11 be released in 2025? ”
In 2024, Jackbox Games released The Jackbox Naughty Pack, which contained only three games (Dirty Drawful, Fakin’ It ‘All Night Long’, and Let Me Finish). Despite the game having a more mature theme, it was poorly received by the community and was believed to be childish. With a rare misfire in their library, how did Jackbox Games fire back with Jackbox Party Pack 11? Let’s find out in our Jackbox Party Pack 11 review.
Jackbox Party Pack 11
Developer: Jackbox Games
Publisher: Jackbox Games
Platforms: PC (Steam) (EGS), Apple, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Release Date: October 23rd, 2025
Players: 1 – 8 + Audience
Price: $29.99
With a year to bounce back, what did Jackbox Games change with their latest installment? Well, to start, Jackbox Party Pack 11 (JBPP11) contains five games compared to Naughty Pack‘s three.
The five game modes in JBPP11 are Doominate, Hear Say, Suspectives, Cookie Haus, and Legends of Trivia. Prior to the game’s official release today, we got a chance to try out the five game modes. Below are our thoughts on each of the game modes
Doominate
In Doominate, players are asked to list some of their favorite things. After listing some of their favorite things or situations, it is up to other players to ruin them. If you can’t think of an answer, you can select ruin it for me, and the game will make suggestions.
Once everyone’s suggestions have been made, players get to decide which choice ruined it the most. For the following round, players get the chance to fix one of the previous rounds’ topics that were ruined and try to make them better.
Doominate feels like a mixture of Quiplash and Ruminate from previous Jackbox games. The different times we played this game mode always led to laughs. The can’t think of anything option feels like it shouldn’t be given within a few seconds before running out of time, versus at any point.
For a game mode, it is safe, but it can lead to a ton of laughs. Although it says it takes 15 to 20 minutes, time flew by and made it feel like we could get in just one more round in, even when people were feeling tired.
Hear Say
Hear Say is a game mode that has you use your phone as a microphone. During the game, you will be given prompts, and you will have to make noises to match those prompts. Once players have voted on which noise was the best, the noise then comes to life in a scene, potentially leading to comical moments.
In the final round, players are tasked with making multiple sounds. The sounds are then voted on and put into one final long video. After all the points have been tallied, a winner is decided. In the end credits, players can see how the sounds would play out in the different scenarios if their answer was chosen.
During our first time playing this game mode, it felt like it was a different idea, but with poor execution. In between prompts, they would want you to do pitch mini games where you had to change your vocal range to complete the game. These games didn’t respond properly if you had any background noise.
This game mode ultimately felt like it worked best if in a quiet room or with a small group of people taking turns rather than a convention setting. If the pitch mini games weren’t a part of it, it would easily be our third favorite, but instead, it ties with Legends of Trivia.
Cookie Haus
In Cookie Haus, players are given prompts, and they must design their cookies according to the prompts. In the final round, one of the orders comes back, and you are forced to redesign the cookie for the upset customer.
Out of all the game modes, this was by far our least favorite. While most of the prompts were wholesome, it felt like another drawing game for the sake of a drawing game.
For those who love drawing games, you can probably have fun with it, but the drawing felt uncomfortable on the phone, and when trying to change ingredients, it did not always work properly, leading to some awkward creations.
Suspectives
Suspectives is a game of whodunit; in this detective game, you must study the evidence, question fellow players, and find the criminal. At the very beginning of the game, players are asked seven questions in a questionnaire. After all players have completed the survey, one player will see on their phone if they are the criminal or not; it is up to the rest of the players to uncover who the culprit is, while the culprit must hide their crime as best as possible.
Throughout the game, each question will be shown, and the game will show how many players answered in that manner. After seeing how many answered that way, the game gives a player the chance to interrogate one player whom they think might be guilty; the detective can choose to come up with their own questions or use the questions provided. Meanwhile, onlookers can feel out the suspect’s answers.
As the game goes on, there are chances to potentially weed out different culprits using the lie detector and get rid of false evidence. At any point, someone can state they know who it is and go to the end of the game to accuse someone. A wrong accusation and the criminal will get away.
The reason why Suspectives was not number one on our list was due to two problematic aspects. 1. Unless all players are in the same room or in a call together, interrogating or testifying can be problematic. 2. The game mode requires at least four players to start.
If you do not have four right away, it can be rather annoying to wait for the right number of players. This game mode could easily start with three players if it had an option to turn off the innocent aspect.
Outside of those two issues, this game mode was a lot of fun when playing with a full lobby and with those who wanted to play. Most of the prompts don’t make it easy to guess who the criminal is right away, and if the players like detective games, it can lead to some fun role-playing experiences.
Legends of Trivia
When we first saw Legends of Trivia, we thought, “Oh, this is new for Jackbox, an RPG experience in the form of a trivia game.” Legends of Trivia is an RPG adventure where players must work together to take down monsters on one of three levels. If the player gets a question wrong, they will take damage.
After X amount of turns, the monster will get a chance to attack the party. If playing with an audience, the audience can choose to heal the players or the monsters. The level ends once the party has been completely felled or if the boss monster is taken down.
This game requires a lot of cooperation because you will need to talk with one another to get the right answers. For one question type, only one player has the question, and each player has only one of the possible answers. Yes, you can brute force this game, but it might result in a few deaths.
So while this game mode was a blast, it did have some downsides. 1. If you run out of gold, you can still revive. 2. You can’t pick categories for the questions; you can only choose whether or not to have US-Centric Content turned on. Even then, some of the questions are rather niche and will stump players. 3. The items in the shop felt like they were rather limited, and that the development team could have added more options.
At the end of the day, Jackbox Party Pack 11 feels like Jackbox Games listened to fans’ criticisms of the previous game and attempted to make something that they know everyone could love. Is every game mode perfect? No, but there is something for everyone in this latest iteration. In regard to accessibility, there does not appear to be any new settings. The profanity filter is still easy to get around by typos or different spellings, and family-friendly does not always cause prompts to be appropriate.
If you were a fan of Jackbox Party Pack 4, 5, and 8, then you will have a great time playing these games with your friends or even complete strangers. Some of the game modes are not optimized to be played in a loud environment, but if there is a will, there is a way. Hopefully, you can have fun with the game as much as we did.
So if you are looking for a good party game to enjoy this holiday season, then we recommend picking up Jackbox Party Pack 11 to play with family, friends, and maybe the cranky elderly man down the street.
Jackbox Party Pack 11 was reviewed on a PC using a code provided by Jackbox Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Jackbox Party Pack 11 is now available on PC (Steam) (EGS), Apple, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
