By Jonathan Bilski
And watch out Mario Party, things can get heated with where things our on lists. These surveys aren't taken from people off the street or big swaths of America. No! They're being answered by other players, playing the game. So, only other Jackboxers.
As per the usual, Jackbox knocks it out of the park on visuals and UI. The games are super easy to get into and to play. Though, the title screen looks like's it's preparing you for a dystopian shooter to play. In reality you have four game modes and even a tour of all four to get you trying each mode. It's like having a fun private gameshow for you and your friends or you and whomever your streaming with.
Even the announcer gets off some good ones when you don't do so well. Jackbox knows how you'll screw up and is ready to make fun of you as if they were there in person.
The games only needs two players to start, but looks like you can have a lot more players joining you in each mode. Bringing sweet, sweet chaos and much, much typing.
Let's go through the modes and what your actually doing:
Squares is sort of like tic-tac-toe, but much harder and more fun. You're trying to get three squares in a row to win the game. How do you earn squares? By guessing the top, middle and least answers for a random survey. So to get the top square you have to get the top answers to say, most mentioned words in a crime podcast. The word Murder is probably at the top, Police middle and Outline is on the bottom. The fun is guessing and getting three in a row with such random surveys. Like, best looking dogs have____ or what's the best unsalted_____? This has a team mode, because it be too hard with more than two opponents. It was also my favorite as it requires a bit of luck with guessing the correct place for words to be.
HILO 
Really going Hi and Low on a random list is Hilo. Where you guess the highest put answer on the survey and the lowest. This can both be infuriating and fun. The next game mode even more so. It's one thing to guess everyone's favorite animal balloon or type of car your uncle would drive, but what's the least thing people are gonna put? Seeing everyone's answers go up and learning the top ten and how much of you hit it exceeds in entertaining.
Remember when I mentioned all those uppers earlier in the review, there's a reason, games go by fast. Like, real fast. Speed has you typing out guesses as fast as possible. Higher on the list, the more you score. Oh, and the longer and more frustrated you get each round there's a better multiplier. So, if you type the right word describing the best material to put in houses in the second round you might beat everyone else who was doing well first round. It's chaotic and had a friend going, "I don't know any more words!" Should have said the classic line, "You Don't Know Jack!" Missed opportunities. A jolt from this one awaits as you just keep typing!
It's what I want to do when this game came up in the tour mode. Not sure how this team game got made, because once again too many opponents would stop it from working, but it already doesn't work ...with how hard it is. You've got to keep a square from falling by bouncing it off your guesses of lists, one again by where they might appear on a list. Your bumper moves to the top or bottom as you try and bounce the square. It's like Pong that nobody wanted. Played it a few times know and can't figure how it made it's way past testing. Maybe, others can precisely think of where words are on silly lists faster than my friends and me. Yeesh, Bounce, gotta bounce.
With the exception of that one mode and possibly an option to customize the tour to drop it this was fast-paced, easy-to-get-in-n-out of gaming. Possibly the fastest to learn and entertain Jackbox game yet. I could see friends playing this before heading out to a movie or spending a few minutes before something. Perfect for a few games that's just so darn easy to get into.
And, there's settings to make it family-friendly, so once again perfect for upcoming get-togethers from Halloween, Thanksgiving to Christmas. It's not just adjusting it for no naughty stuff, but just the ease of getting anyone playing. As always you just have to have a smart phone or tablet, go to Jackbox.tv and you can play. No app to download, just a code to put in.
It's a strange new title and once again won't lie, I wanted a new pack, but, it's fun to see see Jackbox innovate...maybe more that one word answers in the future? The Jackbox Survey Scramble is ready for your horrible one-word answers.
*Yes, it does have and ending theme like all Jackbox games.
The Jackbox Survey Scramble should be out on all platforms as you're reading this.
Game provided by publisher for review purposes