[b]you don't know jack[/b] is the best trivia game series of all time. this one is from 1996, so it's pretty outdated by now and [b]it's always been us-centric[/b], so you'll either find it very challenging or very frustrating if you're from somewhere else. or a piece of cake because you know all the answers.
it's your typical multiple choice deal, but there are [b]a ton of other question types over the series[/b], like dis or dat (or sometimes both) or gibberish question. you can play a game of [b]7 or 21 questions[/b], some question types only appear in the full run, but they both end with the [b]jack attack[/b]. there's a clue and you have to match things accordingly.
[b]local multiplayer is available for up to 3 players[/b], you can even screw each other by buzzing in and forcing another player to answer. save for a few occasions way back when, I've always played it alone and always had a blast.
it's all [b]presented as a tv show[/b] (there was an actual short-lived tv show as well, should be on youtube), there's some behind-the-scenes chatter at the beginning, fake commercials at the end (don't you dare skip them!), fake money to win and all that, and [b]the writing is fantastic[/b]. if it was a simple text-based thing, it'd still be excellent stuff, so much creativity, but [b]the voiceovers take it to a whole new level[/b]. lots of characters, one-off or recurring, great hosts, also one-off or recurring, and again, the whole thing is just great.
[b]the attention to detail and variety elevates it even further.[/b] sure, if you play long enough, you'll see repeated questions (though I don't think the game will show them again until you've seen most of them), but there are a lot of different ways to introduce questions, a lot of remarks if you chose the wrong answer or hesitate to enter your name (in which case the host will give you one) or pick a category or answer, a relevant joke for most choices, right or wrong, and of course the commercials, man... the game also starts differently based on the time and date, so on certain holidays, early in the morning, late at night, on friday evening, and so on. and for answers that need typing, you can try some profanities, see what good they do.
[b]there was nothing done to modernize the game[/b] for the steam release, so it runs in 640x480 (a very tiny window with a black background, you can set the .exe to run in that resolution or something closer and fill the screen more with the actual game), there's no steam overlay, there's only a single volume setting (it's fine in this case, though lowering it completely didn't let me raise it again until a restart) and controls aren't rebindable. each player gets a buzz hotkey scattered on the keyboard, the screw is the same for everybody, and if you play alone, no need to buzz and space works just fine for that too.
I literally don't know jack and I've been having fun with the series since it first came out, most of it played alone. if you don't mind questions about older stuff (or that's your specialty) and can handle a lower resolution, definitely pick these up.
