Doesn’t everybody get the primal urge to kidnap Steve Harvey and play a creative new spin on Family Feud from the comfort of their couch? Well, sometimes, Jackbox Games just happens to hear our prayers, and this year, they answer with The Jackbox Survey Scramble.
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What is The Jackbox Survey Scramble?
Jackbox Survey Scramble is a survey-based game where you and your loved ones guess the top results for specific survey questions, from worst first dates to hottest fictional characters.
While competing over survey answers is a tried and tested concept, Jackbox Games keeps the gameplay fresh with active, live-service survey input. This means that you could replay the same topic four months later and get different answers. In fact, while the game’s loading, you can participate in the surveys while waiting for the next round. It’s a nice way to keep players engaged.
To beef up this new format, there’s four new game modes for players to try. Those modes are Hilo, Speed, Squares, and Bounce. Let’s break each one of them down.
The Variety of Jackbox Survey Scramble Modes
Hilo is a simple survey guesser where you and your friends compete for the top (and the lowest) results in each survey to earn points.
Then there’s Speed. Speed has the same setup as Hilo, but instead of taking your time, you type in as many answers as quickly as possible. This game mode really rewards quantity over quality.
Meanwhile, Squares is a team-based game of tic-tac-toe where each square represents the results of a survey. For instance, the top left is the top 1-2 answers, the middle top is 3-5, etc. In it, two teams compete and whoever gets 3 squares in a row wins.
So for Squares, it’s all about finding the exact survey answer you need. That could mean anything from first to last to middle of the pack. It’s a great way to test your overall knowledge of survey choices versus looking for the best or worst options.
Finally, there’s Bounce. In two teams, you play a game of Pong where the “mallet” moves based on guessing the most well-placed answer to a survey question. For example, for the irrational fears prompt, spiders will be on the left side (top of the survey results).
Meanwhile, eyeballs will be much lower. You’re not inherently trying to find the first-place answer, but you are trying to pick the right word and location to bounce the ball back up. If you miss, the other team gets a point. The two teams will play until someone gets 5 points.
Jackbox Survey Scramble also offers two bonus gameplay options—Tour and Pick for Me. Here, you can play the whole gauntlet of game modes in a row or get a randomly shuffled game mode.
The Squares Dance of the Hilo Lowdown
When playing Jackbox Survey Scramble with friends, there was a clear consensus that Hilo and Squares are the highlights of the pack. Squares offers exciting competition but also facilitates straightforward, easy teamwork.
Its simplicity keeps the stress low. That helps highlight the fun of working with your team instead of getting bogged down by the pressure of choosing the best answers. After all, you don’t have to get perfect answers, just good enough ones to get you on the board.
The biggest downside of Squares is that, if you fail to figure out the top answers, the game does not tell you like they do in Hilo and Speed. It knocks a little wind out of your curiosity sails and diminish your overall satisfaction with each round, especially when it’s for fun prompts like “bad first dates.”
Now, when it comes to Hilo, players will find it to feel the most enjoyably laid back. The main goal is simply to find the best answers to a creative prompt. This often starts funny conversations and silly debates with your friends while playing. Even if you don’t win, the fun had typically outweighs the competition. For people seeking low stakes, there’s no better game.
The Disappointment of Jackbox Pong
While the other games that are being offered aren’t bad per se, they do certainly have their flaws.
In the case of Speed, it can be a fun typing race, but other times it proves stressful and a little frustrating. It’s hard to find satisfaction in this game if you’re much slower at typing than your friends.
Moreover, the alert noise that the game makes every time someone submits a correct answer really ups the anxiety. Speed could possibly be a lot more enjoyable with a smaller group. But with my friends’ sample size of seven people, the noises and continually rejected repeat answers were pretty daunting.
Out of all the games, though, Bounce is easily the least enjoyable. It sounds fun in concept, but it’s harder than the others to coordinate successfully with your fellow players. In Squares, at least you can find mild success in guessing answers at other block levels, even if it’s not the block you hoped for.
In Bounce, if you’re struggling to guess an answer in the right location to hit the ball, your team is doomed. Also, it’s 100% less fun when the stakes are more “who fails less” than figuring out how to succeed together. With practice, Bounce could be more fun, but if you’re looking for an easy-to-ease-into party game it’s lacking.
However, as an avid Jackbox Games player, there are always a few games in each pack that don’t quite work for your group. So, Bounce simply might not be me and my friends’ cup of tea, but other people could find it delightful.
Thoughts So Far: Should You Play The Jackbox Survey Scramble?
Ultimately, The Jackbox Survey Scramble is an enjoyable addition to the party game genre. The Jackbox Games team excels at making fun, accessible games to enjoy with a group of friends. It’ll be exciting to see with time if the surveys actually evolve the results. While The Jackbox Survey Scramble is not rife with dynamic gameplay like Final Fantasy VII, nor will it be something you toil at for hours on end, it’s absolutely perfect for a fun night with friends, no Steve Harvey necessary.
