You Don't Know Jack Volume 3

"3rd Volume of Jack Doesn't Stray Far from 1 or 2"

JACK-FU!!!

If you're anything like me, after Jack Volumes one and two, you were hooked on the series. You'd drag friends to the computer constantly, wanting to see every question the CD had to offer, always enjoying the verbal abuse and ever changing -tirade of questions. One of the first CD-Rom games of any value in the dawn of the CD Age, You Don't Know Jack has become a prized posession to anyone who likes to use their computer to socialize with other people.

Now, the niftiest party trivia game of all time is back, and it's probably at its peak. You Don't Know Jack: Volume 3 is more of what you've come to expect from Jack Volume one and two, again pinned with new features and a new host.

If you aren't familiar with the previous two jack games, then just LET me familiarize you. You Don't Know Jack is a trivia game that completely blows the doors off any other trivia game you've played. The entire game is set up like a gameshow, that you and up to two of your friends can play. You play for virtual money in a 21 or 7 question game. Instead of giving you the same boring questions over and over, Jack gives you interesting questions that fulfill the game's commercial motto, "The Trivia Game where High Culture and Pop Culture Collide." Cute. You'll see the most bizarre subjects join together to make bizarre questions. Brady Bunch and chemistry combine to make one question. Speed Racer and Gilligan's Island for another. It's clever, ingenious, and never repetitious. The designers of You Don't Know Jack are brilliant, and the game remains fresh and unique even in its third installment.

The game differs from other trivia games, computer or otherwise, in its presentation. The entire thing is set up like a game show, complete with a host and a virtual scoring system. The game wreaks of a style all its own from beginning to finish.

This time around, your host is Cookie -- you may recognize him, since he's the guy who took your name and such at the beginning of each game in volumes 1 and 2. He's pretty good, too. He has a smart alecky voice all his own and delivers quips.. or tears down your ego.. just as well if not better than the Shapiro Cousins from the first two.

Most of the action is the same as the last two games, with the addition of 3-Ways and "THE IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION!!!!" which is accompanied by an appropriate graphic. In case you aren't familiar with the different types of Jack Questions.. god forbid... I'll rebrief you in the style of a true You Don't Know Jack review.

First of all, you have your basic questions, the ones that take up most of the game. First, you pick a catergory.. usually something pretty bizarre, like "SHOW em if you GOT EM!." The question is then given a value. The question is popped on the screen, along with four equally bizarre possible answers. Buzz in first and answer correctly, and you net yourself the amount of $$$ the question was designated. Screw up and answer wrong, and that score will be detracted from your total.

Next, always a welcome sight in You Don't Know Jack, (Actually, I see friends who CRINGE when these pop up) is the Gibberish Question. In the Gibberish Question, a rather odd phrase is printed on the screen.. something that usually looks like a lot of nonsense mumbo jumbo. (That is usually pretty funny) You only have so much time to figure out what other phrase it rhymes with, usually a cliche or proverb of some sort. Figure it out first, buzz in, and get it right and you net yourself some greenbacks.. more if you answer earlier.

Returning from You Don't Know Jack: Volume 2 is the "Dis or Dat" question! Only one player -- the one who picked the catergory -- is allowed to participate in this question. When it starts up, you'll be given two different catergories, each designated to a different key on the keyboard. For instance, "Condoms" would be on key 1 while "Unmentionable Female Products" would be on another. And then, words will start popping up at the top of the screen. You have to figure out if that word matches catergory 1 or catergory 2. For instance, Trojan pops up... you'd obviously hit 1.

New to the game are the 3-way and the Impossible Question. The 3-way is rather similar to a dis or dat, except up to three players -- the maximum allowed in a Jack Game -- can participate at the same time. In a 3-way, you are given three possible answers -- for instance, Bart, Maggie, and Lisa -- that all show up on the screen at random times. Then, at the top of the screen, clues will appear. Buzz in before your opponents when the random name that matches the clue is lit up, and you score points. buzz in at the wrong time, and you lose points. This process repeats untilt he game runs out of clues for the three possible answers. So, with the above example, let's say "Short for Bartholomew" shows up at the top of the screen. If you buzz in while the word "Bart" is highlited, and beat your competition to the punch, you win. Heyyy! Cool!

Also new is the impossible question. It's just like the other questions in the game, except it's always worth an insane amount of money.. like, oh I dunno.. 50,000 bucks. However, the questions are usually impossibly hard... like, "What's the chemical composition of a box of Fruit Roll Ups?" or "What color is my car." It's pretty rough, but you always have four choices.. if you're a gambling man, you can easily take the lead.. Oh yeah, and there's no screwing in Impossible Questions.

And of course, it wouldn't be You Don't Know Jack if it weren't for the Jack Attack, the final question for each game. In the Jack Attack, you will get a clue based on the catergory you picked for the last question.. for instance "Best of Friends." Then, slowly float to the front of the screen from the back, while random words starting floating elsewhere on the screen. Buzz in when the word that matches the catergory and the clue shows up, and you gain money. So, if the word "Fred Flinstone" was leering forward, and you buzzed when "Wilma" Was floating around, you'd lose money. Buzz in when "Barney" appears, and you net yourself 2000 bucks. Easy enough, but when competing with two other players, it can be an outrageous test of knowledge and speed.

And of course, one of the most memorable features in You Don't Know Jack, the "Screw." One of the more brilliant elements of Jack is the ability to "Screw" the other players. If a question shows up for, let's say, the maximum amount of $6,000, and you know there's NO WAY the other players know it.. then screw one of em, preferably the one in the lead or closest to you in the lead. You get one screw for every ten questions, which forces the other player to answer the question. Be warned, though, that if they somehow get it right, they gain the money for the question.. and you, in turn, lose it. (Nothing more satisfying than screwing the screwer, though.)

A couple of new styles of questions aren't all that's new to Jack, though. As with the prequels, there aren't many graphics in this game -- it's all represented by text and high quality sound. However, the past two games both had very distinct styles, and Jack 3 differs from it a bit. All Jacks animate their text vividly, keeping your attention as the catergory, question, and answers all fly on the screen from different corners. However, Jack 3's layout is a bit different, going for some kind of Disco approach. The primary color of the first two Jacks was blue, this time it's purple. Truth is, I don't really like the new look as much as the original's . Is seems less versatile and more limited. However, its a minor annoyance to me.. and one that most players probably won't even care about.

The sounds haven't changed much, though, and that's good. Again, the host presents every question, fully reading it, and always has a different retort on hand depending on which answer you pick. Also, in this Jack Game, the host may act differently later in the game depending on some of the answers you picked before -- a small detail, but a nifty one that makes the host seem a bit more real. The words still bounce on the screen with the same energy, using boings, splats, whirls, and other such sounds to keep thing interesting and to keep what would otherwise be static text on the screen alive. The developers of the Jack Games knew how to keep things interesting, and even when you're just reading, Jack will keep your attention. Even the catergory choices have little music numbers behind them, and each question is presented with a musical ditty that are often just as witty as the rest of the game. And of course, it wouldn't be Jack if it weren't for the commercials -- at the end of each game, as the credits roll, you'll be entertained by some of the zanier commercials, audio only, since Saturday Night Live. And of course, they keep track of your high scores. Yippy.

Jack 3 is more of the same from Jack 2 and the original you Don't Know Jack. This is trivia at its finest -- laugh out loud questions that actually require intelligence, or maybe just luck, to answer. The Jack series has been commended for its work in keeping the CD-ROM media real, and the tradition continues.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99