[audacity]

I was a huge fan of this game. I originally played the original version on my Power Macintosh 6100 back around 1995 (or was it '96?). Anyway, a new updated version was recently released for the 3 major console platforms and the PC.

I picked up the XBOX 360 version, and although nostalgia may be coloring my opinion of the game, I think it's great fun! Last Friday we and a bunch of people over (for a birthday party) and we had a YDKJ tourney. The format is the same as the classic games, except there is no "gibberish questions" since people tend not to have keyboards on console controllers. My only complaint is that because of the question weightings, round 1 doesn't matter much at all since the Jack Attack in round 3 dishes out so much money (or takes it away) that whatever happened in round 1 seems like ... a rounding error.

Recommended. Unless of course you hate pop-culture trivia games.

 

[Dioneo]

I really liked that series but I have no plans to buy it. I see no reason why an old CD based game like YDKJ couldn't have been made available for download on XBL and the PSN. And $20 cheaper.

 

[dezzpayne]

While not hardware agnostic I have thoroughly enjoyed Buzz! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz!:_Quiz_TV

I have probably downloaded an additional 10 questions packs online over the past 2-3 years and it's biggest strength is that despite playing dozens and dozens of games I have not yet seen a repeat question.

Whenever we have family around it always gets pulled out. My only complaint is the difficulty of the questions. Some games you see a little bit of Ken Jennings/Watson syndrome. The winner is decided by the person with the quickest twitch reflexes.

Other awesome features are the user generated questions:

Players are able to create their own quizzes via a website called "MyBuzz!"[5] David Amor, the creative director, in an interview with IGN stated that users would be able to freely create their own question packs which will be completely moderated by other users via user ratings, and a special "report content" button will flag inappropriate packs, as well as a parental guidance monitor to prevent free downloading by minors. Each user created question pack has eight questions, and individual packs can be linked consecutively.[6]

If you have a PSEye it takes snapshots after certain rounds and displays them which is always a crowd pleaser

Couch to couch allows you to play friends (or strangers) online.

 

[Gord Lacey]

The latest Buzz allows more than couch to couch online - you can play as separate people. I have 8 buzzers, and it's a blast to play at parties.

As for "You Don't Know Jack," apparently GameStop in the US has already reduced it to $20 (it's $30 in Canada). I used to enjoy Jack, but recently tried a web version and I found it a bit annoying.