Credit where credit’s due: eight Jackbox Party Packs in eight successive years have transformed casual gaming, overcoming hurdles big and small to offer something that can be played live, regardless of distance, computing power, or the occasional world-halting global pandemic. Still, with 40 games in the bank, there’s always a concern that the formula will feel stale with each new release, even for massive fans of the series.

Worry not. While The Jackbox Party Pack 9 is still very, well, Jackbox, this ninth installment feels like the next, natural step up for the company: an experience improved on nearly every level. Between its elevated artwork and personality, and new games that offer one of the better collections in recent memory, it feels more mature and professional without losing its daft charms. It’s another banker for the holiday season.

JPP9 still doesn’t quite break old habits–there are one or two games that may fall flat with a wider audience looking for simple and straightforward fun–but once it’s booted up, you get a dependable selection that won’t see you switching to another Jackbox predecessor in a hurry.

Fibbage 4 (2-8 players)

First up is Fibbage 4. It’s Fibbage. Everybody loves Fibbage. Still, it’s the best outing for the favorite, to the point it effectively renders the original trilogy obsolete. Tom Gottlieb’s Cookie Masterson returns as host–permanent sneer and underlying comical hatred of all players intact–bringing a familiar voice to an otherwise revamped game.

It’s been five years since Fibbage 3 introduced a beautiful art style and the great Fibbage Enough About You mode, which puts your own beliefs and thoughts into the question mix. Fibbage 4 carries these forward but makes the whole experience feel even more grown-up, with an oddly beautiful, surreal art style combined with its best addition to date: video questions.

You’d think you’d know what to expect, but the black-and-white clips from forgotten American movies that faced us raised a ridiculous number of question marks–and opportunities to craft those all-important lies. Final Fibbage has also been improved with a combination question: an answer that can apply to two scenarios. These are better-written than ever, too; we didn’t find ourselves stumped by a tough or confusing set-up once. Fibbage 4 is a top-five all-time Jackbox game.

Nonsensory (3-8 players)

Nonsensory combines three simple Jackbox tropes–drawing, stupid questions, and guessing–with an extra spiciness. Not only do you have to give a very specific answer or picture–you must anticipate the score your audience would give it, such as “what pizza topping would people rate 6/10”. Everyone plugs into their chosen score at the end.

It takes some time to understand how the game works, but once you do, it’s an absolute dream to play. While you may be lured into the idea that Nonsensory may be simple, in part thanks to its soothing, English-accented monkey host Professor Nanners, it gets increasingly complicated and frankly absurd. If you believe you’re truly correct with your guess, you can double down with the Confidence mechanic, which awards bonus points if you’re within one rung of the answer, but one that also docks points if you’re outside of it.

Nonsensory has all the hallmarks of a classic Jackbox game, so long as the audience are invested. Questions can be difficult or frankly nonsensical, but that’s the point–it’s designed for laughs over fairness, and it’s one of the best new ideas in JPP9. One other game just edges it, though.

Quixort (1-10 players)

Our personal favorite original creation for Jackbox 9–a debut idea that makes as much of a splash as Patently Stupid and Dictionarium–is Quixort, a perfectly named game based on the core mechanic of quickly sorting blocks in order. You and your team are tasked with putting answers in order, stacking them on a conveyor belt for points.

Whether it’s guessing how old twins are, the age of albums rated 10/10 on Pitchfork, or the swimming depths of sea creatures, you’ve got to make sure everything is nicely lined up in its limited placement range. If it wasn’t hard enough already, Quixort also drops fake answers that you have the option to drop in the trash, even though you regularly forget this rule and blindly assume that Guy and Girl Fieri are twins, or Enema of the State was universally lauded by the self-described Most Trusted Voice in Music™.

The only disappointment about Quixort is that there’s no chaos mode: one where all members of the team can move a block at the same time. Instead, individual players in each team take turns to position falling pieces. It makes sense on a technical level, but it’s hard not to pine for the wonderful, sweet, friendship-wrecking carnage of live fights over how far Neptune is from the Sun (second furthest, because as someone born in 1986, I still refuse to give up Pluto as a planet).

Junktopia (3-8 players)

Junktopia is where Jackbox Party Pack 9 gets a little weird, but not overly so. Like Zeeple Dome, Champ’d Up, and Bracketeering, Junktopia takes a great concept but fundamentally misses the mark, but not by much; there’s still a bit of charm here.

The self-styled “joke-driven writing game” turns you into a frog, and your sole chance of being returned to your anthropomorphic self is to sell antiques, because obviously. You buy a silly thing, give it a silly name and a silly back story, then you get it appraised. More votes, more success, and more chance of getting opposable thumbs again.

Junktopia feels drawn out, because the payoff isn’t quite as satisfying as similar games like Patently Stupid. It’s whimsical, sure, but it’s not something you’ll feel the immediate desire to replay, or necessarily return to.

Roomerang (4-9 players)

Last but generally least is Roomerang, a reality TV show approach to Jackbox that doesn’t really land. Crucially, due to its complexity, it’ll take even Jackbox veterans more than one go to genuinely understand how it works, and even then, it’s not ideal. Still, it has a slow-burning quality that could make it a sleeper hit, even if it didn’t quite tickle our fancy.

Roomerang has you answering prompts about fellow housemates, before you vote out the worst. Still, they can return. Honestly, it’s all a bit messy: Big Brother with less excitement. However, with the right people–and, being honest, it truly benefits from a full line-up of nine players–this could well be the surprise classic of Jackbox 9. It’s one of the few times I’ve doubted a Jackbox game because of those I played it with, rather than the core concept; the jury out on this one.

The GOAT?

Jackbox Party Pack 9 is proof its writers and developers have an incredible amount of creativity left in the tank. What’s more, they’ve offered an experience that will remind Jackbox veterans of the excitement they felt the first-ever time they tried the series–something that feels fresher than ever, but with a more mature gloss.

Next year will see the tenth edition. Following the success of Fibbage 4, it feels crucial that Jackbox Games remasters the core games: Drawful, Quiplash, Trivia Murder Party, You Don’t Know Jack, and… Earwax? Dictionarium? Whatever happens, it’s the perfect opportunity to build on JPP9; Jackbox has a ridiculous amount of love to give, even if the core classics–and those newer experiences inspired by them–are what the people want.