Great Video Games You Need A Large Group To Play
The dreaded "for one to four players" label has been stuck on most video games for as long as we can remember. For anything other than a small gathering, however, this number can be severely limiting. Sure, we can pass around controllers as we play Mario Kart, but wouldn't it be better if we could all play at once?
If you've ever found yourself with a group of five people or more who crave some chaotic gaming, you're in the right place. Some of these games use other devices as controllers, and others deliberately push multiple people into using the same controller at the same time to add to the chaos. Regardless of how you play them, these are the games that are at their best with a group of five or more people.
One more thing: it would have been really easy to just fill this list with all Jackbox games. While those are solid choices, we've only included a few of them. It's definitely something to look into if you're craving more.
Drawful 2
The thing that's so great about Jackbox games is that all someone needs is a smartphone to play. No controllers, no teaching non-gamers how the game works: everyone just goes to a website and follows the directions they get. Simple and perfect for a party game.
Drawful can be played by as few as three people, but it gets better with more, maxing out at eight. Here's how it works. Each player receives a secret prompt, and they must draw it using their phones. After everyone is finished (or the very short time limit has passed, most likely), the game shuffles everyone's drawings and shows them on the TV one at a time. Then the real game begins.
Each player will try to write what the game prompted the person to draw, and then everyone guesses at the various prompts (and the one real one) that have been entered. You get points if you guess the correct prompt or someone guesses your lie. It's bizarre, hilarious, and moves at quite a clip. And there's no eraser: incorporate those mistakes in!
Fibbage
Fibbage is a Jackbox property as well, and uses the same "your phone is the controller" hook that works so well for party games. It can be played with only two but needs more to truly shine. It maxes at eight players. It is included in a few of the Jackbox Party Pack collections, but you can also grab it on its own.
It plays in a very similar manner to Drawful: players will try to bluff and lie with answers to prompts. Instead of drawing pictures, however, Fibbage is based around bizarre facts. It will ask a question like, "In 2012, four million ________ gathered in Wichita, Kansas to set a Guinness World Record." Everyone will enter an answer on their phones, then try to pick from all the lies and one true answer. You get points based on people picking your lie and if you guess the truth.
There's a lot of gamesmanship involved, and the clues are varied and funny. It also includes Cookie Masterson, the best darn Jackbox host ever. Cookie somehow never gets irritating, despite his smarmy clue-giving.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
"You're alone in a room with a bomb. Your friends have the information to defuse it. But there's a catch. They can't see the bomb." So goes the tagline for Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and it's a good one. This is a game of panic and cooperation, and it can devolve into absolute chaos as you get to the more difficult scenarios.
One person will play the defuser, looking at the bomb on the screen. They can turn it over and look at different parts of it. Everyone else needs to sit somewhere where they cannot see the bomb, and they load up a website that has the "Bomb Defusing Manual." With a constantly ticking clock, just like the movies, the defuser will have to tell everyone what they see; everyone else has to search the manual to tell them what to do.
Have you ever dreamed of cutting the blue wire with 1.4 seconds left before the bomb destroys the cruise ship? Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes has you covered.
Just Dance Now
If you want to get people up and moving, rather than having everyone sitting down and staring at their phone or a computer, Just Dance has a lot of different ways to do it. It's available on pretty much every system available; the newest iteration, Just Dance Now, is just an app you download. If you have an internet-connected TV, you can dance it up in no time.
Other versions of the game use cameras to track your movements, but the smartphone version simplified all that, making it an ideal party game if you want to get up and move.
Everyone puts in the "room number" for the session into an app on their phones, holds their phones in their right hands, and dances it up. Your player count is essentially limited by the amount of space you have to follow the dancers on screen.
With the right crowd, dancing to silly pop songs is the perfect recipe to get everyone smiling and laughing.
Rock Band 4
Want to pretend you can play an instrument without actually, you know, learning how to play an instrument? Rock Band 4 can bring out your inner rock star in a hurry. It's going to be a bit cost prohibitive, but you may be able to scour thrift stores or used gaming shops for people who cast off their plastic instruments. Again, with the right crowd, you can't really beat the experience of feeling like you're in a band.
You probably know the drill with the Rock Band formula: bass, drums, guitar, and vocals all hit the stage and plunk along with their favorite tunes. You can actually hook up multiple microphones and sing harmonies, or anyone who is too nervous to grab a mic can just provide acapella backup vocals.
What's really astounding about Rock Band 4 is how many songs are available to download across different genres. K-Pop, country, black metal: there are literally thousands of songs available as cheap DLC. Watch your wallet with this one.
A Fistful of Gun
Not a great game for a solo player, but A Fistful of Gun is ideal for some silly couch co-op shenanigans. The blocky style, over the top action, and obtuse controls make it the type of game that will bring out good-natured yelling in any scenario.
Up to nine people can jump onto a local game of AFoG, with the controls getting more and more bizarre as you go. Keyboards, computer mice, spare controllers: as you add more people into the mix, things get weirder and weirder.
The game itself couldn't be simpler. It's a fast-paced, top-down shooter with an Old West theme. Anyone who has played Smash TV or Robotron will feel right at home, and anyone who has heard of "video games" should pick up what to do pretty quickly. It's casual enough for a few quick rounds, and the difficulty spikes if you have a group who wants to learn the intricacies a little more.
Regular Human Basketball
You like basketball? Don't worry, this is just regular old human basketball. Just a game of one on one, out in the middle of the desert.
Well, not really. Each of those "regular humans" are actually giant robots that are incredibly difficult to control. Up to ten players can dive into this one, with up to two on each controller. Here's how it works.
Each robot has multiple control stations inside of it. One activates the magnet. One the jetpack. One just makes them move their legs. Each player takes control of a small character, who must run between each of those control stations to try to make the giant robot basketball player score a basket. Like a big, sweaty puppet.
Prepare for a lot of yelling. Regular Human Basketball would be easy if everyone would just do what you wanted. And we all know that the only way to get people to do that is by insisting on it, over and over, as everyone else tries to do the exact same thing.
Use Your Words
Use Your Words picks up the style of the Jackbox games and runs with it, offering a huge amount of content for those who fancy themselves wordsmiths. There are four different games on offer in Use Your Words, and up to six players can join in the fun. Each player will use their smartphone as their controller. Here are the games available in Use Your Words.
Sub the Title: Probably the best of the bunch, this game shows a short clip from a foreign film and tasks players with writing their own subtitles. Strange and very funny.
Blank-o-Matic: Essentially Cards Against Humanity without the cards. Just fill in the blanks with your funniest answer.
EXTRA, EXTRA!: Write headlines or captions for truly bizarre photos.
Survey Says: A fast-moving ode to Family Feud. Answer questions as quickly as you can.
Clever groups with a lot of inside jokes will be able to get a ton of mileage out of Use Your Words. It doesn't have the competitive aspect of Jackbox; it's designed to just be casual and funny.
Party Golf
Golf games are at their finest as they get crazier. That's why Mario Golf will always be superior to any "Official Golf Game of the PGA." Party Golf is the perfect way to play with up to seven more of your friends. Players share controllers if it gets up over four, adding to the silly atmosphere.
One of the best aspects of Party Golf is that, if it gets old, you can change it up. There are tons of modes and ways to play, plus courses are procedurally generated. You can mess with difficulty settings somewhat, but you never quite know when something extraordinarily difficult is coming up the turnpike. However, this is the perfect kind of golf game for a party. Hence the name.
Everyone shoots at the same time, the colors are big and loud, and Party Golf never takes itself too seriously. It's a great time, especially as an evening is winding down.
Worms Armageddon
Really, you can't go wrong with any of the games in the Worms franchise, but Worms Armageddon still holds up as the best one. It has some great 2D art, an amazing sense of humor, and has the best combination of "skill plus dumb luck" that makes the franchise so great.
Up to six players can join in (plus a whole bunch of AI-controlled teams, if you like), and here's how it goes down. Every player controls a team of tiny worms on a fully destructible, procedurally generated map. Players take turns using a variety of heavy-ordnance weaponry to eliminate the other teams. Worms have hit points that can be whittled down, or they can be knocked into the drink below.
Worms Armageddon has a ton of strategy, and a hard counter to nearly any plan your opponents have. There is a bit of a learning curve to use some of the crazier weapons, but there's enough chaos around the map that no one player should be able to dominate. If they do, just gang up on them. That's what worms would do.
Quiplash
This Jackbox game is in some of the Jackbox Party Pack collections, but it can also be picked up on its own. Like the other games of this ilk, all you need to play is a clever mind and a smartphone. Quiplash is pretty similar to Fibbage, but it appeals to a slightly different style and works a bit better for bigger groups.
Quiplash is essentially a punchline generator. The game will give you a prompt: "What's the grossest hot dog topping?" or "Things you should never call your sister's baby." Players get a limited time to come up with a response, then everyone votes on their favorite. You get points for collecting votes, and the winner is whoever has the most at the end game.
It's quick and simple, and it tailors itself well to any group that plays it. Kids around? It's pretty easy to stay tame. A bunch of rowdy friends? It could get R-rated in a hurry. Up to eight people can join in a game of Quiplash.