Every year since 2014, Jackbox Games has released a new Jackbox Party Pack, giving party game fans the chance to try out a new batch of mini-games with their friends. The Jackbox Party Pack games usually feature a mix of games that play it safe and others that are highly experimental, and as a result, not all of them land. The Jackbox Party Pack 6, the latest entry in the long-running party game series, has arguably the most well-rounded lineup of party games yet, though there is one game in the bunch that falls a little flat.

The weakest game in The Jackbox Party Pack 6 is Dictionarium, where players have to create fake words and definitions. In a party setting, Dictionarium just plays too slow compared to the other games in the lineup, and is not as immediately funny as some of the other offerings. It's not even close to the worst mini-game that's been featured in The Jackbox Party Pack series, but it doesn't seem like something many fans will revisit too often when entertaining guests.

Something that will likely be one of the most-played games in The Jackbox Party Pack 6 is the headlining game, Trivia Murder Party 2. Trivia Murder Party 2 is very similar to the first iteration of the game (it appeared all the way back in The Jackbox Party Pack 3), where players have to answer tough trivia questions and are killed off if they fail. However, Trivia Murder Party 2 shakes things up a bit with some new twists, most notably forcing players to get the final question right before they can actually win the game, which makes the final moments a lot more intense than in the first Trivia Murder Party.

Trivia Murder Party 2 is the only sequel game in The Jackbox Party Pack 6, with the rest of the games being completely original. Besides the previously mentioned Dictionarium, The Jackbox Party Pack 6 also includes Role Models, Joke Boat, and Push the Button. All of these games are varying degrees of fun, and better yet, almost all of them support up to eight players, giving fans a lot of flexibility when it comes to playing the game in larger groups. Role Models is the exception, only allowing six people to play, but it's still good for some laughs.

In Role Models, The Jackbox Party Pack 6 players have to match fellow players to roles that they think fit them best. So for example, if the category was Heist Jobs, players would need to match each other to roles like getaway driver, the brains of the operation, etc. It's somewhat reminiscent of the PS4 PlayLink game That's You!, and while not as expansive as that game, it's still fun with the right group of people.

One game that definitely depends on the quality of people one's playing with is Joke Boat. Joke Boat is best compared to the rapping robot game from The Jackbox Party Pack 5, as it really is up to the player to make their fun with it. In Joke Boat, players first have to come up with nouns, adjectives, and whatever else like they're putting together a mad-lib, and then they have to write jokes using those words. Later on, Joke Boat has players re-write jokes written by others, and the room votes on the best ones. Whether or not one has fun with Joke Boat will again largely depend on the group playing the game, but it can be one of the funniest games in The Jackbox Party Pack 6.

The final game in The Jackbox Party Pack 6 lineup is Push the Button, and it's one of the most ambitious mini-games the series has seen yet, putting it over the top as arguably one of the best multiplayer games of the year. Push the Button is like the Werewolf party game, where some players are designated as the "werewolves" and other players have to figure out who they are. However, in Push the Button, the imposters are aliens instead of werewolves, and players have a variety of tricks they can use to try to figure out the aliens' identities.

Players are given a decent amount of time (we played 18 minute games with eight people, but they're longer with more players) to test each other and try to figure out who the aliens are. The aliens, meanwhile, can sabotage things by hacking players. So for example, if human players are given a drawing prompt to draw Mario, the aliens may get a prompt to draw a man with a mustache. This is close enough that the aliens could draw it and some may still think they're human, but the aliens can hack the human players so that they are given the alien writing prompt as well. This would then potentially make people think that an innocent human is an alien, which can have dire consequences.

The ultimate goal in Push the Button is to figure out who the aliens are and then shoot them out into space. When players are confident that they have discovered the aliens' identities, they can push a button at any time to start a voting process. With unanimous votes, players can rid themselves of the accused aliens. The humans will win if they managed to pick the correct aliens, but the aliens will win if the players accidentally kill an innocent human.

There's a lot going on in Push the Button, and it's easily the longest and most fully-featured mini-game that's been featured in The Jackbox Party Pack series. There's enough to it that it would work as a standalone party game. Considering how much players can do in Push the Button, it's nice that the game lets players go through with an optional narrator to let them know what everything does while not constantly stopping the flow of the gameplay. Those who have played Push the Button a few times can turn the narrator off, but it's helpful when introducing new players to the game.

Push the Button will likely go down as one of the best Jackbox Party Pack mini-games there's been to date. It's the standout mini-game in The Jackbox Party Pack 6, partly because of how ambitious it is compared to the other offerings, and it will be interesting to see how Jackbox Games tops it with next year's inevitable Jackbox Party Pack 7.

Between Push the Button, Joke Boat, Trivia Murder Party 2, and Role Models, The Jackbox Party Pack 6 is quite possibly the most well-rounded collection of mini-games that we've seen in a Jackbox Party Pack game. Dictionarium is really the only weak one, and even then it can still be fun with the right friends. So like always, The Jackbox Party Pack 6 is a safe bet for anyone looking for a fun party game to entertain friends or family, and may be an especially smart buy with the holidays coming up.

The Jackbox Party Pack 6 is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and various iOS and Android devices. Game ZXC reviewed the game on Xbox One.