Remember the rooftop party from that first ad for Nintendo Switch? The one where the woman awkwardly brings over her Switch so she can play with one other person while the rest of the party stands around and watches? Yeah, forget about that, the game that turns Switch into the proper party machine we always knew it could be comes out on Thursday, and it's called Jackbox Party Pack 3.
The collection of party games from the makers of You Don't Know Jack couldn't be less of a platform exclusive (it's already out on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and several TV boxes) but Nintendo Switch is its ideal platform for one simple reason: you don't need a TV. Meaning you can bring it to a party and play without feeling like a massive geek as you clear out a 10-foot area to unpack your console and plug everything in.
As long as you have wifi and folks don't mind crowding around the little propped-up tablet, you have an instant party. You don't even have to crowd in that close, since all the important choices show up on your phone. Oh yeah, if you're not familiar with how Jackbox Games work these days, they're all built to use smartphones (or anything internet-enabled) as controllers - you just point your browser at their site and punch in the room code to play along. In other words, no, you don't have to buy extra Joy-Cons.
It really feels like Nintendo Switch is the perfect other half for the Jackbox premise. Come Thursday, let the weirdly charismatic rooftop parties commence!
Don't miss the rest of the Nintendo Switch games coming out in 2017, and the best Nintendo Switch deals.
