We love a good music rhythm game. There’s something alluring about tapping along to the beat of the music, getting into the groove; get yourself a high streak, and you feel like king of the world. We love Beatstar for that reason: a free-to-play mobile music rhythm game filled with popular music, old and new. But Jackbox Party Pack 10 is getting in on the rhythm action now, with the inclusion of ‘Dodo Re Mi’, and it might be one of our favourite Jackbox games yet.
Like all Jackbox games, you’ll need your phone to play Dodo Re Mi. You’ll tap along to the notes on your phone – just like Beatstar. But this one’s all about instrumental songs – forget tapping along to Lady Gaga or Green Day. Before you start playing a song, you’ll be asked to choose an instrument. It might not be an instrument that was originally used in the track, but that doesn’t matter – Dodo Re Mi lets you make something rather unique. Trust us, you’ll never hear Flight of the Bumblebee in quite the same way once you’ve played.
With up to eight players joining in one game of Dodo Re Mi, you can all have different instruments (or some players on the same, if you so wish). Each player will have their own individual track to play along with, some having more notes than others. Indeed, when you’re choosing an instrument, each one is ranked from ‘very easy’ to ‘very hard’. A one-track kazoo might be your choice if you’re not very rhythmically-minded. Or perhaps a hard saxophone solo is more your pace. You don’t always have the same instruments available – it depends on the song – but there are usually some eclectic choices in there, like ‘Robot Synth’ and ‘Beep Boops’
If you’re playing Dodo Re Mi by yourself – one of the rare Jackbox games that can be enjoyed solo – you’re going to miss out on the joy of the cacophony. We’ve only played it with two people, but we can just imagine how wonderfully noisy a room filled with eight players, all tapping away to different instruments on their phones, would sound. Two was bad enough!
Once you’ve all played your notes, the game will play the song back to you – letting you see who got the best streaks of notes hit, and enjoying the song all put together. Which, depending how everyone did, could sound amazing or could sound like a clowder of cats being strangled.
We’ll have a full review of the whole Jackbox Party Pack 10 experience soon, but Dodo Re Mi alone is enough to win us over. We’re grateful for games that can be enjoyed with two players, and we love that it’s once again something entirely different for Jackbox. More importantly, though, it’s a great deal of fun and the type of game you’ll keep going back to time and time again.
Jackbox Party Pack 10 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC.
