There are times in your life where you will accomplish things beyond what you thought possible. It may be an adrenaline-fueled stunt, or a random stroke of brilliance in which you have your moment to shine. In Drawful 2, you’ll shine alright; It will be from the glow of the television screen. The screen will be highlighting an alcohol-fueled attempt at drawing – that looks like you had an actual stroke while creating it.

Developer: Jackbox Games

Publisher: Jackbox Games

Hours Played: 3 hours // Review Copy Provided // Nintendo Switch Price: $9.99

Okay, so maybe your art talent isn’t quite that bad. And maybe you’ll maintain sobriety throughout your time spent playing it. I won’t tell you how to live your life. But whatever way you decide to play, it’s best done as if you were getting into the pool. You either cannonball or stay out of the water!

Cannonball!

So, let’s jump into Drawful 2 together! I’d like to start by mentioning online access is required. Upon logging in, it will prompt you to make sure you chose the right profile. Once the profile is sorted out, it will then attempt to log in to the Jackbox servers. Unfortunately, no internet means no go. If this is not an issue, please continue!

Secondly, Drawful 2 is a game that is absolutely necessary to be played with friends. It is also much easier to do so with them in the same room. But with advances in technology, if you have streaming capabilities, it is more than possible to play with anyone. As long as they can see your screen, that’s all that matters! Just make sure to keep the latency as low as possible, lest you get accused of being a cheater.

The first thing you will notice upon starting the game is that everyone must be logged in via their smartphone on Jackbox.tv. This will allow everyone to play, from 3 – 8 people in a game! Everyone is able to do so without needing a single Joycon! Well, I suppose one is needed to start the game from the Switch’s menu, but after that no more! Time to team up!

ChallONGE!

Players icons will appear once everyone has logged in via their smartphone on Jackbox.tv. One person will have a prompt on their phone to then begin the game. They are denoted as the “VIP”. That individual must confirm everyone has joined by pressing a prompt on their phone’s screen. With great power comes great responsibility!

You will then immediately continue to follow prompts on your cell phone. Here comes the hard part – it will ask you to draw yourself. This is where the fun begins. Are you the stick figure type? Do your drawings naturally look to be an advanced form of abstract art? Yeah, mine too; I won’t judge but your friends might.

Once everyone is done giving each other crap and laughing about your caveman-esque self-portrait renditions, it is time to start the actual game. I want to add here that during this whole time, there are silly sounds and music playing. You will quickly learn that certain sound effects are now representative of you. Each time you complete moves within the game, whatever sound was randomly assigned to you will play. This is your life now, and you must live it.

Welcome to Your New Life

In your newfound life and its calling, you will notice there is narration. This narration is super helpful (and somewhat condescending in her sarcastic comments) as this female voice will guide you each step of the way. As long as you follow the phone screen along with the prompts and vocal directions coming from your TV, you will not have any question as to what is expected of you. In this way the game is very user friendly.

What is not so friendly is what they ask of you. You will be asked to draw a very difficult and random picture! It’s like the game gets pleasure from seeing the puzzled look on your face turn to anxiety as you frantically swipe at your phone screen with a finger. Don’t be surprised about anything. You will be asked to draw everything from “A Ska band on a Pontoon” to “A Bag of Farts”. Oh yeah – it most definitely goes there.

As someone who grew up loving to be creative, I really enjoyed this part. That being said, I was still very challenged by it! Trying to think of the simplest way to represent complicated images is easier said than done. You must think quickly, as there is a timer and voice subtly suggesting that you need to hurry. And you must draw quicker, because every second wasted is taking away from the time spent laughing hysterically.

My Sides!

The laughing comes roaring in from the next part – trying to decipher your buddies’ drawings on the TV screen. It will show you, in order, the strokes they used to create the image. Once the image has been recreated on screen for everyone to see, your phone will then ask for you to name what the drawing represents. The more creative, the better!

Being creative with choosing a name, description, or caption will benefit in multiple ways! For one, it is hilarious to see what some people come up with. But more importantly (for the competitive spirits out there), you are able to obtain bonus points if others upvote your “title”! Granted it is not a ton of points, however it may just break a tie in the end! Also, it will tally the amount of likes each person received at the end for a secondary “winner”.

You are then asked to choose what you think the real caption for the picture was. This is the one the original artist was asked to draw. After everyone comes up with their ridiculous guesses, the screen will then display them all randomly around the image. One by one, the guesses will be shown!

For those who guess the correct title from what the artist drew, 1000 points are awarded to the artist per each individual! This is the way to get the maximum amount of points as an artist, so drawing to the best of your ability is key! That being said, there is an element of strategy involved.

Strategize the Win!

Here is the strategy: Sway your teammates away from the correct guess! You can do so by coming up with an even better caption for the artists’ picture. Come up with something so witty, fitting, or ridiculous that the others can’t help but pick your caption! That is your best bet to increase your odds of winning!

A winner is chosen after a few rounds and the points are then tallied up! There are bonus scores for correct answer streaks and for liked caption streaks as well. As you can see, this game rewards creativity! Enjoy Drawful 2’s own silly animations as you sit back and revel in the simple glory of out-drawing you opponent!

Technical Seduction

Now to discuss the technical side. First of all, this game runs flawlessly. I found zero instances of the game glitching, crashing, freezing, or lagging. That being said, I did notice minor instances of lag on the cellular side. It was not often, and did not last more than a few seconds, but happened at least once per person in a set of about 5 full rounds.

Running through 5 rounds or so, you notice some things… Things like the awesome art style! This game has incredibly cute and whimsical hand-drawn graphics. It’s impossible to not be charmed by cat’s paws for the countdown meter, or the owl mascot who wears a bikini top (or bra, not too sure). I will admit, the head in a box animation is slightly creepy – but in a good way!

Stage Fright?

I would like to mention a couple of other good things that I did not get to experience in my play through Drawful 2. For one, there is a family-friendly mode. I do not have kids nor are my friends very conservative, so we kept it original! That being said, the original game keeps it relatively mild. I definitely had to draw some things I never expected I would ever create in my life. No regrets!

The second thing I would like to mention is that there is an “audience” option. This will allow you to stream a live game to UP TO 10,000 PEOPLE. As you play, these random audience members can play along and guess answers. The answers they guess will also influence scores in the game! As much as I would like to try this, 1) I don’t have the setup to stream my Switch on Twitch and 2) Even if I did, I feel like a live audience of 10,000 people is pretty ambitious to say the least. But the capabilities are there!

The Double-edged Sword

All this being said, some of Drawful 2’s positives contribute to the negative factors as well. If you don’t have online capabilities then you are unable to play. If you don’t have enough friends (2irl4meirl), you will be unable to play as well. No streaming access will limit you from experiencing all the features. Lastly, if you do not have a smartphone or tablet then you will be unable to play the game. Please keep these factors in mind if you are considering purchasing.

If you do decide to purchase, know that this is a party game! There is lots of fun to be had with Drawful 2. However, the outline of the game with which I started this review is the game. There are not really other modes, challenges, or mixing up the traditional game. Though the game is already diverse and unique, it would be cool to see something implemented here to expand the replay value. Because, inevitably with enough play time you will exhaust all of the options available.

Speaking of options, I mentioned there is “not really” other modes in this game. This is true. However, there is “make your own game” mode where you able to customize prompts and add some replay value to Drawful 2. This will at least allow some new stuff for those who tend to play a game to “completion”, or appease those who like to try their hand at making specific prompts. It definitely sounds like with the right people it could be a fun experience!

In Conclusion

Overall, I will admit I had a really great time with Drawful 2! The more creative you and your friends are, the better! We did not experience any repeat topics, or even any similar topics in the few hours that we played. Everything felt fresh and new each round. I also enjoyed the length of each round; Not too long and not too short! If you are someone who tends to have friends or family around the house, try picking this one up next time you are looking for something to do! You won’t regret it!

Draw your way out of a wet paper bag!

Drawful 2 is an exceptionally fun party game – just make sure you have a party to play with! Enjoy drawing (at least attempting), and getting those creative juices flowing!

As always, thank you so much for reading! The more positive feedback we receive from you, the more motivated we become. We here at Nindie Nexus have been seeing such a positive response – so please, keep visiting with us! We have a Discord community, a Subreddit, a YouTube channel, and a Patreon. Whichever way you like to contribute, please do so if you feel so inclined! Last but not least, if you enjoy my writing, check out my last review of Ys VIII: The Lacrimosa of Dana!