What the Dub?!

Genre: Party Game

Players: 1-6 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

What the Dub?! Is a Party Game released in 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game has players connecting to the game using a smartphone (or any modern device with a web browser) responding to video prompts by writing messages to be read aloud by the game’s text-to-speech algorithm. Players then vote on their favorite submission.

The clips that this game uses tend to be older vintage clips from a variety of sources. Some of them have a decent buildup to what could potentially be an amusing punchline, but others are disappointingly short, requiring the player to come up with most of the comedic premise themselves. These video clips are joined by a fitting but unimpressive framing interface consisting of simple 2D visuals and whimsical music. Nothing bad, but nothing especially noteworthy, with one exception – the screens announcing round numbers are all designed to look like classic film title cards, which I felt was a nice touch.

The game’s text-to-speech voice has both a male and female version depending on what character is onscreen talking and having their lines replaced with yours. These text-to-speech conversions are fine, but naturally they lack the timing and inflection a real person would have, which can detract from the comedy. I don’t know that there’s any solution to this issue, but it’s still worth mentioning.

The game’s online lobbies and phone interface both seem to work well enough. Players of the Jackbox series of games will find this all to be quite familiar. Meanwhile, the gameplay is simple, but it works, playing like a live rapid-fire series of “Mystery Science Theater” fan contests. There’s not a lot of variety here, but what is here works fine.

Ultimately, for what it is, What the Dub?! Works fine, giving players a decent Party Game that allows them to compete to submit the funniest voice-overs for various video clips. The game is somewhat repetitive, and the text-to-speech algorithm is limited, but overall this is a solid game to add to your Party Game rotation.

tl;dr – What the Dub?! Is a Party Game that has players using smartphones or other web-enabled devices to submit lines to be read via voiceover over old video clips, and then voting on which line was their favorite. It’s a bit repetitive, and the text-to-speech algorithm naturally lacks comedic tone and timing, but this is otherwise a solid Party Game.

Grade: B-

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