Review: WHAT THE DUB!? is Hilarious Fun
What The Dub?! is a new party game from Wide Right Interactive. Players are shown clips from old movies, PSAs, and more with some of the dialogue removed. Then, you and your friends get to put your own lines into the film and vote on what you like best. Wide Right Interactive was kind enough to supply me with a review code and I had a lot of fun. The game is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC and Mac (Steam), PS4, and Xbox One.
What The Dub?! is a local multiplayer party game where each player overdubs missing dialogue from hilariously awful B-movies, woefully outdated PSAs, and bizarre industrial films, with their own witty (or just plain stupid) dubs. Their dubs are then pitted against other players in a head-to-head clash of comedy. The players – along with up to 6 audience members – then vote for their favorite dub! What The Dub?! takes “bad movie night” and expands it into an interactive, fast-paced, multiplayer game that friends and family, both local and afar, can enjoy!
If you like Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax, and the game Film Dub on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, then What The Dub?! is right up your alley. It plays just like Jackbox Games where one person runs the game and then everyone interacts via a device with a browser. It’s very simple to use. One thing that really excited me was that I found a button that lets you add sound effects at the top right corner of the text box. Definitely see if you can use any of those. The clips are absolutely ridiculous too. There’s one that I assume is from a PSA about teeth that’s just really weird for instance. Getting a few friends together and playing this game is always funny. It’s also fun when you come across something you’ve actually watched like Night of the Living Dead. I wonder if they got any of Manos: The Hands of Fate in here.
Another aspect I liked is that you can choose in the settings how many rounds you want to play per game. You can play as little as 3 or as many as 10 and that’s a nice way to help you set limits, especially if you have a larger group or a time crunch. It’s a small thing, but I appreciate it. It’s also nice when you play virtually that you can adjust the various audio channels separately. This allows you to lower the sound of the background music, but increase the volume of the clip audio to help meet everyone’s needs.
There is one thing that I don’t like about What The Dub?!, but I can’t think of how to improve it. In order to keep anonymity, you have digital text-to-speech voices that are very robotic and lifeless deliver your dubbed lines. While this provided a couple of laughs like when it spelled out “thicc,” it does kill the vibe a little. Like I said though, I can’t think of a better alternative without killing the anonymity that allows for more fair judging, so I’ll chalk it up to a necessary evil.
There’s really not much to What The Dub?!, but that’s something that makes it great. It’s very straightforward. It allows you to be as creative as you want and as funny as you feel with your friends and family. It’s a game that knows what it is and does that very well. I definitely recommend adding this to your party game library.
