ArcEmu vs The Jackbox Party Starter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ArcEmu
Experience retro gaming on your Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad. This emulator supports Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. Enjoy features like multiplayer, cheats, and customizable controls.
- Game Boy, GBC, GBA emulation
- Multiplayer support
- Cheat codes
- Customizable on-screen controls
- Save State sharing
- iCloud support
Read full descriptionHide full description
ArcEmu brings retro game emulation to Apple Watch. It also works on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, delivering a seamless gaming experience across your Apple devices. Supported Consoles - Game Boy (.gb) - Game Boy Color (.gbc) - Game Boy Advance (.gba) - Pokémon Mini (.min) - Nintendo Entertainment System (.nes) - Super Nintendo Entertainment System (.sfc and .smc) - Atari 2600 (.a26 and .bin) Main Features - Accurate, high-performance emulation powered by the mGBA and Ares cores - Game Link Cable support with online multiplayer for up to four players* - Cheat-code support with a built-in database of popular codes** - Frame-independent emulation at 30 or 60 FPS - Multi-touch and Digital Crown support on Apple Watch - Support for all screen orientations on iPhone and iPad - Precise, thoughtfully designed on-screen controls - Customizable control position and transparency on iPhone and iPad - Fast-forward at 2×, 4×, or maximum speed - Slow motion at 0.5× speed - Touch-based light gun controls for NES and SNES - Custom color palettes for Game Boy games - Button hold/sustain feature - Accelerometer support - Gyroscope support on iPhone and iPad, with Digital Crown input on Apple Watch - Haptic feedback on iPhone - Game controller support with customizable button mappings - ZIP archive support - Automatic saving - Save-state sharing between devices - iCloud support for ROMs and save states - ROM sharing through iCloud using share codes - Support for Apple Watch devices configured with Family Setup - ROM sorting and search Apple Watch Compatibility - Apple Watch Series 4 or later - Apple Watch SE or later - Apple Watch Ultra or later ArcEmu does not include any games or ROMs. You can import compatible ROM files from your iPhone and store them in iCloud. Your Apple Watch can then download them directly from iCloud. On an Apple Watch configured with Family Setup, ROMs can be downloaded from iCloud using share codes. Games Featured in the Screenshots - Acorn Grove: https://gibbongl.itch.io/acorn-grove - Anguna: https://gauauu.itch.io/anguna - Hauntsfield: https://alliemackie.itch.io/hauntsfield - µCity Advance: https://skylyrac.itch.io/ucity-advance * Requires a Game Center account. ** Cheat codes may cause unexpected behavior or affect game stability and save data. ArcEmu is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Nintendo. Nintendo and the names of its game systems are trademarks of Nintendo Co., Ltd.
The Jackbox Party Starter
This collection bundles three popular party games, offering hours of entertainment. Players use their phones or tablets as controllers, supporting large groups and audiences. Enjoy enhanced features like moderation, subtitles, and multilingual support.
- Three beloved party games in one pack
- Use phones/tablets as controllers
- Supports up to 8 players
- Up to 10,000 audience members
- Enhanced moderation and content filtration
- Multilingual voice acting and subtitles
Read full descriptionHide full description
The Jackbox Party Starter is here to help get your party started! We’ve gathered three of our most beloved games into one handy pack! With so many titles to choose from, we decided to help take out some of the guesswork and hand you three games that are sure to give you hours of entertainment! We’ve updated Quiplash 3, Trivia Murder Party 2 and Tee K.O. with all of our most recent settings and improvements such as moderation, subtitles, content filtration, and settings menu upgrades. Additionally, we’ve fully localized the voice acting, subtitles and even credit songs in French, Italian, German, Spanish and now Brazilian Portuguese! No extra controllers needed; players use their phones or tablets to play along! Got a bigger group? Play with up to 8 players and up to 10,000 audience members. Quiplash 3 The say-anything “threequel” Quiplash 3 (3-8 players): Get big laughs answering the quirkiest prompts. Quiplash 3 has the same classic Quiplash style with an all-new final round! Each player answers a series of prompts before entering into a head-to-head battle of wits! Tee K.O. The t-shirt slugfest where your custom t-shirts battle to the death! Welcome to mysterious T-Shirt Island, where the most hardened warriors in the world join you to compete in an ancient and deadly fighting tournament–only you won’t be fighting with fists. Instead, you’ll engage each other in a battle of… t-shirts. Trivia Murder Party 2 The popular trivia death match Trivia Murder Party 2 (1-8 players): Try to survive the bizarre mini-games. The game show-loving serial killer from Trivia Murder Party is back with more trivia and dastardly new mini-games. Can you and your friends survive a night in the Murder Hotel? Who will win? Whom will you betray? When was the last time anyone cleaned these rooms? Trivia Murder Party 2 is bigger, funnier and weirder than before. Do you dare?
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ArcEmu at $1.99 against The Jackbox Party Starter's $19.99. ArcEmu also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (1.3K vs 2). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
ArcEmu costs $1.99 and The Jackbox Party Starter $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for ArcEmu against 5.0 for The Jackbox Party Starter. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ArcEmu has 1.3K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
ArcEmu ships an update every 2 weeks, The Jackbox Party Starter every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ArcEmu | The Jackbox Party Starter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $19.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (1.3K ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 94.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1.3K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better | iPad, Mac, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 172 MB | 3.4 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Raffaele D'Amato | Jackbox Games, Inc. |
Customer experience
ArcEmu
The Jackbox Party Starter
Bugs and requests
ArcEmu
Reported bugs
3 issues- Occasional crashes
- Graphical glitches with certain ROMs
- Save data not transferring properly between devices
Requested features
6 requests- Add cheat/GameShark support
- Improve volume controls
- Implement fast forward/slow motion options
- Allow multiple save slots per game
- Improve Game Boy Color support
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Add joystick/button support for Apple Watch
The Jackbox Party Starter
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ArcEmu
No in-app purchases
The Jackbox Party Starter
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is ArcEmu free?
Is The Jackbox Party Starter free?
Which has better reviews, ArcEmu or The Jackbox Party Starter?
Do ArcEmu or The Jackbox Party Starter have ads?
Which is updated more often, ArcEmu or The Jackbox Party Starter?
Other comparisons















