Spite & Malice

About this board game

Spite & Malice is a card game for 2–5 players, designed for approximately 30 minutes of play and released by Hasbro in 2002. Its goal is simple: be the first player to play all the cards from your card stack to the build piles.

To achieve that goal, players use additional cards from their hands and discard piles. The game combines the pressure of reducing your own stack with the challenge of finding useful plays among the cards available to you.

The Hasbro edition gives the traditional game a distinct presentation and adds new elements to its card play. Instead of using suits, it features numbered cards, along with action cards and other twists on the original rules.

• For 2–5 players
• Approximately 30 minutes of play
• Suitless numbered cards and action cards
• Build piles supplied by cards from your stack, hand, and discard piles

Spite & Malice is based on the traditional card game of the same name, also sold as Spite ‘N’ Malice, which dates from at least the 19th century. The original is played with several standard 54-card decks, including jokers, while the Hasbro edition reshapes the experience with its own card system.

The game belongs to a wider family of titles inspired by the original. Skip-Bo, Flinch, and Da Capo! are also based on traditional Spite and Malice. Hasbro later published a cat-themed edition in 2003, adding another version to the game’s history.