Spite and Malice, also known as Cat and Mouse, is a two-player card game that focuses intensely on a player's ability to strategize against a competitor across three rounds of play. With this version, the player competes against the game's AI system in timed and untimed modes.
The player receives a stack of 20 cards with a face-up card on top. They must discard their cards before the AI, by any means possible. They try to get rid of their stack before the system by transferring cards in an ascending, non-suit and non-color order (Ace to Queen) using a four-space area at the center of the playfield. The game automatically deals a specific number of cards to them from a draw pile to fill one or more sequence gaps. The player can discard dealt cards to a four-space discard area, but they lose their turn.
The King card serves as a Joker Wild Card that transforms into the next necessary card in a sequence. For example, if the center of the field has a 7 card and the player has a 9 card in their stack, they can transfer a King to the center to fill in as an 8 card.
Spite and Malice doesn't offer an undo option, which means the player must always use a lot of care when placing cards in any area to prevent mistakes.
