Play instantly in your browser, no download — create a room and share the code with friends.
Play now — it's freeSpite and Malice (also known as Cat and Mouse, and the ancestor of Skip-Bo) is a competitive patience game: everyone races to play all 20 cards from their face-down pay-off pile onto shared build piles that run from Ace up to Queen. You cannot touch your opponents' piles — but you can clog the build piles they need, which is where the name comes from.
Here you can play Spite and Malice online free, straight from the browser: hit Quick Play for a table in seconds, or create a private room for two to four players and share its five-character code.
→ The complete Spite and Malice rules · Glossary
Each player gets a face-down pay-off pile of 20 cards (only the top card is visible) and a hand of 5 cards. Four shared build piles start with an Ace and climb one rank at a time to the Queen; a completed pile is removed and shuffled back into the stock. On your turn play as many cards as you can — from your hand, the top of your pay-off pile, or the tops of your own discard stacks — then discard one card from your hand to end the turn. First player whose pay-off pile is empty wins.
The two cards that shape every hand:
| Card | Effect |
|---|---|
| Jack (J) | Wild — represents the next higher rank than the card it covers (an Ace on an empty build pile). Discarding a Jack commits you to nothing. |
| Queen (Q) | Highest rank — playing it completes a build pile, which is immediately removed and shuffled back into the stock, freeing a space. |
One 48-card deck per player (A, 2-10, J, Q in four suits) — 96 cards for two players, 144 for three, 192 for four. Each player's pay-off pile is 20 cards and the hand is 5.
Two to four at one table. In a quick match you are seated at a 4-player table and AI fills the empty seats.
Your personal face-down stack of 20 cards. Only its top card is visible and playable; each card you play to a build pile reveals the next one. Emptying the pile wins the game.
Four shared piles, each starting with an Ace and rising one rank at a time to the Queen. A completed pile is removed and shuffled back into the stock immediately, freeing the space.
The Jack is wild: on a build pile it represents the next higher rank than the card it covers (an Ace on an empty pile), and you can discard it to your own stacks without declaring a value.
By discarding exactly one card from your hand onto one of your own discard stacks (up to four stacks, and you may cover a stack). If you play all five hand cards without discarding, you draw five more and keep playing.
At spitemalice.yeeqia.com — directly in your browser, no download and no sign-up required.
Yes, the site is mobile-first and runs in any modern Android or iOS browser.