Disclaimer: A copy of Mean 13 was provided by Sticky 13 Games for review purposes.
Mean 13 is quite the departure from the games that I usually cover on this blog, as I tend to focus on mid to heavyweight euro hobby board games. Mean 13 is not that, in fact, Mean 13 doesn’t even have a BGG page! Instead, it’s a twist on bingo, designed not to test your tactical or strategic mind, but to spark laughter amongst family and friends.
In Mean 13, each player gets dealt a tableau of 13 face-up cards, numbered 1 to 13 in four different colours. Players are also dealt 8 secret ‘mean cards.’ Each round, the dealer flips over the top card of the call deck, and if any of your tableau cards match the number and colour, you flip them over. The first person to flip all their cards wins.
The mean cards can be played at any time, and have different effects, from flipping your own cards face down, swapping cards with an opponent (ideally one of your face up cards for one of their face down cards), reshuffling the call deck, or cancelling the last mean card played. And that’s the whole game. There are some variants, like removing cards numbered 9-13 to shorten the game, or playing with fewer or no mean cards if you want a more friendly version.
So yeah, it’s Bingo with a twist. It’s simple, straightforward, and anyone can play— and I don’t mean that in a bad way. What I’m really getting at is that this game is perfect for playing with people who don’t want to deal with a bunch of (or really any) complicated rules.
There are plenty of occasions where Mean 13 would shine. I played a friendly game with my (almost) 4-year-old daughter, and she had a blast matching colours and numbers. I could see this being a hit at bars and pubs, which seems to be what the developers had in mind, as the cards are plastic and waterproof. It’d also be perfect for big family gatherings, like Christmas or Thanksgiving.
If you enjoy games like Uno or Munchkin, you’ll probably have fun with Mean 13. While it might not make it to the table with my regular gaming group, I can see it finding a place in many people’s lives, on tables surrounded by friends and drinks.
