Meme Stocks: Trading Memes for Victory, with a Side of Controversy

Play just the right meme to collect the most valuable meme stocks on the market, while meeting key market requirements to grow your hand.

Published by Hobby World, Meme Stocks is a 15-20 minute party card game, designed for 2-5 players.

Gameplay

Each player starts with a hand of five cards, valued 2-6. At the start of each round, one meme card per player is drawn from the deck. They are placed in the display from left to right in the order they were drawn. A market card is then revealed. Each market card lists a requirement such as ‘play a card equal to an opponent’s’ or ‘play a card that is one point lower than an opponent's’.

Players simultaneously choose one card from their hands and play them, revealing them at the same time. The person who played the highest value card takes the card from the display that is on the far left. The person who played the next highest takes the next leftmost card, and so on until each player has claimed a card. Ties are resolved based on who has the first player card, which moves each round. The card a player claims goes into his hand and the card that was played goes into his discard pile. If a player meets the market card’s requirement, he can take any one card from his discard pile back into his hand, including the card he just played.

After ten rounds, players add up the value of all the cards in their hands except for their starter cards. The player with the highest value wins the game.

Review

There is a lot more going on in this game than the theme might suggest. At first glance, seeing this was a game built around memes, we expected it was going to be another ‘players try to submit the best card for a prompt’ game. Instead, what you have is an interesting focus on player interaction. Players aren’t just trying to select the card value they think will get them the display card they want, but they’re also trying to meet the market requirement in order get cards back into their hands, all of which is based on what other players are putting down, as well.

The order of cards in the display, the market requirement, and even the cards in each player’s hand, are constantly changing. There are a lot of elements to consider when trying to deduce which card is best to put down. Players also need to balance keeping high-value cards in their hands for counting towards the end score, with using those cards and potentially having them end up in their discard piles.

All of that being said, your enjoyment of this game is going to be heavily impacted, either positively or negatively, by its theme. There’s going to be a lot of familiarity with the images you’re seeing, players are going to recognize pictures, and maybe even have fun playing one that’s a particular favorite.

However, given the very nature of memes and their wide online usage, some of these memes have appeared occasionally in some not-so-great associations online and some of them are downright ugly. In addition, the rulebook's repeated use of the offensive 'Karen' stereotype was disappointing. How much this impacts you is subjective, but is illustrative that some of the humor in this game does derive from things that not everyone is going to be equally amused by. So, at the very least, know your game group before you bring this game to the table.

Meme Stocks has some solid gameplay mechanics, and a lot more thought was put into it than we expected. The player interaction is enjoyable, and the 15-20 minute game time feels just about right. It does have a nostalgic element to it for people who’ve spent a lot of time on the internet — just be aware that the theme will detract from the gameplay experience for some.

Pros: Solid player interaction, length of game is perfect

Cons: The theme can be a deal-breaker for some players

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.