Good Guy, Bad Guy, Not So Smart Guy: A Light Card Game of Sequential Shenanigans

Can you create a sequence of five number cards with the help of a few good guys?

Good Guy, Bad Guy, Not So Smart Guy is a 5-15 minute light card game, designed for 2-6 players.

Gameplay

The deck is shuffled and each player is dealt five cards. Players can never have more than five cards in their hand and five cards in their personal sequence face-up in front of themselves. There are five types of cards in the game. One type is number cards, which are numbered 1-10. The goal of the game is to get five consecutively numbered cards in your personal sequence.

There are Good Guy cards, which act as a wild. When you play it to your sequence, you announce what number it is, and it cannot change its number unless it leaves your sequence. There are Bad Guy cards, which allow you to steal a card from another player’s sequence and either add it to your sequence or your hand. There are the Not So Smart Guy cards, which allow you to take a random card from an opponent’s hand and add it to yours. Finally, there is the Jerk card, which forces another player to discard all the cards currently in his sequence.

On a turn, you must choose one of the following actions: play a card to your sequence (a card can only be discarded from a sequence through a Jerk card), play one of the ability cards, discard a number card from your hand, draw a card from the draw pile and add it to your hand, or take the top card of the discard pile so long as it is a number card.

The first player to complete a sequence of five consecutive number cards wins the game.

Review

Good Guy, Bad Guy, Not So Smart Guy is a very simple card game. The rules are straightforward, all card abilities are written on them so that it’s easy to know what everything in your hand does, and the game is uncomplicated. This makes it a good fit for groups that don’t play a lot of games, family gatherings, and people just looking for something very light.

The choices are quite simple, and sometimes there’s not much to do but just keep hoping you’ll draw that card you need before someone is able to play a Jerk card on you and wipe out your progress.

There is some fun art on the little guys, and the game has a light but enjoyable theme with the different types of guys on the cards. It’s a very portable game, which pairs well with the lightness of the gameplay.

It is clever that you can see the sequences other players are working towards, which helps you to know which cards to discard and which ones to hang onto. It can also help you decide who might be best to steal from when drawing at random from someone’s hand.

We wished there was a little more going on here as the last few turns mostly played themselves, but it’s a light, fast game that will find a home in some groups.

Pros: Fun artwork, very easy to teach

Cons: A little too simple, sometimes there’s not much to do except hope for the right card

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