Matthew BaileyI really enjoy watching anime, but I have not actually watched a huge amount of it in recent years, largely because almost all of it is on Crunchyroll, and it is yet another subscription to add to my ever-expanding list of monthly payments.
Fast forward to about six months ago, when I got a free six-month subscription to Crunchyroll as part of some sort of package deal with my new phone, and here we are. I am back to being a big anime fan, having watched most of the heavy hitters from the last few years. If anyone has any recommendations, I am more than happy to listen.
Chainsaw Man is probably my favourite, and another standout for me has been Spy X Family. At its core, Spy X Family follows a master spy, codenamed Twilight, who has to create a fake family in order to complete a high-stakes mission that could prevent war between rival nations. The twist is that the “family” he assembles is anything but ordinary. His adopted daughter Anya is a telepath who can read minds, his wife Yor is secretly a highly skilled assassin, and none of them know each other’s true identities. What makes the series so enjoyable is how it balances awesome James Bond or Killing Eve–style moments with genuinely funny, warm domestic scenes, often driven by Anya’s reactions to the chaos around her, as she is the only one who knows who everyone really is. It is light, charming, and very easy to watch, but still smart enough to keep you invested, which is exactly why it has become one of my standout anime favourites alongside Chainsaw Man.
Cut to about a month ago when, walking through HMV of all places, I realised there was actually a card game based on the series called Spy X Family: Mission for Peanuts. Obviously, with absolutely no research or checking of reviews, I jumped straight in, and here we are after playing it quite a few times over the Christmas break. I am pleased to say it is actually pretty good.
Spy X Family: Mission for Peanuts plays an awful lot like Love Letter, but I actually think I prefer this game quite a bit more. Let me explain.
Each round begins with players being dealt two cards, one of which is secretly chosen to be your active Role and placed face down in front of you, while the other stays hidden in your hand. Once everyone has chosen, Roles are revealed simultaneously, so you know what everyone’s Role is, but not what other card they are holding in their hand. From that point on, the game becomes about information, timing, and a little bit of take-that.
On your turn, you always draw a card, then choose one of two actions. You can either discard a card from your hand to trigger its Assist ability, which is usually some form of spying, swapping, or information gathering, or you can discard your current Role and replace it with a card from your hand, triggering that card’s Deploy ability instead. These abilities are where the game really comes alive, letting you peek at hands, force trades, manipulate the deck, put pressure on other players, or provide protection for yourself. After your action, you always end your turn with exactly one Role in front of you and one card in hand, keeping things tight and easy to follow.
The main objective is wonderfully thematic. If at any point, after drawing a card, you have the Spy, the Telepath, and the Assassin, the roles played by Loid, Anya, and Yor, the three main characters from the show, together between your Role and your hand, you instantly win the round by successfully uniting the Forger family. That ever-present win condition creates a constant sense of tension, because every draw could suddenly end things. At the same time, some cards are dangerous. The Assassin, in particular, can knock players out entirely if it enters your hand by any method other than drawing, unless you have the Telepath for protection. Keeping the Spy in your hand, while extremely useful as it is the best card in the game for winning, can also knock you out instantly if someone uses the Secret Police card on you. If all but one player is eliminated, that remaining player wins the round instead.
If the deck runs out before anyone achieves an instant win or total elimination, the round ends with a showdown. All remaining players reveal their hands, and the winner is decided by who has the strongest character combination, with ties broken by the total value of discarded cards. Rounds are quick, wins are dramatic, and scoring is handled via Peanut tokens, with only a small number needed to win the overall game. It is fast, punchy, and full of moments where you think you are safe right up until everything collapses. There are loads of times where you feel one turn away from winning, only to discover someone else got there first, or you are forced into playing sub-optimally on purpose just to avoid almost certain elimination.
While it definitely helps that I really like the show, Spy X Family: Mission for Peanuts (named because peanuts are Anya’s favourite snack) is a fantastic hidden identity game that I honestly prefer to long-time favourite Love Letter. The cards gel better, I love the two abilities per card mechanic, and I really like the fact there are multiple win conditions where you need a specific card in your hand but have to be extremely careful about how you obtain it.
A good example is having the Assassin in my hand and the Telepath as my Role. I only need the Spy to win the game, but then I draw a card that, if played, would mean drawing a random card while someone else gets one from my hand. I want to keep both the Assassin and the Telepath, but if someone else receives the Assassin, they are knocked out of the game. At the same time, I have no idea what card I might draw. In fact, it could be the Spy, and I would win instantly. This kind of strategic tension works incredibly well and adds oodles of depth without the rules ever becoming difficult.
Component-wise, it is basically just a deck of cards, but the artwork is nice and works well with the theme. It does trade blows with the original release of Flip 7 by having a box that is far bigger than it needs to be, but I understand why. It looks good on a shelf and is clearly trying to appeal to fans of the anime just as much as fans of card games. Before you ask not the figurine in the photo doesnt come in the game.
I really loved Spy X Family: Mission for Peanuts, and I think even if you are not a fan of the show, this is an extremely good game that would sit right at the top of a “games like Love Letter that are better than Love Letter” list. And if you have not seen the show, I would 100 percent recommend that as well.
