Before I Kill You, Mister Spy... is the latest incarnation of the card game originally published as Before I Kill You, Mister Bond... in 1996. Following receipt of a cease and desist order from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (owner of the James Bond franchise), Cheapass Games took the game out of print in 2000, then reissued it as James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game in 2004. In 2016, the current Before I Kill You, Mister Spy... version was released.
Players take the roles of supervillains in a spy movie, building supervillain lairs in which they can capture and kill superspies (including "Mr. Bond" in the original version of the game). You can kill a captured superspy and collect points for doing so. However, the point value for killing a captured superspy is doubled each time you taunt the spy first. Unfortunately, taunting a superspy allows the other players to play a taunt card with the same letter as yours, in which case the superspy escapes and destroys your lair on the way out, and you score nothing.
This game provides examples of:
- Bond Villain Stupidity: The heart of the game's push-your-luck mechanism. Players are free to kill captured superspies at any time, but each taunt doubles the point value for killing a superspy. Unless the taunt allows the superspy to escape, in which case he destroys your lair on the way out.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Spy (and Bomb) cards have purple backs, so they can be easily distinguished from lair and taunt cards (which are blue).
- Death Trap: Several Taunt cards provide examples in their color text.
- Evil Gloating: Several Taunt cards provide examples in their color text.
- Flavor Text: The Taunt cards are particularly notable. For game purposes, only the lettered type of each card matters, but each Taunt card features a different example of Bond villain stupidity, such as: "Before I kill you, Mister Spy... I shall force you to draft a confession of your own incompetence using that ordinary-looking pen."
- It's Going Down: The fate of your lair when a captured superspy escapes.
- Just Between You and Me: Several Taunt cards provide examples in their color text.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Several Taunt cards provide examples in their color text.
- Practical Taunt: Taunting doubles the point value for killing a captured superspy.
- Supervillain Lair: You cannot capture a superspy without a lair that is worth at least as many points as the superspy.
- Updated Re-release: Played straight with James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game with its 110-card deck, double the size of the deck in the original game. Inverted with Before I Kill You, Mister Spy... which returned to the 55-card deck of the original game.
