Hi everyone!
I hope this post finds you well! Growing up, my family has always been a close-knit unit. We have always enjoyed spending time with one another and playing games. I was fortunate enough to marry a wonderful woman who's family was the same. That being said, I have had exposure to a wide variety of card and board games. Seeing as how I thoroughly enjoy (most of) them, I figured I could share them with you all as well, in the hopes that you may also enjoy them!
Thus begins my first installment of my Game Review series: Exploding Kittens!
Exploding Kittens is a card game that involves some strategy and a lot of luck. The rules are simple, and should not take more than 5 minutes for people to understand them sufficiently to get started. In fact, the video embedded on their website states, "Exploding Kittens Explained in 100 Seconds." Feel free to check out the video in the link below:
https://www.explodingkittens.com/video/ek_video_from_youtube.mp4
While this game may sound awful, what with blowing up kittens and all, it is actually relatively innocuous. For starters, the kittens are trying to blow up you, your home, your city, the world, etc. Your purpose is actually to defuse the kittens if possible and survive until the end of the game. The game is wacky, and the art and captions on the cards are hilarious, with just a touch of disturbing. The game itself, is somewhat of a Russian Roulet style game, where you take turns drawing cards, praying that you don't draw the exploding kitten. Fortunately, there are cards that can either defuse the exploding kitten, or assist you in avoiding it, but of course, these can only take you so far. As the deck runs out of cards, your chances of meeting a fiery end increase.
To start the game, the Defuse and Exploding Kitten cards are removed from the deck. Everyone is then dealt 4 cards and 1 Defuse card, for a total of 5 cards in their hand. At this point, the remaining Defuse cards and Exploding Kitten cards equal to 1 less than the # of players are shuffled back into the deck (e.g. if you have 4 players, 3 Exploding Kitten cards are shuffled back in).
Once this is done, you choose someone to go first, and start taking turns drawing in a clockwise order. If you want to play a card from your hand, you must play it before you draw, as drawing signifies the end of your turn. When playing a card, you simply follow the instructions on it, which are very straight-forward. Here's a brief summary of the cards you can play:
- Skip: Skips your turn, you don’t have to draw a card.
- Attack: An opponent must take two turns in a row before it becomes the next player's turn.
- See the Future: The player can look at the top 3 cards of the deck, but cannot change the order.
- Shuffle: Shuffles the deck.
- Favor: Forces a player of YOUR choice to give you a hard of THEIR choice from their hand.
- Nope!: This allows you to cancel any action, except for an Exploding Kitten. This can be counter-noped however.
Some examples of the cards above are shown below. You can also see what I meant when I was talking about the card art earlier...
There are also random cat cards that do not have any instructions on them. Individually these are useless, but if you have 2 of the same card, you can play them and randomly draw a card from a player's hand of your choice.
As I just mentioned, after you play your cards (or don't play, it is entirely up to you), you then draw to end your turn. As long as you do not draw an Exploding Kitten, it is the next player's turn. Fortunately, there is no limit for cards in your hand, so if you can, it is often best to stockpile cards until you start getting closer to the end of the game. This gives you more options to not only avoid drawing the Exploding Kitten cards, but it also gives you more options to take down your opponents.
If you do draw an Exploding Kitten, you will need to play a Defuse. This lets you place the Exploding Kitten back into the deck wherever you like, but unfortunately you lose your Defuse. This is one way you can royally screw someone over, by placing the card in order to make a targeted individual draw it. As a result, this game becomes more and more exciting and nerve-wracking as you get closer to the bottom of the pile. If someone draws an Exploding Kitten, but they do not have a defuse, then they lose and are out of the game. The game ends when only one person is left. The complete instructions can be seen here.
Overall, this game is a lot of fun, though it can be equally aggravating. It is largely a game of chance, but there is skill involved in your card management, when you decide to make a move, and who you make the move on. Keeping track of who still has a Defuse is also very handy. If you are into card games, or just games in general, I definitely recommend this. If you enjoy wacky and entertaining illustrations, I would also recommend this game.
While I would certainly not say it is perfect, Exploding Kittens has a lot to offer in entertainment. The rounds are short and sweet, so even if you get knocked out early (which can be incredibly frustrating), you probably won't have to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes before playing again. Furthermore, there is already one expansion out, which adds whole new elements to the game, without taking away from the initial fun and novelty of it. The expansion is called Imploding Kittens. If anyone is interested in learning more about it, please comment below.
For those of you who enjoy the artwork, or who want something a bit edgier, there is also a NSFW version. The only difference here is the artwork. Though I myself have not seen what is in it, so peruse at your own risk.
Finally, they have released a Party Pack edition that is meant for up to 10 players. This is pretty neat, since the original is only good up to 5. However, my one critique on this is that they made it a completely different game, not in terms of the rules, but the cards have a different back to them, so they cannot be used with the original game. For those who already owned the original, it would have been nice to have the option of an expansion that allowed for more people, rather than having to purchase an entirely separate game.
All in all, I give Exploding Kittens an 8/10. Please see the summary and game information below:
Genre: Card Game
Number of Players: 2-5 Players
Difficulty: Easy
SCORE: 8 / 10
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