Review: Exploding Kittens

The final game as part of a year of being part of the Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club, we received  Exploding Kittens to review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

The game is a highly-strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette

What’s in the Box?

• 56 Cards
• Instructions

How to Play

• Ages 7+
• 2-5 Players
• 15 mins to Play

Players draw cards until they draw an Exploding Kitten. If they draw one they are out of the game unless they have a Defuse card to save them. A Defuse Card defuses the kitten with laser pointers, belly rubs and catnip sandwiches!

So the whole aim of the game is to try to avoid the Exploding Kitten while playing the other cards to ‘move, mitigate, or avoid the Exploding Kitten’. When it is your turn you can play as many cards as you like from the cards you have, even all them if you want to (you start off with 7 cards each). Your turn ends when you pick up another card from the draw pile.

There are a variety of cards to try to help you avoid the Exploding Kitten:

• Nope – which allows you to stop any action except the Exploding Kitten
• Attack – immediately ends your turn and forces the next player to take 2 turns
• Skip – immediately end your turn without drawing a card
• Favour – force any other player to give you 1 card from their hand…they choose which one
• Shuffle – allows you the shuffle the draw pile
• See The Future – allows you to Peek at the top 3 cards from the draw pile.
• Cat Cards – powerless on their own but when you have a matching pair you can steal a random card from another player…and they can also be used in special combinations

What Did We Think?

I played this with the eldest as Bee’s reading skills at 5 aren’t able to cope with the reading involved. You have to read the instructions on the cards and be strategic. The eldest loves anything to do with cats and kittens so the game was perfect for her. Although the whole concept of Exploding Kittens is a bit random it makes the game a bit more fun! As the draw pile gets smaller, things get tenser as the chances of coming across the Exploding Kittens increases!

The cards themselves with the instructions are amusing and sure to make anyone smile with their funny images. For example on a skip card it says ‘Commandeer a bunnyraptor.’ And on a see the future card it states to ‘feast upon a unicorn enchilada and gain its enchilada powers’.

So a bit of a sense of humour and imagination is needed!

A fun game which is sure to keep the family entertained.

 

Exploding Kittens is available to buy from most toy stores and also Amazon: Exploding Kittens A Card Game About Kittens and Explosions. (Affiliate Link).