Review - Exploding Kittens (2015) - Self Published

Okay.  Now, right off the bat, I want to say I know what your're thinking.   "Exploding Kittens? Really?" and that's what I thought when Tyler asked me to get it. So, I went into this review with extreme bias that I would more than likely not like this Kickstarter juggernaut.  With that said....

Exploding Kittens is a kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game. The deck is made up of cards that let you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck. The game gets more and more intense with each card you draw because fewer cards left in the deck means a greater chance of drawing the kitten and exploding in a fiery ball of feline hyperbole.

If the kitten blows up, so do you. So don't do that.

Now, before I get into the actual play, a couple things here:  First is that we played a game with the basic rules, and I did not like that one bit. Tyler thought it was okay, but the advanced rules seemed better to me.  For instance, you can try to swipe specific cards from your opponent, or dig through the pile to get cards back into your hand.

The second thing is that we added a rule. We added that when you defuse the kitten, you put the card

back in the deck randomly, and it is shuffled. In the regular game you put it where you want, but that seems pointless to me in a two-player game.

And so the game began and Tyler played a card and I noped it (blocked it) which made him ask the question of the night "Dad, can I nope your nope?" and indeed he could, and indeed he did. It was soon after this I drew the exploding kitten, but I was able to defuse. My next turn, I felt very smart and played the 5 cards in my hand to go into the discard pile and take back my defuse. And then I immediately felt less smart as Tyler played a pair of matching cards and took my only card, which was said defuse card. I gained a few cards and he had me backed into a corner. He had looked at the deck and his smirk showed me my time was about to end as he played a card to make me take two consecutive turns.. So I played 2 taco cats in the hope that I would draw a diffuse from him, AND I DID! and the next card was indeed an exploding kitten! So, I lived, but I still had a turn left, and there were only about 8 cards in the pile. I shuffled them good and drew....The exploding kitten, of course.

Dad:

"The exploding kitten cards are the best. It's the focal point of the game. A secondary nod must be given to Tacocat, because I love palindromes."

Ty:


"Exploding kitten because why not? It's an exploding kitten, how cool is that!"

Dad:

"This game is far better than people give it credit for. Is it light? YES. Is it funny? YES. And most importantly is it fun? YES. I know we modified the one rule, but it made all the difference. I will be buying the imploding kittens expansion."

4/5 *with rules modification

Tyler:

"I liked the hot potato mechanics of the game where your trying to make the other person blow up. It reminded me of Uno, but way better."

4.5/5