Exploding Kittens game review

My wife is a cat lover. I grew up with a cat despising parent. I never knew what it was like to have cats until my wife and I got into a house where we could have pets. We got in to a debate where I wanted a dog, she wanted a cat. “We” compromised and got a cat. This has nothing to do with my review but it may explain why we got the game Exploding Kittens.

Exploding Kittens is a player elimination card drawing game. Hidden somewhere in the draw pile are Exploding Kittens cards. When a player draws one the player is eliminated, unless they have a defuse card which allows the player to place the exploding kitten back in to the deck anywhere they feel like.

I enjoy the simplicity of the rules for the game. They can be picked up quickly in just a couple of minutes and have players in to the fun right away. On each turn players play as many cards as they like (even none) then they draw a card. The artwork and humorous writing on the cards brings as much fun as the actual play.

I’m not usually a fan of player elimination games but the game is very quick to play (under 15 minutes.) Each round features just enough exploding kittens in order to eliminate players quickly and efficiently ensuring eliminated players don’t get bored. There will never be a need to shuffle the discard pile back into the draw pile so there is a defined limit to the game. Even if the last card in the draw pile is an exploding kitten, if a player then plays the defuse card only that last exploding kitten is replaced into the draw pile. Making the game end in a Russian roulette style playoff on who has the most defuse cards.

To sum up I think Exploding Kittens is a fun, easy to learn game that should be a lot of fun for anyone who gets cat jokes. Now that I have 2 cats who wake me up by smelling my eyeballs, claw up my furniture, or just insist on watching me shower I can understand why Exploding Kittens is such a relatable idea.

Until next time, I think Exploding Kittens is a blast.