If you’re at a grown-up game night or a Friday night family hour and someone says, “Who wants to play some Exploding Kittens?” you might be a little bewildered.
You might even ask yourself, “Exploding kittens? Have I wandered into a serial killer training cabal or a cult sacrifice situation or some kind of extreme dog appreciation society?”
Rest assured, your friends and family aren’t asking you to commit a heinous crime against nature or our furry feline friends. They are inviting you to play Exploding Kittens, a nerve testing survival card game that’s become one of the most successful tabletop game franchises in recent years and a fan favorite on game nights.
Now there’s a brand new, expanded board game version that uses some of the original game’s classic cards and an immersive playing field that’s just as easy to learn and fun to play as its card-based predecessor.
Exploding Kittens: The Board Game
Specifications
- Players: 2-6.
- Ages: 7 and up.
- Playing Time: 15-20 minutes.
- Components: 65 action cards, 26 move cards, 1 pop-up game board, 6 character standees, instruction manual.
- Price: $24.99.
Pros
- Hilarious, cartoony design.
- Very easy to learn and play.
- Well-designed and innovative pop-up style game board.
- A fun way to screw your friends without ending your friendship.
Cons
- Takes a few rounds to learn all the tiny rules.
- The 3D pop-up board requires everyone to sit on one side.
Exploding Kittens is a groundbreaking, inventive and just plain funny card game designed by The Oatmeal webcomic creator Matthew Inman along with Elan Lee and Shane Small. The first variation of the game hit store shelves in 2015 thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that met its goal in eight minutes.
The card game pits two to five players against each other in a Russian Roulette style survival game (which, again, is not literally Russian Roulette) where the draw deck is stacked with a certain name of “Exploding Kitten” cards. If a player draws one these deadly cards and can’t defuse it with a card from their hand, they explode (figuratively) and play continues until one player is left unexploded.
The card game’s massive success and popularity launched a NSFW version of the game, several expansion sets and a Netflix animated series. The party game maker has carved out an interesting space in the board game market with titles featuring inventive forms of game play, new twists on a variety of game genres, and unabashed silliness.
How to Play Exploding Kittens: The Board Game
The board game version utilizes a lot of the same cards as its original namesake with the same great, twisted cartoon art from its creator. There are also a few new cards thrown into the deck that adapt the game to its new main feature: the game board.
This game of Exploding Kittens takes place on a giant, foldable cardboard playing field. Unlike other board games, this one actually has two playfields that you’ll flip back and forth throughout the game play like a giant pop-up book. As you flip the board to either side, the spaces on the board also change by sliding into place even if there’s a playing piece already on it.
Each player is represented by a small cardboard playing piece featuring some of the card game’s insane characters like Taco Cat, Watermelon Cat and Sushi Cat. The goal is to move from the litter box on the left side of the board to the finish line on the opposite side.
The original Exploding Kittens isn’t just a press your luck game. It’s also a “force your opponent to explode so you can win” kind of game. There are two elements in the game that allow you to push an opponent onto an exploding kitten. You can make the game infinitely harder by playing an action card from your hand or if they pick up a move card that says “Flip the board” on it. The pop-up board switches between the “good” and “bad” side, the latter of which features more exploding kitten spaces and a three-dimensional hell scape of kitten hades.
The other way to screw your opponent is by adding “danger magnets” cards to the move pile. Certain action cards allow you to secretly add one of these deadly traps anywhere you want in the deck mimicking the signature mechanic of the card game in which you can place booby traps in the deck for your opponents. So you can force an opponent who might be in the lead to blow up and move to the back of the pack if they don’t play an action card that lets them skip a card draw or defuse the kitten.
What’s So Fun About Explosive Pets?
If you don’t have the kind of sense of humor that can appreciate the comic value of a small animal turning into a massive nuclear cloud, you’re missing out a really fun and re-playable board game that’s just as fun for kids and adults.
The style is more cartoony that gorey, so parents can rest assured they can play the game with their (age appropriate) children without having to explain why that kitty is spewing red liquid. If you’re still squeamish, pick up a couple of books of old Far Side comics and watch a few Adult Swim shows to break down your stuffy tolerance for cartoony violence.
The basic gameplay is as easy to pickup and learn as Chutes and Ladders or Candy Land but the humor is accessible to anyone who appreciates the comic mayhem of an early Bugs Bunny short. The gameplay is also more complex and involves a lot more strategy than most games aimed to players as young as eight. It’s also just satisfying to push your friends into harm’s way so you can take the lead.
The art style of the cards and the board alone is worth the price of admission. Inman’s artwork is sharp, colorful, and just the right amount of zany. It will never fail to at least drag a smile out of your most sullen friend.
The pop-up game board is also one of the most unique features of any board game on the shelf. The spaces slide over as the side of the board switches adding or detracting value and the whole board snaps into place with little magnets embedded in the cardboard.
The only drawback to the design is the big 3D popup on the “bad side.” It’s big and bold but all the players have to sit on the same side of the table so they can reach their pieces and the cards and appreciate the artwork. It’s best to put the board on a lazy Susan or a longer table if you have one.
The gameplay runs just the right amount of time. It’s not so long that the game becomes tiresome and boring. It’s also short enough so you can replay several sessions in one game night and everyone has a chance to win at least one round.
Exploding Kittens: The Board Game
Even Cat People Will Love This Game
The humor and style might seem a little twisted, but despite its name, it’s not a violent game. It’s the most fun you can have exploding a small animal without getting a blip on your criminal record.
