Exploding Kittens Original Edition: 2-5 Players - Ages 7+ Family Card Game

I originally bought this as a Christmas gift for my sister, and it ended up being absolutely amazing to play with the whole family during the holidays. It was such a hit that we eventually ended up buying several of the add-on expansions, and years later, someone actually gifted the NSFW version back to me! What makes this game so brilliant is how quick and easy it is. You can teach a complete beginner how to play in about two minutes flat. It’s perfect when you just want a quick, fun game night with friends. It completely avoids the dreaded "Monopoly problem" where you need a whole day to play and everyone just ends up giving up halfway through. Rounds of this rarely last more than 15 minutes, so you can easily play three or four games in an evening. It’s a mix of hot-potato and Russian roulette, where you’re constantly trying to pass the danger off to someone else. The "Nope" cards are easily the best part, leading to some hilarious arguments and last-second saves. Because it relies pretty heavily on the luck of the draw, hardcore strategy fans might find it a bit light, but as a fast-paced, chaotic party game, it is absolute gold.

At the time of writing this there are mountains of reviews (rightly) praising Exploding Kittens for its accessibility, production values, presentation and general excellence. There aren't really any reviews explaining what exactly a 'Russian Roulette' card game actually entails, so as endlessly charming as the game is (and it really is), I thought I'd explain how the game works and why it is an excellent game in its own right. The mechanics are pretty simple. Each turn you will (generally) have a number of cards in your hand that allow you to do a number of different things (more on those in a second). You END your turn by drawing a card. If you draw an Exploding Kitten card, you are out of the game and the card is removed from the deck. Hence the 'Russian Roulette' element. In every game there will be one less Exploding Kitten card in the deck than there are players, so in the end one person will win when everyone else has drawn an Exploding Kitten card. The game is spiced up by all of the other cards in the deck. It is worth mentioning to begin with that everyone starts with one Defuse card, and others can be drawn from the deck during the game. Defuse cards are the only cards that can save you from an Exploding Kitten. If you draw an Exploding Kitten and have a Defuse card, you can play it and place the Exploding Kitten card back in the deck wherever you want, in sight of the other players or not (in case it's not obvious, that element adds a really devious strategical element to the game). All of the other cards can be played prior to you drawing your card and ending your turn, and generally in some way reduce your chances of drawing a card. For example, the See The Future card allows you to look at the top three cards of the deck before you draw a card, the Skip card skips your turn entirely, and the Shuffle card does what it says on the turn and allows you to shuffle the deck before drawing a card. There are also cards with art on them that have no actions, and you can collect these and play them in sets to allow you to take cards from other players. The action cards are perfectly balanced and designed to add strategical and (to some degree) bluff elements to what is essentially a game of luck. There is no getting away from the fact that luck plays a heavy part in this game, but actually the playing of the actions cards and subtle attempts at deceiving the other players make this game feel far more strategic than it actually is, which is a good thing. Ultimately every game will include some element of trying to mislead other players and trap them into drawing an Exploding Kitten card, and that is part of what gives the game its high replay value. Games are quick, normally taking no more than 15 to 20 minutes, and much like other casual card games like UNO, there is normally a strong desire to 'to just play one more time' before finishing or moving on to something else. I was an initial Kickstarter backer for the game, and have played it as part of game nights as well as with various combinations with my family in more casual settings, and everyone has taken to the game well and wanted to play a few games in a sitting rather than one. When I was younger I remember playing UNO and various traditional card based games with my family either on family holidays, after meals, or at family gatherings and such. For me Exploding Kittens is that sort of game for a new generation, a game that is most certainly casual and can be won by anyone due to the luck element, but that contains enough charm, strategy, and that all important 'just one more game' factor to make it a stable for any family or group. As such I would heartily recommend it; in my view this game is a genuine classic that deserves to be as highly owned as the likes of UNO. On one final point as to whether this is suitable for children or not, given that the game inherently involves explosions and kittens there are some morbid elements that parents may think are unsuitable for very young children, but actually the game is presented in a very comedic way, and I would have thought that the game would be suitable for any children that are old enough to understand the rules. The box says it's suitable for 7 and up, which feels about right to me. I do reiterate that this is a review of the standard deck though; the NSFW (Not Safe For Work) deck contains explicit cards with very mature themes, and is most certainly not suitable for children. If you take my recommendation and buy one of these to play in a family, make sure you buy the right one if you're playing with children!

I bought this for the family to play over Christmas. We enjoyed it so much, we played it five times in a row on the first outing! After getting used to the functions of the different cards, it’s a very easy game to play. It’s based on luck and tactics, and ultimately, you are trying to avoid being blown up by an exploding kitten. Each player starts with 5 cards, including a ‘defuse’ card. This protects you from an exploding kitten, but alas, you only have one! Once the cards have been dealt, the remainder are put in a deck, face down. Each player then plays a card from their hand or ends their turn by picking up a card from the deck. But watch out! It could be an exploding kitten. The way, then, to try to avoid being blown up is to play your other cards tactically. For example, if you have a ‘see the future’ card, you can see the top three cards in the deck. If there is an exploding kitten card, you can pick it up and defuse it (but then you’ve used up your defuse card), or if you have a ‘skip’ card, you can skip your turn and get the next player blown up. There are also other cards such as ‘nope’, where you can stop a player at any time during the game doing a particular action or an ‘attack’ card, where they have to take two turns. It does take some time to understand how to play, but once you’ve mastered the rules (which really aren’t that hard, it’s just getting to know the function of each card and how best to play them), you’ll have a lot of fun. The cards are also colourful and funny, and the illustrations and witty comments on each card are great to look at and read.

Fun little game, played a couple of times, handy to pack into a suitcase as its small enough.

I bought this as a family game to play with a 5 and 8 year old. Since playing it it is the only game my boys want to play. Initially when you unbox the game the cards look complicated however it really isn’t, there is handy key to each card on the instructions that I kept in front of me during the first game as although each card tells you the actions it’s pale white and small print which I struggled to see. After one game we all got the hang of it, took my younger son who is 5 longer to get to know the card meanings as he can’t fluently read yet but after a few games he knows the actions of each card from the pictures. I was initially worried reading some reviews but there is nothing untoward with any of the cards and it is totally suitable for young children. The aim of the game is to not explode which happens by picking up a explode kitten card. Each player has to play an action card and end their go by picking up a card from the deck (which could be an explode kitten card) you avoid exploding by defusing the kitten with a defuse card. So you want as many defuse cards as possible in your hand. Along the way each card you lay has an action like steal a card from someone, skip picking up a card, stop someone else’s action card. Really enjoyable game, in a handy box to make it easy to travel with. Perfect camping game or holiday game.

Really fun fast paced game. Easy to set up and creates lots of laughs. Instructions are a little difficult to understand but once you play the game all becomes clear.

We bought this as a family Christmas game. Instructions were easy to read and the game good quality card. The actual game is about rubbish though, was fast paced but not much fun! Sorry

Very fun! Easy to understand the rules. My youngest is 7 and she had no issues grasping it. Good family fun, I'm glad we added this one to our collection.

Fun and easy to play, good for groups of friends!

i have been ordering this game since past 3 weeks from amazon everytime there was an issue of missing cards and today finallyyyy i recieved the right product with all the cards cant wait to play this evening......

I was expecting something bigger for all that money.

Se da ragazzino odiavi il famigerato +4 e l'amico infame che lo calava per salvarsi, con questo gioco inizierai ad odiare anche i gatti! Trovo questo gioco molto divertente, facile da apprendere e veloce da giocare. Un gioco alla portata di tutti, riesce a coinvolgere anche quell'amico che tutti hanno nella compagnia, che odia i giochi di società. La confezione è davvero ben fatta e curata nei dettagli, anche la qualità delle carte è buona. All'interno si trova il manuale con le istruzioni 2 mazzi contenenti le carte da gioco e un codice promo per degli sconti o per alcuni avatar esclusivi per il gioco per smartphone. Il prezzo non è dei più bassi trattandosi di un gioco di carte, però c'è da dire che essendo nato da un progetto di crowdfunding è normale che i prezzi siano leggermente più alti della media. E' un gioco consigliatissimo a tutti, coinvolge fin da subito, e come UNO rovina molte amicizie!

Escribo esto tras dejar a un niño de 5 años llorando porque ya llevamos varias partidas y hemos decidido dejarlo por hoy. ¿Es que es un juego para niños pequeños? Pues no, no lo es, pero eso da una idea de lo entretenido que puede llegar a ser y sobre todo lo fácil de sus reglas, pero es que ahí precisamente está parte de su encanto. Aunque al principio cuesta un poco memorizar tantas funciones distintas de las cartas, solas o en grupo, una vez se han traducido las instrucciones y jugado una primera partida de prueba, el juego es realmente entretenido. Las cartas son realmente divertidas, los dibujos son bastante chulos y los textos son muy ingeniosos. La pena es que esté en inglés, no porque no se entiendan las instrucciones, sino porque se pillarían mejor los juegos de palabras que acompañan las ilustraciones, los "chistes" de las cartas al fin y al cabo. Para jugar, si quedan dudas, en Youtube se pueden encontrar partidas en español donde en seguida se entiende la mecánica del juego. El juego está indicado de 7 años en adelante, aunque ya digo que incluso niños más pequeños pueden entender la mecánica, y de dos a cinco personas. Pero se puede comprar otra baraja más y ya podrían jugar hasta 9 personas, cosa que pienso hacer cuando haya una versión disponible en español. Además disponible hay una versión para adultos, con los dibujos de las cartas un poco más violentos y "picantones".