Exploding Kittens

Silly Fun With a Creepy Edge

Do you like kittens? How about kittens that play with hand grenades and blow you up?

Exploding Kittens is basically Russian roulette in card form with a hilarious sense of silly humor. I was sold when I read that there was a card that allowed you to rub the belly of a ‘Pigacorn’ in order to see the future. Defusing exploding kittens with catnip sandwiches and laser pointers is another plus, but my personal favorite is feeding you opponent a “NOPE sandwich with extra NOPE sauce” to cancel out an action they just played.

Does any of that make any sense? Of course not. Welcome to Exploding Kittens.

The Breakdown

• Decisions: 3/5. Once you’ve played this one a few times, you know that a big part of your strategy is holding on to key cards and praying that they don’t get stolen. Other than that, it’s all luck. Not that I would expect different from a game where kittens kill you!
• Artwork: 3.5/5. The illustrations are quirky and unusual, to say the least. I like most of them, but a few are simply unpleasant and not much fun to look at (like the Thousand Year Back Hair). This creepy edge will appeal to teens and adults, but certainly not to young kids.
• Replayability: 2.5/5. Because this game is all luck, it’s hard to give it a high Replayability score. It’ll be fun if played once or twice a week at most, but I wouldn’t play it more than that or I’ll get sick of it pretty quick.
• Awesomeness: 3/5. It’s fun because it’s crazy and silly and ridiculous. I love the quirky characters (the magical goat with the exceptional beard) and the goofy premise that kittens can blow you up. And that’s about as far as this game goes.

TOTAL SCORE: 12/20

Bottom line: Exploding Kittens is fun, make no mistake, but in a light and fluffy way. And let’s face it—sometimes you want a light fluffy game that is full of Tacocats and unicorn enchiladas. And when that hankering hits, it’s a good thing this game is there.