Exploding Kittens is a hilarious and quick paced card game, which is really easy to pick up and was a huge kit with our kids. I had heard a lot about Exploding Kittens (the game was the #1 most backed Kickstarter ever!) so was eager to try it, and was really happy to receive this game via the Asmodee Blogger Board Game Club this year.
The aim of the game with Exploding Kittens, is to avoid being the person left to pick up an exploding kitten card. To do this, you can use strategy by carefully selecting your cards or moves, as there may be cards in your hand that would defuse the exploding kitten, use “attack” cards on other players, or you could use a “nope” card to block moves. You can even use “see the future” cards to see what is coming up in the deck and shuffle it to your advantage.
The game is pretty compact, which is always a bonus when you have an ever growing game collection, and also makes it a great contender for taking away on holidays too. The game does not require a board, you just have two piles of cards – a draw pile and a discard pile, plus each player has their own hand of cards.
One of the great things about Exploding Kittens which adds a lot of the personality to the game is the illustrations on each card and the humour included within. For example, you have four exploding kitten cards but each one is different with a variety of illustrations.
My kids loved the illustrations and quirky humour on the cards, especially the Nope cards – like this one “feed your opponent a Nope sandwich with extra Nope Sauce” which had R cracking up with laughter.
They really enjoyed the concept of the Nope and blocking each others moves, and it is a great game that we could all play as a family. As it’s so easy to pick up the rules of the game, we found that a game could be in mid flow and someone could come along and watch for a couple of minutes and then be ready to jump into the next round without needing to sit and ponder over the rule book.
I also feel like the light hearted and humorous nature of this game helps to diffuse a bit of the competitive spirit that can come with having siblings of a very similar age who can sometimes be overly competitive, and at times even a bit of sore losers (no offence kids!) – however, this wasn’t the case with this game, they were able to take their losses in the humorous spirit of the game which was brilliant.
Overall Exploding Kittens is a great game. I would definitely recommend it to families with children of around 7+, our boys are just turned 8, 9 and 11 and all enjoyed it a lot – as did the grown ups of the family. It’s a fun and entertaining game to add to your collection, which really stands out because of its humour.
Available from shops including Amazon for around 19.99 (Affiliate link)
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.