A board game for cat lovers

Today I am going to talk about one of the most widespread board games among the faithful fans of this world. The well-known and now viral “Exploding kittens”. An illustrated board game that was released in July 2015 by designer Matthew Inman and illustrators Elan Lee and Shane Small and which I had the pleasure of playing with friends a couple of days ago. This game, with an estimated duration of 15 minutes, is designed for between 2 and 5 players, with a minimum age of 7 years and little complexity in its dynamics.

Promo pictures from the board game “Exploding Kittens”. Cover, cards and rules.

Promo pictures from the board game “Exploding Kittens” (Exploding Kittens LLC, 2019). Box and card design.

The game consists of a deck of cards containing some Exploding Kittens. To play the deck must be turned face down and players must take turns drawing cards until one gets an Exploding Kitten. When this happens, that person explodes, loses and is eliminated from the game. This process continues until only one player is left alive, who wins the game. In short, who explodes loses.

For its development, a total of 4 cards are dealt to each player among which there must be a Deactivation card for each one. Among the remaining cards there must be fewer exploding kittens than there are players. In each turn we can play a card from our hand and place it in the discard pile performing the action indicated by the card.

A simple and agile dynamic that mixes with the latent tension due to the possibility of exploding. Without a doubt my favorite part. Every time someone draws a card all players wait for that person’s reaction to find out if it has exploded or not. A tension that gives agility to the game, something that I appreciate because the game does not become unbearable and endless and in a few rounds you already have a winner.

At the same time the actions to be carried out on the cards seem very creative to me and make the game take a completely different direction each time. With many of these actions you can block the action of another player, force another to give you one of their cards or even be able to “know the future” by looking at the next card in the pile without having to count it. This many times provokes a discussion due to the competition that is breathed in the environment, perhaps one of its problems.

Illustrated cards from Exploding Kittens. This card is the “Exploding Kitten”, if you get it you lose.

Illustrated cards from Exploding Kittens. Cards with different actions during the game.

Some problems that also happen because of the speed of its development for many of the players. Although the games start repeatedly in a very continuous way, whoever loses first (often even in the first round) must wait for all the rounds to end to play again. By the way, the illustrations on the deck are a simple and fun artistic work that I find comical and imaginative. Without a doubt I have to say that I had a good time with this game because I have laughed and I feel that I have enjoyed the time that I have dedicated to it. It was really funny.

Definitely it’s a board game designed for all ages. However I highly recommend it to adults because it can be a good time with friends and family. You will only think about being a player. We have to remember that illustrated games are not just for children.

-Pictures source: promo pictures from the game https://www.explodingkittens.com/products/explodingkittens-original-edition

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