EXPLODING KITTENS – Why All the Excitement?

EXPLODING KITTENS? When I heard about EXPLODING KITTENS I thought, how awful! Sure, it was supposed to be a card game, but I love cats and kittens and I couldn’t see how that would be a fun game as advertised. Wouldn’t that lead to more violence, this time against innocent little kittens? Wasn’t there already enough violence in this world that we live in? How could a card game called EXPLODING KITTENS possibly be a fun, family game, for children aged 7 and up?

Well, I guess the EXPLODING KITTENS team that created the game also had misgivings about the name, at least at first. They confessed that they were concerned about what people, like me, might think. Here is what they had to say under the heading, But You’re Blowing Up Kittens! Not Cool, Buddy:

“We struggled with this a lot. We love the name Exploding Kittens, but we don’t want to hurt kittens. We also don’t want the kittens to be hurt by anyone else. Eventually we decided to explore the concept of the kittens blowing themselves up…

“Our kitties would not blow up out of malicious intent or negligence, but by doing the things that kittens do, like running across keyboards or chewing on things they shouldn’t be chewing on.”

Okay, that was a lot more acceptable! Then I read that they also had developed cards that could be used to “defuse” the exploding kittens. The defusing cards were items that you would use to defuse a live kitten. One that I particularly liked was a “catnip sandwich” card. Cute, isn’t it!?! At that point, I began to get interested in how the game was structured.

How EXPLODING KITTENS Was Created and Is Played

EXPLODING KITTENS was created by Millennial gaming-industry veterans, Elan Lee (Xbox, ARGs), Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal), and Shane Small (Xbox, Marvel).

Here are the basics of the game, as stated on Kickstarter by Elan Lee:

“Exploding Kittens is a highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game. The deck is made up of cards that let you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck.

“The game gets more and more intense with each card you draw because fewer cards left in the deck means a greater chance of drawing the kitten and exploding in a fiery ball of feline hyperbole.”

The standard game is designed for ages 7 and up (as I stated above), but an adult version, listed as NSFW (Not Safe for Work, or X rated), was designed for players who are 35 and up. To be honest, I don’t really understand why you would need an adult version, or what the specific differences are. Nevertheless, they are both being made available to the public. EXPLODING KITTENS looks like it will be a very fun card game. Be sure to check it out.