Exploding Kittens Review: Great Marketing, Thin Game
Bottom Line
Exploding Kittens is the best-selling card game of the crowdfunding era, and it’s a thin game wearing world-class branding. It works as a silly ten-minute diversion with kids, and the art is genuinely funny. The problem is what’s under the art: draw cards, hope you don’t explode, play a Defuse if you do — a luck engine with a few take-that cards sprinkled in. Most copies get played twice and shelved, and that’s a rational response to the design.
Exploding Kittens gets a 5/5 Bamboo Plants and a 2/5 Pandas from us. Twenty million copies sold, a teach that takes one minute, cat drawings that make kids howl — and underneath it, less game than a deck of standard playing cards can deliver.
The Bamboo 5 is deserved: “draw cards; if you draw an Exploding Kitten and can’t Defuse it, you’re out” is the entire ruleset, and the rulebook itself jokes that reading rules is the worst way to learn. The Pandas 2 is the honest half: the decisions barely exist, the fun curve peaks in game one, and “who explodes” is mostly the shuffle’s choice, not anyone’s.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Players | 2–5 |
| Best Player Count | 4 — more targets for the take-that cards |
| Age | 7+ |
| Play time | 15 min |
| Complexity | Light |
| Solo Mode | No |
| Designer | Elan Lee, Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal), Shane Small |
| Publisher | Exploding Kittens |
| Bamboo Plants | 5/5 — teaches itself |
| Pandas | 2/5 — luck with jokes on it |
| Official site | explodingkittens.com |
| Official rules | Download the rules PDF |
How Exploding Kittens Works
The 56-card deck contains a few Exploding Kittens. On your turn, play any action cards you like, then draw one card. Draw a Kitten and you’re out — unless you play a Defuse (each player starts with one), which lets you secretly slide the Kitten back into the deck anywhere you like. Last player standing wins.
The action cards are the game’s whole personality: Skip your draw, Attack the next player into drawing twice, See the Future (peek at three cards), Shuffle, and Favor. Everything is illustrated by The Oatmeal, and the flavor text does more heavy lifting than any mechanic in the box.
The one genuinely clever moment: re-planting a Kitten after you Defuse. Sliding it right on top for the next player, while maintaining a poker face, is the game’s single real decision — and it’s a good one.
What We Liked
The comedy onboarding is elite. Kids and non-gamers pick up this box because of the art, and they’re playing sixty seconds later. As a gateway product — the first deck that isn’t Uno a kid ever chooses — it has probably done more recruiting for tabletop than most “good” games.
The Defuse-and-replant moment delivers. Every game has two or three genuinely fun beats where someone slides a Kitten back with a grin and the next player sweats the draw. That’s real tension, and we won’t pretend the table doesn’t react.
Fifteen minutes is the right length — the design at least knows what it is. It never overstays the way Cards Against Humanity does.
What We Disliked
What the box promises: “A card game for people who are into kittens and explosions” — chaotic, hilarious, strategic Russian roulette.
What the game delivers: a luck spiral. Your survival is mostly determined by where the shuffle put the Kittens and who happens to hold Defuses — the cards you play mostly shuffle the bad luck one seat to the left.
- The decisions are cosmetic. Skip, Attack, and Shuffle all amount to “make someone else draw instead of me.” There’s no engine, no plan, no arc — See the Future is the only card that creates information, and even it usually just tells you which flavor of nothing to do.
- Player elimination in a luck game stings twice. Getting knocked out by pure draw order, then watching others finish, is the worst of both worlds — and the first player out is often the one who did nothing wrong.
- It’s the same game every time. No variable setup, no roles, no scaling wrinkles. Game forty is game one with less laughter, and the laughter was carrying everything.
- Two-player is a coin flip with extra steps. The box says 2–5; head-to-head, the take-that cards ping-pong until someone draws the Kitten. Skip it entirely at two.
Who It’s For
Exploding Kittens is for kids roughly 7–12 and the adults who play with them — the art does the entertaining, the rules never get in the way, and fifteen minutes fits between dinner and bath time. It’s also a decent “airplane with a 9-year-old” deck, and as a gift for a kid it lands better than most actual-good games would.
For adult groups, it’s a two-beer novelty: fun exactly once, at the right party, for the art reveals.
Who should skip this game
Skip it if you’re an adult group buying for game nights — the jokes carry the first play and nothing carries the second. Skip it if elimination-by-luck genuinely annoys anyone at your table, because that is the entire game. And if your kids are ready for one more rule, skip it for them too — the games below deliver real decisions at nearly the same weight.
Who Should Buy This?
Parents of elementary schoolers: sure — $20 for a deck your kid will genuinely request beats plenty of alternatives, and the recruiting effect is real. Everyone else: this is the definition of try-before-you-buy, and one game at a friend’s house will tell you everything.
If the kitten theme is doing the selling, know that King of Tokyo buys you monsters, dice, and actual decisions for $20 more — and the same kid will play it for years instead of weeks.
Best Player Count
Four. The take-that cards need multiple targets to feel playful instead of personal, and four keeps the between-turn wait short for eliminated players. Five works but stretches the end-game; three is acceptable; two, as covered, is a coin flip and should be treated as an emergency mode only.
Replayability
Low, and structurally so. Exploding Kittens has exactly one deck, one rhythm, and one punchline, and none of them change between plays. The expansions (Imploding Kittens, Streaking Kittens) add cards but not decisions — the same critique at a higher total price.
The telling pattern, which we’ve watched in three different households: an intense two-week honeymoon, then the box never comes down again. Its own sequel, Throw Throw Burrito, at least added dodgeball — we reviewed that one too.
Play This Instead
If you want push-your-luck with real decisions: Sea Salt & Paper — same 15-minute footprint, same “one more card?” tension, but your choices genuinely decide games. The best small-box upgrade from this one.
If you want the take-that chaos with substance: Coup — knock friends out with bluffing instead of shuffle luck. Same price, ten times the game.
If the kids love the silly art: King of Tokyo — cartoon monsters, fistfuls of dice, and real push-your-luck choices from age 6 up. The natural next box for an Exploding Kittens household.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Exploding Kittens actually a good game?
It’s a great product and a thin game. The art and humor make it an easy first deck for kids and non-gamers, but the gameplay is mostly luck — who explodes is decided by the shuffle far more than by anyone’s choices, and the fun fades quickly on repeat plays.
Why is Exploding Kittens so popular?
Marketing and art, honestly — The Oatmeal’s illustrations, a record-breaking Kickstarter, and a one-minute teach made it the most accessible impulse buy in card games. Its popularity is a distribution achievement more than a design one.
Is Exploding Kittens good for adults?
As a one-time novelty at a casual hangout, sure. As a repeat game-night pick, no — adult groups exhaust its single joke within a play or two. Coup fills the same time slot with far more actual game.
Is Exploding Kittens good with 2 players?
No — head-to-head it reduces to trading Skips and Attacks until someone draws the Kitten, with almost no meaningful decisions. It’s at its best with four players; two-player households should look elsewhere entirely.
What age is Exploding Kittens for?
The box says 7+, and that’s about right — the reading is light and the humor lands hardest with the 7–12 crowd. It’s genuinely one of the better gift decks for that age, whatever we think of its depth.
What should I play if I liked Exploding Kittens?
Sea Salt & Paper for real push-your-luck decisions, Coup for sharper take-that chaos, and King of Tokyo if the silly-art-plus-elimination formula is what your table enjoys — all three keep their fun far past the honeymoon.
Verdict
Buy it only for kids in the 7–12 window, where the art earns its keep. Try before you buy for every adult table — one game will tell you if the joke is enough. Skip it as a game-night staple; the box’s genius is on the outside, and fifteen better minutes exist at the same price.
Exploding Kittens official site: https://www.explodingkittens.com/
Official rules (PDF): Download it here