Exploding Kittens
Potentially great but flawed version of the card game.
Exploding Kittens
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Exploding Kittens is an app based on the popular card game for iOS devices exclusively through the Netflix app. Players lay down successive cards in an attempt to avoid drawing one that features, well, an exploding kitten. The game plays all this for laughs, with silly sound effects and goofy animations. Despite the name, it's not an especially violent title and does not feature any sexual references or foul language; it's important to note that the goal of the game involves trying to get someone else to get the exploding kitten card, so younger players who aren't as ready for this kind of competition may have hard feelings when people deliberately take their cards. There are also in-app-purchase opportunities that will be very enticing, and there's no privacy policy at the time of writing, which will be even more critical when it adds online play.
Community Reviews
Great Game - Limited Settings
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What’s It About?
Players take turns playing and drawing cards from the EXPLODING KITTENS deck. If you draw the "exploding kitten" card and don't have a "defuse" card in your deck, you're out. There are also action cards such as Shuffle and Nope!, which negates whatever card the previous player used, and other comically named cards such as Tacocat, Abracrab Lincoln, and Catterwocky, which -- when used in pairs or threes -- let you steal cards from another player. Players must decide which cards to play, in which order to play them, and whom to target with their cards.
Is It Any Good?
Though there's a lot to like about this adaptation of the Kickstarter smash, it ultimately falls a bit short. The illustrations, taken from the Oatmeal online comic strip, are hilarious, and the cards themselves will likely make you laugh out loud. But there's a big roadblock in finding opponents: You can play with people in the room who have the game downloaded on their devices, but you might as well buy the actual card game in that case. Currently, there's no online multiplayer option, but it's almost certainly coming in a future update. When it does, parents will need to look it over carefully to see what sort of communication options there are for players, especially young ones.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about strategy and the need to think ahead to succeed. Where in the deck should a player place the exploding kitten card? Which action cards should they hold on to?
Talk about competition and how trying to beat other players is all in good fun. Make sure your kid is ready for the card stealing and sabotage, which feels a bit like playing Sorry!.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Release date: January 21, 2016
- Category: Card Games
- Topics: Cats, Dogs, and Mice
- Publisher: Exploding Kittens
- Version: 1.0.2
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 8.0 or later
- Last updated: July 27, 2016
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