Exploding Kittens

Payton Primm, News Editor

As I glance around the kitchen table, I observe the serious and contemplative expressions painted across my friends’ faces. Everyone is focused in on the action, and the cards in each player’s hand will determine their fate in this game. Voices progressively rise to extreme volumes, players sneak looks at their opponents’ cards, and a bowl of chicken noodle soup flies across the table. This is an average round of my favorite card game of all time, Exploding Kittens.

The goal of Exploding Kittens is simple: do not explode, and be the last player to avoid exploding. Each player receives five cards, and these cards can be action cards or defuse cards. Defuse cards block an exploding kitten, so when a player draws an exploding kitten card, they can use their defuse card to stay in the game. If the player uses their defuse card and draws another exploding kitten later on in the game, they no longer have a defuse card to block the explosion, and they are out of the game. Action cards are primarily used to delay the game and sabotage your opponents. These cards include shuffle the deck, see the future, skip your turn, and attack another player. Action cards can be used during a player’s turn to prevent them from exploding, and hopefully cause the next player to explode instead.

The key to success in this game is maintaining an equal balance of skill, luck, and poker face. Exploding Kittens starts off calmly, but quickly intensifies as the number of opponents shrinks and the uncertainty increases. This game reveals the true colors of a person, and it could even be played by potential college roommates as a bonding exercise, as well as a test to see how these roomies would react under extreme pressure. Although this game is abounding with variables and manipulation, one fact remains true about Exploding Kittens: you cannot play just one round of it.