Card game deals exploding kittens

So gamers, at least some of us, my little cabal in any case, can have something of a twisted sense of humour.

So this week’s game grabbed our attention when it launched on Kickstarter last year in a hurry.

“Exploding Kittens is a 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 lets you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck,” details the game box.

“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.”

Now if that sounds crazy, corny, and wild, that about sums it up.

But if you think our little group were amid only a handful to be caught up by the idea that was not the case at all.

The aforementioned Kickstarter campaign had as its original goal a modest $10,000 to get Exploding Kittens by designers Matthew Inman, Elan Lee and Shane Small off the ground.

They hit that target rather quickly and by campaign end had pledges totalling $8,782,571 (yes that is $8 million-plus and not a typo). There were about a quarter of a million supporters involved (the most backed Kickstarter project ever).

A basic deck of Exploding Kittens cards was only $20, a package deal that offered a second deck with darker humour in the artwork was $35.

The game was like some zombie plague among gamers, with one after another succumbing, and hitting the pledge bar.

Of course the risk was so slight, $20 for a gamer is about the same as two packs of the latest Magic: The Gathering expansion and a box of Pokémon at the gaming store, or one miniature gaming grunt and the same Pokey.

So what do you get with Exploding Kittens?

Well some crazy bonuses. The box meows when you open it. Of course with $8 million-plus the designers could add some pizzazz.

The game has 56 cards, of nice quality, although the red backing will chip on the edges, so sleeve for regular play.

The art of cartoony, but bizarre and dark, ‘bikini cat’ as an example.

The adult deck, well the humour is shall we say high school football locker room (not for all).

The basic deck though is silly fun.

You are playing cards and trying to avoid drawing the exploding cat. If you do and you can’t diffuse the dynamite laden feline with a card, you go boom and are out of the game.

The explosions continue until only one player remains, and they are the winner.

This is mindless filler fun, along the lines of Munchkin or FLUXX. That means it’s good for a few plays, shelve it for a few weeks, and play again.

If you like warped and slightly off-colour humour, this is a good one to fill the dead times on a gaming night.

Just avoid the BOOM!