Introduction
Back in January 2015, the Exploding Kittens card game went up on Kickstarter and raised over US$8.7M, making it the most-funded game on Kickstater ever. Exploding Kittens is now avaliable as a multiplayer card game on iOS and Android that you can purchase for S$2.98 and S$2.75 respectively. With silly animations and witty game mechanics, Exploding Kittens is suitable for all ages.
Game Mechanics
Every match has a 5 player limit, with [number of players remaining - 1] number of Exploding Kittens in the deck. Each player starts off with 5 cards, 4 random and 1 diffuse. Players take turns to draw a card and/or play cards from their hands. Everytime a player draw an Exploding Kitten, they have to play a Diffuse or be eliminated. Once a player diffuses an Exploding Kitten, he/she gets to choose the position in the deck to return the Exploding Kitten to. The goal of the game is to be the last player standing.
The game gets more challenging as there are fewer players standing. Once the deck runs out of cards, you are forced to play the cards in your hand. The exploding meter on the left indicates the likelyhood of you drawing an exploding kitten, based on the number of cards and Exploding Kittens left in the deck.
Strategy
Early game: (>1 opponent remaining)
To stand a chance at being the winner, you will have to draw as many cards as you can while minimizing the loss of cards during early game. Do not waste your cards trying to eliminate your opponents. Leave the dirty job to other people; save your cards for the last player. If an opponent slap/double slap you, do not slap back and take the opportunity to draw more cards instead. If the exploding meter gets to an uncomfortable level, use cards like Shuffle and See The Future before drawing. Also, if an opponent diffuses an Exploding Kitten right before your turn, play a Shuffle.
Late game: (1 opponent remaining)
The quantity of cards in each player's hand would decide who would win. If you have twice the number of cards as your opponent, the likelyhood of you winning is very high and vice versa. If both players have similar number of cards, it all comes down to the quality of cards. Diffuse and Slap/Double Slap are the most valuable cards so make sure you stock up a bunch of them during early game. Shuffle, See The Future and Draw From The Bottom are completely worthless when only one card is left in the deck so use them early.
In-App Purchases
There are two types of in-app purchases in the app: avatar packs and expansion packs. Avatar packs are purely for aesthetics and do not effect the game play. Each avatar pack consist of 5-8 avatars with additional sound effects. On the other hand, expansion packs adds new cards to the deck, some are upgraded versions of regular cards while others have silly new abilities like slinging kitty diarrhea to an opponent's card, making it unplayable until they draw. You can only play expansion packs with players that already purchased the same packs and there are often too few of these players online. DO NOT PURCHASE EXPANSION PACKS.
Conclusion
Exploding Kittens is a really enjoyable game that takes only a couple of minute to learn. The lack of in-game currencies and rewards means that it does not matter if you win or lose, you will still have fun. For under $3, the game is worth buying, although I wish it was free (with ads) so that more people would play it. However, do not buy expansion packs as not many players bought them and you will not get to play them very often. I wish there was a single player mode so that you can play offline, as well as achievements that we can unlock while playing. Overall, Exploding Kittens exceeded my expectations and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to burn some time.