Tabletop Gaming Spotlight - "Exploding Kittens: A Card Game About Kittens and Explosions and Sometimes Goats" (Exploding Kittens LLC)

We're kicking off a new semi-regular feature, covering the world of tabletop and board games as it's something we've wanted to include in the blog for a while.

Let's start with a tried and tested favourite, the superb "Exploding Kittens: A Card Game About Kittens and Explosions and Sometimes Goats" published by Exploding Kittens LLC. This is the base game (there are many expansions available) consisting of a deck of 48 cards, and suitable for 2-5 players.

Like all our favourite table-top card or board games, this is a game that's superbly quick to learn, full of sneaky ways to build your strategy and gameplay, and a quick pace once you get into the swing of things.

Each player gets a set of 7 cards to begin with, including a 'defuse' card - which is useful to avoid early exploding!

Hidden within the draw deck (the rest of the cards, thoroughly shuffled) you'll find an exploding kitten card (or several, basically you put in one less than the number of players, ensuring that someone survives and wins the game).

The aim is to continue either drawing cards, passing (if you have cards in your posession that allow you to pass without picking up a card) or building up your own play deck to ensure you won't be the one on the end of a messy moggy-based explosion.

It's the perfect game for those of you who have the perfect poker face. Surprisingly, kids seem absolutely brilliant at mastering the key mechanic of the game - picking up an exploding kitten card, defusing it, then slipping it back into the draw deck - or better still, bluffing by using any spare defuse cards to slide non-exploding cards into the deck, fooling other players into thinking they've had a narrow escape.

Clockwise from top left. Exploding Kitten Card, Defuse Card, Clairvoyance card and that flipping annoying TacoCat :)

Other satisfying strategies include robbing players of valued cards, or if a card is demanded of you, passing something naff off on the demanding player so they end up with yet another card to get rid of.

The winner is, of course, the last kitten standing!

We love this game. It does demand a sense of fun and a bit of a weird surreal imagination (yep, definitely qualify on both of those points) and it's not one that my wife wanted anything to do with (far too serious for all that silliness) but it's immense fun and pretty portable for taking away on holiday for when you get rained out and are stuck inside with nothing to do.

"Exploding Kittens" is available now, from Exploding Kittens LLC (self purchased, not supplied for review).

Game Stats

Game type: Card / Tabletop

No of items: 48

Players: 2-5

Learn time: 2-5 minutes

Age range: Box says "7 and up" but we're pretty sure even younger kids can master this one!

Expansions available? Yes

Price Range: Cheap and Cheerful but definitely shop around for sub £20 deals if you can.