Tabletop Tuesday - Imploding Kittens

Welcome to another edition of Tabletop Tuesday - Your weekly exploration into games of dice, cards, luck and more of the Tabletop world.

This week's game...the expansion to the ever popular game of combustible felines, Imploding Kittens.

(Note: Exploding Kittens is required to play this expansion.  Click here to learn more about the base game.)

Players: 2-6
Time: 15-20 minutes
Genre: Casual Card Game



The core of Imploding Kittens remains very much the same: Players take turns playing and/or drawing cards from the deck, trying to be the last player standing that doesn't explode, or now implode too.  This expansion adds the means for one additional player to join as well as a variety of interesting new cards and hilarious artwork to be enjoyed.  The star of the new cards is of course the Imploding Kitten itself.  The first time this is drawn, the player is safe and inserts it back into the deck face-up so that the impending doom can be seen coming.  If drawn a second time, the player will then implode.  As diffuse cards cannot stop an Imploding Kitten, players will have to do everything in the power no to draw this card the second time, such as by skipping, attacking, shuffling, or using some of the other new card types to be found.

These other new cards include Reverse, which is like a Skip but then also reverses the player rotation; Draw From the Bottom, which allows the player to end their turn by drawing from the bottom of the deck instead of the top; Alter The Future, allows players to rearrange the top three cards of the deck; Targeted Attack, allows players to attack a specific player even out of turn order; and Feral Car, a non-descriptive card that can be combined with any other non-descriptive card (kind of like a wild card).  Alter the Future cards are in my opinion the best new cards as they allow the players to gain the biggest benefits while imposing potential harm to the other players.  And with the new Draw From the Bottom card, don't forget that the bottom of the deck can now be prime territory for exploding traps.

Lastly, with the addition of the Reverse card, players can sometimes forget which direction they're playing in.  As such, the expansion also includes a cone of shame to be worn by the first player to forget what direction they're playing in.  This cone has arrows on it to remind players of this direction and the hilarious shame of that player forgetting.  If you are looking to add a little more depth and variety to your Exploding Kittens experience, Imploding Kittens does a splendid job at providing just enough tools for the job.  I recommend this game for those who enjoy a bit more strategy and still have a warped sense of humor.

If you have any questions about this Imploding Kittens expansion or the original game, let me know in the comments.  And stay tuned to hear about other games and expansions in future installments of Tabletop Tuesday!