Christmas is right around the corner.  That means getting together with lots of friends and family for the holidays.  What better way to celebrate being together than by breaking out some games to play and destroying your opposition?  Here’s some of the hottest games out right now to bring some heated fun and competition to your next gathering.  Remember, it’s just a game (that you have to win)!

 

Exploding Kittens: A Card Game

Exploding Kittens was designed by Elan Lee, Shane Small, and Matthew Inman known as the Oatmeal and famous for drawing comics. The illustrations were done by Matthew Inman.

The game was self-published in 2015. The designers were seeking to raise $10,000 in crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Their goal was exceeded in eight minutes. Seven days after opening, Exploding Kittens broke the Kickstarter record for most backers in the history of the site with 106,000 backers under its belt. It ended as the fourth most funded Kickstarter campaign.

The authors of the game promoted Exploding Kittens as “a highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette”. Your goal in the game is to prevent the kittens from detonating themselves.

Exploding Kittens is like Uno with detonators. In Uno, players race to get rid of their cards, and if they cannot do that, they draw cards from the pile. Uno is an abstract card game, it does not follow a specific theme.

The number of players is two to five. Players take turns to draw cards from the deck. If you draw an exploding kitten, you explode and are out of the game. There are various ways to save yourself from drawing an exploding kitten.

Exploding Kittens exists in two variants: the base deck you can play with kids and the NSFW deck

Rules

There is an Exploding Kitten Card for every player minus one. The one who will not draw an exploding kitten and will remain the last standing player in the game will be the winner.

At the beginning of the game you are dealt five cards with one defuse card. The remaining cards are shuffled into the draw pile.  You begin your turn by placing a card from your hand on top of the discard deck. You can play as many cards as you like, and you end your turn by drawing a card from the draw deck (praying it is not an exploding kitten).

Cards:

Exploding Kitten – 4 cards

If you draw this, you are dead immediately unless you have a defuse card.

Defuse – 6 cards

This is the only card that saves you from detonating. If you use it, you secretly shuffle your exploding kitten back into the deck.

Nope – 5 cards

A Nope card cancels any action apart from Exploding Kitten and Defuse. You can use it any time, even if it is not your turn. A nope can also be cancelled by another nope.

Attack – 4 cards

You use this card if you do not want to draw this turn. If you play it, the next player will have to take two turns and draw two cards.

Skip – 4 cards

This card ends your turn immediately, and you do not have to draw a card. (But if you were attacked, this card ends only one of your turns.)

Favor – 4 cards

You choose any player to give you one card of theirs. It is their choice which card to give to you.

Shuffle – 4 cards

This allows you to shuffle the draw deck. You may need this if you know there is a kitten at the top of the pile.

See the Future – cards

You can peek at top 3 cards in the draw deck.

Cat Cards – 5 of each type

These cards can be collected as two and three of a kind and used to steal from other players.

Stealing

If you have two cards of the same type, you can use them to steal a card from anyone you want blindly – they will hold up their hand to you, and you will choose any card without seeing it.

If you have three cards of the same type, you can name the card you want. But if your chosen player does not have it, then you will not get anything.

If you have five different cards, they allow you to go through the discard deck and choose any card from it.

 

 

Joking Hazard

Starting as a comic in 2004, Cyanide & Happiness was created by Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin, and Dave McElfatrick. The daily strip has been running since 2005 and has become memetic with its darkly comedic, cynical, and occasionally surreal comics. Back in 2015, before everything was terrible forever, they threw their hats into the increasingly crowded adult party game market with a wildly successful Kickstarter. Now in 2017,  their game has joined Exploding Kittens on the shelves at Target.

Presentation wise, the game takes cues from the minimalist approach of Cards Against Humanity. It comes in a pretty unremarkable white box, featuring the default characters of Cyanide & Happiness.  Inside you get a ton of cards and the rules page

Much like the comic it’s based on, everything about the presentation is simple and to the point: The instructions are only one page and can be understood in under two minutes. The art is simple and amusing and the designers clearly took teaching the drunk among us a new game into consideration.

Whoever is “king” takes a card from the deck in the center, and then plays a card from his hand, creating a set-up for a three comic joke. The other players attempt to complete the joke in the funniest way, and hopefully score a point. It’s simple, it’s funny, and unlike Cards Against Humanity there’s a nice visual element here.

While undoubtedly simple, the game has a level of charm and depth that doesn’t appear in other party games, like Cards Against Humanity or Exploding Kittens. A good sense of humor is actually required in this game; You can’t just make a dead baby joke and call it a win. While Cards Against Humanity features a really simple “here’s the joke, give me a punchline” approach (that they, admittedly, get some amazing mileage out of) this game does require a certain level of wit to make the last joke land.  Though, admittedly, some are just morbid, but that’s probably the point.

Joking Hazard is a fun, creative, and delightful entry into the crowded world of party games.  With its delightful energy and sometimes strange visuals, it’ll stand out among the crowd.

Watch Ya’ Mouth Family Edition

Watch Ya’ Mouth is a simple, hilarious, card-based party game for up to 8 players (4 teams of 2 players). Players take turns trying to understand what their team mate – who is hampered by a cheek retractor – is saying.  The team with the highest number of accurate interpretations at the end of four rounds wins.

Also called a “Mouthguard,” Cheek Retractors are simple plastic devices that folks use to help hold their lips open.  They easily fit in the very front of your mouth (they don’t trigger gag reflexes), holding your lips open.  The result is the inability to pronounce any sound that requires your lips touching – “B”, “P”, “V”, “M”, and so on.

They’ll come in a few sizes and will be color coded so you know which is yours.  They’re dishwasher safe too so they can be easily cleaned for the next time.

The Details:
Here’s a more thorough rundown of how it works:
Each team has a “reader” and an “Interpreter”
The Reader fits the included Cheek Retractor/Mouth Guard to his or her mouth, draws a card from the stack, and tries to read the phrase to their team mate (the interpreter).
The goal is for an “Interpreter” to understand what the “Reader” is trying to say.
Your team has 2 minutes to interpreter as many phrases as possible!
1 Round is completed when each team has gone once.  For the next round, the team’s rolls reverse (The reader becomes the interpreter and the interpreter becomes the reader).
The reader has to keep trying until the interpreter gets your phrase right. In other words, you can’t “pass” on a phrase.  That’s where it starts getting really funny.
Some phrases are extra hard – these are worth 2 points, and are the only cards you may pass on.
The team with the highest score after 4 rounds, wins!

Stack of cards – 1 set

Sample of backs of cards (Family version)
The timer:
Straightforward 2-minute sand timer

The Retractors:
At least 10 safe, multicolored cheek retractors in at least 2 sizes

What comes with the game:
143 cards (~3 decks) of tested, hilarious phrases with varying difficulty (NSFW version gets an additional 143 cards for a total of 286)
10 cheek retractors – 5 small and 5 large of varying colors (so you don’t get them mixed up).  These are dental-quality, dishwasher safe appliances that fit both small and big mouths (you know you you are!).

The game is available in two versions:
1.  A “Family Friendly” version.  Think of phrases like “Warm Beef Meatballs”, “Pampers Diapers Full of Poop”, and “There’s a Wasp in my Pepsi!” .  Perfect for anyone 6 to 160 years old looking for good, clean fun.
2.  A “NSFW”, or “Not safe for work” version – ie, it gets bit risque with topics and language.  We don’t hold back and anything is fair game. …It’s probably twice as funny as a result.
Two Gameplay Approaches:
1.  “Open Season” – meaning you can try to drop hints, make motions, wave your arms like mad, do an interpretive dance, or whatever else your group feels is fair to get your point across.
2.  “Legit” – No hints, no actions – strictly saying the phrase and figuring it out.  It’s tough!

Ready to laugh your ass off?