The game is a highly strategic and powerfully feline version of Russian roulette. Players draw cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten card: at that point, that someone explodes, is eliminated, and is out of the game. Unless that player has a Defuse card in their hand that can defuse the Exploding Kitten card, as would laser pointers, belly rubs, or catnip sandwiches. All remaining cards in the deck are used to move, mitigate, or avoid the Exploding Kitten cards.

Exploding Kittens made Kickstarter history in 2015 when more than 219,000 people contributed to fund its project.

Number of players: 2-5; 
Age: 7+; 
Duration: 15 min.; 
Language: Entirely in Italian;