Kittens In A Blender Review

Ever wondered what would happen if numerous colorful kitties were allowed to freely roam around a kitchen stocked with nothing but boxes and killer blenders? 

Yeah, I never did either. But apparently SOMEONE did...namely the designers over at Closet Nerd. Why else would they create the amazingly fun, quick and easy-to-learn card game of Kittens in a Blender for us to play? (Other than the fact that some of the proceeds goes towards helping out various No-Kill Cat Shelters.)

While Kittens in a Blender takes about 30 minutes for a full game, the rules are easy enough to learn in about 5 minutes. It's good for 2-4 players, though if you want to do a Team Game, you can fit up to 8 cat saving/blending players. The game requires only about a 2nd grade reading level, so young gamers can get in on the kitten craziness too!

So what exactly is this game about? All about saving YOUR kittens, while strategically...not caring...about your opponent's feline fates. You start the game by pulling out the rules and the 2 oversized cards; "The Blender" and "The Box". These each go into one of the sides of the box, and the blank table space in-between them is "The Counter".

There are four different colors of Kitten cards; Yellow, Green, Red and Blue. Each color has 16 different Kittens, and each player pick which color they want to save. These cards will all be randomly shuffled into the deck. Every kitten of your color that you manage to save is a positive Kitten Point, whereas all the kittens of your color that get blended count as negative Kitten Points.

Of course, players need to have a way to move their adorable kittens around...or move the kittens of other players. The "Dog In The Kitchen" makes every player pass their current hand to the right. The other 3 cards shown are "Kittens On The Move", which lets you move any kitten/kittens as many times as shown on the card.
So, if you use the "Kittens On The Move 3" card, you can move 1 of your kittens from the Blender to the Box (2 moves) and another of your kittens from the Blender to the Counter (1 move). Or, if you prefer being evil, you could move 3 opponents kittens from the Counter to the Blender (3 moves).

Want to move massive quantities of kittens? Use "Kittens In The Box", "Kittens In The Blender" or "Kittens On The Counter" to move all kittens from your chosen location to the one on the card. Want to be evil again? Play the "These Kittens In The Blender" card to move all kittens of one color from the safety of the Counter and Box to the Blender.

Now, you're probably wondering when you will actually be able to blend all these kittens...or, if you're a good person, save them. That's where these two cards come in! When an orange Blend card is played, every kitten currently in the Blender is blended and put under the Blend card. Likewise, all kittens on the Counter are moved into the now-empty Blender, and all kittens in the Box are saved by placing them under the Box card.
But what if you don't want all those kittens to meet a horribly-blended doom? Well, then hopefully you have the blue Blend/Pulse card! This can work the same as a normal Blend, or can be used to stop a Blend when played immediately. Both of these cards are kept face up in front of you after playing them. In case there is a tie in regards to the Kitten Points, the person with the most Blend or Blend/Pulse cards is the winner.

All in all, this is an excellent game for beginners, or those who only need a quick bit of entertainment. With a $10 price tag, a quick learning curve, and wonderfully bright cards...this game is destined to find a place in the hearts of gamers everywhere alongside Fluxx and Chrononauts.

As always, we stock this game here at Dragon's Den. Be sure to come in for a demo!

-Stasi "Dengirl" King