Do you like to sit down and play a nice sedate and fun board game, tabletop game or even a card game or two with your family of an evening? We do, but we also like to play games with a bit of excitement, ones that bring out that competitive edge and if it is one that the entire family can play then it has to be a winner. And we think we have found it with a brilliant and simple game from Exploding Kittens – A Game of Cat & Mouth!
A Game of Cat & Mouth is a tabletop game that pits two players against each other (suitable for age 7 upwards) for fast-flinging frantic fun. There are no questions or answers involved, there is no board to move around and certainly no puzzles to solve – just grab your balls, your magnetic cats paw and try to beat your opponent by knocking out the cats teeth, punching out its nose or just getting all your balls on your opponents side. Sounds very strange, doesn’t it? But it also sounds intriguing. It is a fusion of air hockey, slingshot and pinball and is lots of fun.
Box contents:
- Folding Gameboard/box
- 2 Magnetic Cat Paw Flickers
- 17 Plastic Balls
- Cat Face
- Instructions
So what is A Game of Cat & Mouth? It is a magnet-powered game (no batteries will ever be needed) that is a bit like pinball except that you are flicking balls through the mouth of a cat head with the aim of knocking down 3 balls (teeth) and getting them onto your opponent’s side, trying to knock out the cat’s nose or trying to get all the yellow balls into your opponent’s side. It really is fast, frantic family fun.
The box is not just a storage box, it is also a carry case as it has a handle to make it easily portable but more importantly it is also the gameboard. It folds open to reveal the playing area and all the pieces. To play, the Cat Head is inserted upright into the middle of the board. 6 cardboard walls are then slotted into place around the board. 3 white balls (the cat’s teeth) are then placed on the holders in the mouth on the Cat Head and the black ball placed into the nose position. A magnetic Cat Paw flicker is then placed on the paw symbol on each side of the box. Once assembled you are ready to play – there is no turn taking, just speed of hand and a bit of strategic thinking are required. On the countdown of 3, place a yellow ball into the Paw Flicker and start flinging those balls through the mouth on the Cat Head – the paw pulls back and swivels to adjust trajectory and power. The first to five points is the winner and there is a handy scoring wheel (the cat’s eyes) that turns to mark and keep track of the scores. There are three ways to score points:
- You hit the Black Nose Ball onto the other player’s side of the board
- All 3 White Teeth Balls are on the other player’s side of the board at the same time
- All 8 Yellow Balls are on the other player’s side of the board at the same time
Overall, we have all absolutely LOVED this game. It really is fast ball-flinging fun that the whole family enjoys. And whilst it does not require any knowledge or athletic ability to play, you do have to engage some strategic thinking as well as speed of hand and mind to adjust the Paw Flicker to get the best angles to get a tiny ball through the mouth of the Cats Head. It is a simple concept, easy to play and VERY VERY COMPETITIVE! Do you try to knock out the cat’s teeth? Maybe you go for the more difficult shot of knocking out its nose? Or maybe you just try to fire all the yellow balls to one side? Whatever your strategy, just be aware of what the other player is doing because it could all change in an instant and you will be forced to respond, or you will be a paw loser!
A game where balls are being flung and flying through the air seems like a recipe for pieces to be lost. This is managed quite well with the cardboard walls extending the height of the box and for the most part the balls to seem to only have enough power to stay within the playing area. When a ball does happen to bounce out, the player shouts outs “PAWS” and then retrieves the ball before play can continue after a countdown of 3. There are some spare balls in the box and we haven’t needed to use any.
This is a two player game, and we are a family of four. It works very well when only two of us want to play but if we all want to play it becomes an issue – especially when deciding who plays against who? Fear not, this game comes with Tournament Mode – visit the website and put in all the names of the players and whether you want to use single or double elimination and it sorts it all out for you. The tournament mode selects who plays who and keeps track of the winners until there is only one overall winner remaining. We love this feature and think that is an excellent supporting addition to the game.
A Game of Cat & Mouth is perfect for family game nights and just as much fun for grown up game nights. It is simple to set up, easy to play and game play is generally fast depending on how competitive the players are. We love it and surprisingly we haven’t even lost a ball.
A fun and competitive game where age really means nothing to play – in fact the youngest player in our house wins a much bigger percentage of the games (maybe her hand/eye co-ordination are a lot faster than the adults). We think that is excellent fun for all the family and really love playing it.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £24.99
For more information, visit www.explodingkittens.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.
