Cats Playing Chess Jigsaw Puzzle From Exploding Kittens Review

Reviewed by Alice Dixon

My family and I have been big fans of the Exploding Kittens card game for a number of years now. It’s become a family favourite and we have gradually collected a few of its expansion packs too. If you aren’t familiar with the Exploding Kittens brand it’s a fun family friendly card game featuring cats that can explode taking you out of the game. The cards feature a lot of funny cat characters such as Tacocats (cats that are taco shaped) and Rainbow Ralphing Cat (yes a cat vomiting a rainbow!)

The Exploding Kittens creative team have now ventured into 500 and 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles featuring many of the well known favourite characters from the Exploding Kittens universe. There are currently nine different designs to choose from that have been illustrated by the Exploding Kittens and The Oatmeal creative team. I was sent the Cats Playing Chess 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle to try. As well as being a family of board game lovers we also enjoy completing jigsaw puzzles together on Sunday afternoons. So we started this one last weekend excitedly spotting some of our favourite cat characters on the box. Despite being a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle this is actually packaged in a fairly small box. Although I find that ideal for storing the box it did seem too small for the number of pieces actually making it quite difficult to look and sort through the pieces. My first impression of the pieces was that they are good quality and snap together easily. I was very pleased to discover that it is made with 100% recycled materials and printed with vegetable or soy based ink making it an environmentally conscious product.

It was a fairly difficult design to put together but we had a great time as a family trying. Once the jigsaw puzzle is complete there’s an added bit of fun that there are then thirteen Exploding Kittens characters hidden within the picture to find. We thought the design was really funny, very colourful and fun to complete. There is also a larger reference sheet of the finished picture included in the box. My children had the idea of putting this up as a poster after we finished.

The finished jigsaw saw puzzle measures around 48.9cm by 67.6cm. Retailing at £18.00 it is rather expensive especially compared to other jigsaw puzzle brands. However it would certainly delight fans of the Exploding Kittens card game. It would make for a lovely Easter gift for a family that would certainly give hours of fun and could be enjoyed over and over.

Rating: 4/5

RRP: £18.00

This product can be purchased from the Exploding Kittens website here.