EXPLODING KITTENS My Parents Might Be Martians Review

DISCLOSURE – THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER’S OWN.
Reviewed by Mel S-W
We are big fans of the Exploding Kittens franchise. We bought the original Exploding Kittens game soon after the company was formed having heard about them on the internet and through friends. Setting up a Kickstarter, the company aimed to raise $10K to get them off the ground. The Kickstarter raised $8.7M in 30 days and went onto become the #1 most-backed project in Kickstarter history and has sold over 11 million games. It’s no wonder there was a lot of noise about them! Already having the original Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito in our game collection, we had high hopes for a game that we could play with our 5 year old.
This game is hilarious. Not only do the Martians … I mean the adults need to relearn how they talk in order to play the game. I really liked the concept. We found that we had such a good laugh with the kids. They were so excited as well that they were playing a “proper game” that didn’t seem like it was a kids game. I like the concept of the game as described in the instructions .. “Instead of playing against the Kids, letting them win, and wondering when You can finally go do something else, you’re going to play the Kids AS THE GAME.” And yes … It’s so funny! As Martians (adults) you are actually playing against the other Martians and boy did it get competitive! But how much you had to think about what you say!
It is really important that the adults read the instructions beforehand. Having excited kids bouncing around whilst you’re trying to read the instructions isn’t ideal. I thought it was great that there is a set of instructions for the adults (to go away and read before) and a set of instructions to read to the kids that set the scene perfectly. I like the way the game helped the kids to develop their team building skills and getting them to work together. The game comes with a cardboard megaphone that’s meant to be given to the youngest player on the team. We slightly changed this rule when we played it. In our case, we gave it to the quietest kid playing as we felt it was fairer giving them the tools to make them shout louder.
It took us Martians a while to get our heads around what we needed to do. When you’re the clue giver, you take a card and decide as a team what colour you are going to use, green or purple. You start the sand timer and then have to describe the item on your card using just 1 syllable. It’s amazing how quickly all the 1 syllable words just fall out of your head. Could I think of any … no! Just completely gone but oh how funny and Martian like we sounded, the kids were rolling around on the floor with laughter and it got very loud. It was great watching them collaborating and working it out between them. Listening skills were also coming into play as the kids needed to listen to what was going on. A top tip is to try and formulate sentences of 1 syllable words. So funny!
The website is also very useful, you can find all the instructions you need if you have mislaid yours and know what you’re supposed to be doing. I also liked the fact that there are variations on how to play the game, so if you’re only playing with 1 adult or if the kids want to try to be the Martians, then there are rules for you.
The kids struggled with it initially, but we haven’t played any games like this with them before, we didn’t read the instructions before so it was partly our fault. We did modify some of the rules on our first time playing but once we got the hang of being Martians we nailed it. I can imagine this game being an absolute hoot on Christmas day. It’s crazy, makes you think about what and how you are saying and Is a great opportunity to play a game with the kids and spend that quality time together.
Rating: 4/5
This product can be purchased directly from Exploding Kittens on the following link https://www.explodingkittens.com/products/my-parents-might-be-martians
RRP: £14.99