‘Kittens in a Blender’ review
By Ed Appleby, Illustrator
Kittens in a Blender is a hand management card game for two to four players, designed by Brian and Brent Knudson and originally published by Closet Nerd Games. The goal of the game is to try to save as many of your kittens as possible, while pureeing as many of your opponent’s cats in the process.
The satirical darkness of the subject matter combined with the adorable artwork of Mike Vaillancourt and Brent Knudson keeps the game from being too light or too dark. Every kitten has an adorable name that complements the art and adds to its cute/disturbing nature. I found the gameplay to have a similar feel to the classic card game Uno, but without the long play and power imbalances.
Finding a copy of Kittens is not easy. Originally published December 2011, sales of the game went very well until the original co-producer Sandstorm Productions folded in early 2012. The game stopped shipping after that and the rights were purchased by Redshift Games. Redshift ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to revive the game in 2012, and are also planning on expanding the game to six players with new cards designed and illustrated by the original artists.
I would recommend Kittens as an addition to any gaming group with a sense of humour. It doesn’t have the strength or depth to make it a main event, but its short length does make it a fun warm-up or intermission game.
