Review Insights · App Store
Exploding Kittens® 2
Marmalade Game Studio · 3,501 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
3,501 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 15 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"play"
12 negative reviews mention this · 80% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. I pressed an attack and it made me press an exploding kitten, terrible not good. I’ll play it again, but like if you literally hate losing, don’t buy it please." - Teerrry bbbbbiiiilllllll
2
"game"
12 negative reviews mention this · 80% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The first game again. Charging for the same card packs again. Here’s my recommendation to the Devs. I really like the new animations the added to the cards. That and they’ve got rid of all the voicelines in the first game. Here’s the areas I’m a little disappointed in though. I bought the expansion packs in the first game so I was a l…" - Logamort
3
"people"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t play with 2 people present on one iPad. I wanted to play with my friend and she’s in person. Couldn’t do it that way, only if it was online…." - beachlover1425
4
"friend"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t play with 2 people present on one iPad. I wanted to play with my friend and she’s in person. Couldn’t do it that way, only if it was online…." - beachlover1425
5
"card"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The first game again. Charging for the same card packs again. Here’s my recommendation to the Devs. I really like the new animations the added to the cards. That and they’ve got rid of all the voicelines in the first game. Here’s the areas I’m a little disappointed in though. I bought the expansion packs in the first game so I was a l…" - Logamort
6
"packs"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The first game again. Charging for the same card packs again. Here’s my recommendation to the Devs. I really like the new animations the added to the cards. That and they’ve got rid of all the voicelines in the first game. Here’s the areas I’m a little disappointed in though. I bought the expansion packs in the first game so I was a l…" - Logamort
7
"refund"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Refund please. I paid $5 for this app and there’s no function to play with friends and strangers. It was in the first game! I would like a refund please." - Nonicknameplsssss
8
"multiplayer"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "SKIP this game…!. If you liked exploding kittens 1, SKIP the second version… cute graphics but SLOW & BORING gameplay, and requires signing up through another company to play any multiplayer games. BOO!!! Save your $$$ and just play the first version instead…" - slippy butter
9
"terrible"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. I pressed an attack and it made me press an exploding kitten, terrible not good. I’ll play it again, but like if you literally hate losing, don’t buy it please." - Teerrry bbbbbiiiilllllll
10
"exploding"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. I pressed an attack and it made me press an exploding kitten, terrible not good. I’ll play it again, but like if you literally hate losing, don’t buy it please." - Teerrry bbbbbiiiilllllll
11
"play friend"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
12
"expansion"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The first game again. Charging for the same card packs again. Here’s my recommendation to the Devs. I really like the new animations the added to the cards. That and they’ve got rid of all the voicelines in the first game. Here’s the areas I’m a little disappointed in though. I bought the expansion packs in the first game so I was a l…" - Logamort
📋 All 15 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Terrible
I pressed an attack and it made me press an exploding kitten, terrible not good. I’ll play it again, but like if you literally hate losing, don’t buy it please.
The first game again. Charging for the same card packs again. Here’s my recommendation to the Devs
I really like the new animations the added to the cards. That and they’ve got rid of all the voicelines in the first game.
Here’s the areas I’m a little disappointed in though.
I bought the expansion packs in the first game so I was a little disappointed that the cards didn’t carry over to the new game. Well actually it did it’s just locked behind a 10 dollar paywall which will hurt matchmaking with other players online to where if you bought those packs you won’t be able to play them online just like the first game. My recommendation is to let anyone join a game with the person that owns it rather it be quick play or the custom lobby menu that way players that bought it aren’t penalized for buying it and players that didn’t buy it can try it out and see if they would enjoy it before they purchase it.
The other one is character customization. What happened to the cat icons? There’s a progression bar but there is no customization for playing the game. Since all players bought the game this would’ve been a good opportunity to reward people who still play the game to unlock costumes, boards or card packs the more they play it to incentivize your card community to keep coming back to the app. This could be like every rank up that the game currently offers as a reward for continually playing the game while offering players an express purchase way to skip the whole ranking system.
Next, I recommend orienting the cards so it’s straight in front of the player. Let’s make it easier to read.
In the first game each card had their own sound effects. It’s minor but it gives additional charm to the game.
The last recommendation I have is to be able to just hold on top of your hand to see th card and its animation while you hover over it.
Otherwise, nice job! You’ve made the first game cool again.
I’ve given 5 recommendations. I will update my review for each recommendation that gets implemented.
Here’s the areas I’m a little disappointed in though.
I bought the expansion packs in the first game so I was a little disappointed that the cards didn’t carry over to the new game. Well actually it did it’s just locked behind a 10 dollar paywall which will hurt matchmaking with other players online to where if you bought those packs you won’t be able to play them online just like the first game. My recommendation is to let anyone join a game with the person that owns it rather it be quick play or the custom lobby menu that way players that bought it aren’t penalized for buying it and players that didn’t buy it can try it out and see if they would enjoy it before they purchase it.
The other one is character customization. What happened to the cat icons? There’s a progression bar but there is no customization for playing the game. Since all players bought the game this would’ve been a good opportunity to reward people who still play the game to unlock costumes, boards or card packs the more they play it to incentivize your card community to keep coming back to the app. This could be like every rank up that the game currently offers as a reward for continually playing the game while offering players an express purchase way to skip the whole ranking system.
Next, I recommend orienting the cards so it’s straight in front of the player. Let’s make it easier to read.
In the first game each card had their own sound effects. It’s minor but it gives additional charm to the game.
The last recommendation I have is to be able to just hold on top of your hand to see th card and its animation while you hover over it.
Otherwise, nice job! You’ve made the first game cool again.
I’ve given 5 recommendations. I will update my review for each recommendation that gets implemented.
We are paying for nothing
I paid to play the game and it’s been nothing but glitching and saying no game exist !!
Refund please
I paid $5 for this app and there’s no function to play with friends and strangers. It was in the first game! I would like a refund please.
Intrusive data collection required to play with a friend
No idea if the game is any good or not, although the first one was, so I assume this one would be fun to play were it possible to do so without signing up for an account where you have to hand over a bunch of data including your birthday.
The original game worked great and did not require slurping up any data, so it’s especially lame that it’s required here.
Deleted.
The original game worked great and did not require slurping up any data, so it’s especially lame that it’s required here.
Deleted.
No multiplayer w/o 3rd party account
The first game let you play with others without having to hand over any email addresses or personal information. It’s a card game that does not require chat for most instances.
The new animations look nice but the first game was so much simpler to navigate and still lets you play multiplayer without someone trying to harvest your data. This is some free to play garbage that has no business in a paid game with paid expansion packs. I will be requesting a refund through Apple
The new animations look nice but the first game was so much simpler to navigate and still lets you play multiplayer without someone trying to harvest your data. This is some free to play garbage that has no business in a paid game with paid expansion packs. I will be requesting a refund through Apple
Rigged Algorithms & Full of Bots
After spending money in the original app to buy so many packs, you now have a new app! Except this one is developed by people who don’t know how to write a randomizer algorithm or have deliberately rigged the card shuffles or gameplay. There are bots all over the place who ruined the game. And these developers ought to be ashamed of the product that they produced!
Absolutely disgusting add on prices
The game itself already costs 5 dollars, and you barely get anything out of it. You essentially get the regular exploding kittens game with matchmaking that has people who will never press the ready button in their life. Want to play anything else? Pay MORE. Ten dollars to actually use the expansion packs and play the other 90% of the game. It’s also really stupid that they have a ranking system for a luck based game. Just shame on this company for everything they have done to this terrible sequel.
I DEMAND A REFUND FOR THIS ABSOLUTE TRASH GAME!!!
Also you get very little customization and even just one skin can cost you 2
dollars. Just a cash grab. Do not purchase this as you get almost nothing for your 5 dollars.
I DEMAND A REFUND FOR THIS ABSOLUTE TRASH GAME!!!
Also you get very little customization and even just one skin can cost you 2
dollars. Just a cash grab. Do not purchase this as you get almost nothing for your 5 dollars.
Can’t play multiplayer mode without providing ss# or credit card
I got this game for my kiddo to play with a friend but can’t set up multiplayer mode without providing a credit card number or my social security number. When I try to request a refund or report a problem through the App Store neither of those buttons are working. I’m extremely disappointed and would like a refund since we can’t use the game as intended without providing information I’m not comfortable providing.
Terrible
The join errors are awful. Bugs galore. They have serious bugs to figure out before this game is even playable.
1 game = 10% battery
How is this better than the first?
Can’t play with 2 people present on one iPad
I wanted to play with my friend and she’s in person. Couldn’t do it that way, only if it was online….
can not play with others
joining error
SKIP this game…!
If you liked exploding kittens 1, SKIP the second version… cute graphics but SLOW & BORING gameplay, and requires signing up through another company to play any multiplayer games. BOO!!! Save your $$$ and just play the first version instead. I wish I had…
Game is awesome, Bubble is annoying
The game is very Well designed. You can tell the developers wanted to give us our money’s worth. Not a fan of the micro transactions though. Mostly the use of Bubble for multiplayer is horrible and almost made me want to return the game. This is Apple space, things should be simple and not about all the info collecting and wasted time to play a game. Again, great game, Bubble ruins it.
Removed one more star, because when I added my wife as a friend, whose code I had in completion, 50 million digits, it’s still made her. Enter my code to friend me. Pointless? I think so. Again we just want to enjoy the game sitting next to each other, or our children who are in college, why do we have to do this? Game is great though.
Removed one more star, because when I added my wife as a friend, whose code I had in completion, 50 million digits, it’s still made her. Enter my code to friend me. Pointless? I think so. Again we just want to enjoy the game sitting next to each other, or our children who are in college, why do we have to do this? Game is great though.
Sentiment summary
94%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)