Review Insights · App Store
Exploding Kittens®
Marmalade Game Studio · 11,543 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
11,543 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 45 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
"game"
25 negative reviews mention this · 56% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why disrespect Jesus in avatar selection ?. In the avatar selection menu there is an avatar named Jesus, which is clearly an attempted depiction of Jesus Christ. The avatar appears to have a lazy eye and a moronic facial expression. The blatant disrespect to Jesus, every Christian, a…" - JR 321
2
"play"
13 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why disrespect Jesus in avatar selection ?. In the avatar selection menu there is an avatar named Jesus, which is clearly an attempted depiction of Jesus Christ. The avatar appears to have a lazy eye and a moronic facial expression. The blatant disrespect to Jesus, every Christian, a…" - JR 321
3
"players"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Misleading. Says can be played by multiple players together in a room. NOwhere does it specify that each player has to purchase their own copy. I want a refund!" - Chops0000
4
"playing"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why disrespect Jesus in avatar selection ?. In the avatar selection menu there is an avatar named Jesus, which is clearly an attempted depiction of Jesus Christ. The avatar appears to have a lazy eye and a moronic facial expression. The blatant disrespect to Jesus, every Christian, a…" - JR 321
5
"version"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great game but with issues!. I was given this card game in December and my family had so much fun playing it that I bought it for my iPhone - love the game but OMG! There is no way to speed it up (especially playing the computer)and it can feel maddening waiting for ea…" - ???Mystery Guest???
6
"kittens"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Never play, the inferior version. There is a much much better sequel and there is no storyline so it will still all make sense, don’t download this, download exploding kittens 2." - Obsessed with frogs
7
"money"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why disrespect Jesus in avatar selection ?. In the avatar selection menu there is an avatar named Jesus, which is clearly an attempted depiction of Jesus Christ. The avatar appears to have a lazy eye and a moronic facial expression. The blatant disrespect to Jesus, every Christian, a…" - JR 321
8
"player"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Misleading. Says can be played by multiple players together in a room. NOwhere does it specify that each player has to purchase their own copy. I want a refund!" - Chops0000
9
"cards"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bugs vs. AI. It seems to me the AI (especially the hard AI) often cheats. If you play a slap card, for example, or a double slap card, the AI seems to ignore it and slap you back where you have to take multiple turns. I have beat the hard AI, but the wa…" - WRS15743
10
"card"
5 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "change diffuser position. I don’t know who developed this game but the bright idea to leave the diffuser always to the far left so that anytime anyone picks a card they know exactly where the pick is the dumbest thing they’ve done in this game eight times out of 10 …" - aj gav
11
"other"
5 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great game but with issues!. I was given this card game in December and my family had so much fun playing it that I bought it for my iPhone - love the game but OMG! There is no way to speed it up (especially playing the computer)and it can feel maddening waiting for ea…" - ???Mystery Guest???
12
"multiple"
5 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Misleading. Says can be played by multiple players together in a room. NOwhere does it specify that each player has to purchase their own copy. I want a refund!" - Chops0000
📋 All 45 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").
Why disrespect Jesus in avatar selection ?
In the avatar selection menu there is an avatar named Jesus, which is clearly an attempted depiction of Jesus Christ. The avatar appears to have a lazy eye and a moronic facial expression. The blatant disrespect to Jesus, every Christian, as well as anyone who has respect for Jesus and his teachings, regardless of religious beliefs is appalling ! I don’t understand how anyone who claims to be a Christian can see this and continue playing/supporting this game or its developers. If I would have known of this before hand, I wouldn’t have spent money and downloaded this game to begin with.
Misleading
Says can be played by multiple players together in a room. NOwhere does it specify that each player has to purchase their own copy. I want a refund!
Removed my purchases. Scam. Give me back my stuff!!
Recently got back into this game after like a while off it and my pterodactyl bear, knife squid, and one more I had I forgot are GONE. Give them back now scammers, or I’ll sue you or something, I’ll figure it out. You can’t just take my purchases away.
Cheaters
So many cheaters playing this game now. Used to be a really fun way to kill some time but lately has been a real buzz kill. Why have cheat codes at all? I hope the new version addresses this issue.
Bad servers
Why can’t I host this locally? I don’t want to wait 15 minutes to play a game with my friends.
We are full try again later
What is this? I can’t even get into any games. I would play this multiple times a day and now it’s just frustrating cuz the majority of the time it says it’s full. Horrible idea and feature!
Bugs!!! So many bugs
Please fix the bugs in breaking kittens pack!!! So many people can cheat and hack the system…
Please fix!!
Please fix!!
Dommage
Tu payes et tu te rends compte que tu dois encore payer pour chaque jeu de cartes.. faites un payment unique pour toute l’app please..
Single player is boring
Would be nice, if single player allowed gameplay against multiple bots at once.
Not Great
2 dollars, but it’s not that fun. I admit, as someone who has only played live irl with a deck and friends, it is hard to make something to that level. However, you have to pay for any expansions and it’s just not as fun.
Sound stopped working
I have no audio from this app anymore. Other apps work fine. Huge bummer.
Fun game ruined by bugs, cheaters, and racists.
I love exploding kittens the game but this version is over run by people that ruin it by either using racist names or cheating. The developer does nothing to correct the many bugs or improve the online experience.
Disappointed
I mommy girlfriend got this game for us to play together when we are apart but we are unable to connect when playing with friends. The codes don’t work and we get a “youre playing alone” message. I was super excited to play it but we can’t.
Crashes too often
Game crashes too often I want my money back.
Cheaters
Been playing for years. No more updates and now you got players using cheats that steal your turn and cards…
Badly designed multiplayer
Clearly designed by sadists. You get a code, you minimize the app to send the code to your friend, you go back to the app and it tells you it lost connection (because you minimized it) and you have to get another code. It’s absurd.
Every player needs to buy it
If you’re trying to play a local game/ private match, every player needs to buy the app. This version is butt. Get the Exploding kittens Netflix version that is free and everyone can join.
Wastes your money
Get the Netflix version, it’s free and has more access to different cards. This game, once bought ofc, shows you that you have to buy all the different packs to be able to use them👎
Game is bugged all the time
The single slap card always get bugged and prompt the player to play three times. Fix this please
Cheating Players
I have experienced cheating playing with other players. A player was able to draw multiple times out of turn without other players making them draw. On my turn the draw went to this player. There is no way to report this player. You dont know who these players are in the future because changing a name and character is so easily done. Please fix this!
Scam?
The app said it was $1.99 and I was charged $9.52 when after I bought it so idk what the issue is there
Latency issues, lack of variety, game cheats
The game kicks people out all the time on numerous devices. The cards get dull after awhile and buying more is a bandaid. The worst part of the computer player cheats, big time! On expert, you can blind him with Cat butt and have the exploding kitten next in line and he will immediately lay the shuffle down, several games in a row it did this, instead of drawing a card or placing a different one. I am a skilled player, but the computer on expert beats me almost every time by cheating as if he can see the cards in the deck and my cards. Until they fix this, it remains 1 star.
Cheaters - FIX IT
I play this game daily and have paid for all the additional material as a thank you for the urs of joy it brings. With the barking kittens update there is a glitch now that players are exploiting to steal cards. The integrity of the game is lost. It so gd annoying. I have asked for a patch to be made but it is not or has not happened. These opponents are ruining a great game and there is no way to punish or ban them
Offensive to Christians
I wanted to like this game, and I played a few matches against the AI, but didn’t really find it very exciting.
I was further put off by the goofy looking “Jesus” picture that you can select as your avatar. I’m not sure whether or not the developers realize (or care), but that is highly offensive to Christians. I fail to see how that adds anything to the game, or how offending your customers is a good business strategy. As for me, I will not be purchasing any more apps from this developer.
I was further put off by the goofy looking “Jesus” picture that you can select as your avatar. I’m not sure whether or not the developers realize (or care), but that is highly offensive to Christians. I fail to see how that adds anything to the game, or how offending your customers is a good business strategy. As for me, I will not be purchasing any more apps from this developer.
Buggy & broken
Buggy & broken. Hasn’t been updated with fixes (last update was 5 months ago)
Don’t Waste Your Money!
Horrible app, not worth the money!
Crashing Kittens
Could be a great game, but Crashing Kittens might be a more appropriate name to reflect the frequent host connection errors. Also, the community of players includes those who have chosen vulgar and offensive names, and breached the game’s rules to cheat and grant themselves unfair advantages. I initially enjoyed the game, but now it only annoys me.
This game has gone downhill
This game used to work, but lately, when I play an online game against other players, the game will disconnect me before the end of the game. This happens even though I’m playing over a good WiFi network. So I can’t even finish an online game. The app developers have cheapened out the game by using servers with smaller bandwidth. This app is the KMart of gaming apps.
not appropriate for kids
The app allows people to change their usernames at will, but doesn't prevent people from choosing names so offensive (scary offensive-I'm not talking about not-politically-correct) that I won't repeat them here. The user can block a name after seeing it, but the app isn't screening content before kids see it (or if it is, it's doing a terrible job). Currently, the game is not appropriate for 13-year olds, even mature ones. The board game is marketed to kids. It's irresponsible to make the app version unsafe for kids.
I think they DOUBLE CHARGED me
When I clicked to buy more decks, it won’t show up as me already buying the decks so I kept pressing the $1.99 buttons. I was charged nearly $25 🤷🏻♀️ what the f
change diffuser position
I don’t know who developed this game but the bright idea to leave the diffuser always to the far left so that anytime anyone picks a card they know exactly where the pick is the dumbest thing they’ve done in this game eight times out of 10 i’ll grab a diffuser
Great game but with issues!
I was given this card game in December and my family had so much fun playing it that I bought it for my iPhone - love the game but OMG! There is no way to speed it up (especially playing the computer)and it can feel maddening waiting for each turn and waiting for the final explosion to complete. The makers really need to add the ability to speed up the game. For a fast paced game they really dropped the ball on the mobile version. Most of my other card game apps have the option to speed up play- PLEASE add this feature. I have two friends that played the in-hand card game in December with us and both bought this virtual one- one friend deleted it because she found the delay of play better suited for 80 yr olds (her words) and the other says she rarely plays it on her phone. Really fun game but buy with the knowledge that it drags when the computer and or opponents have to play. The computers comments(I’m full of fear) was funny the first time but gets frustratingly old really quickly as again it delays the pace.
$5 to pay for a bunch of microtransactions
Unbelievable I paid 5 dollars just to get 1 deck and a bunch of options to spend more money. I will be asking for a refund.
Never play, the inferior version
There is a much much better sequel and there is no storyline so it will still all make sense, don’t download this, download exploding kittens 2.
WASTE OF FREAKING MONEY
this game is a waste of money bc i bought the party pack and theirs no one plying that mode
Used To Be Fun
It used to be that I’d be able to invite my girlfriend to play with me in Public Servers, but that’s no longer an option :/
We have to kind of queue up at the same time and hope we can play together in a public match :(
We have to kind of queue up at the same time and hope we can play together in a public match :(
Crashes CONSTANTLY
It crashes all the time. Fix the bug already.
Fun but Glitchy
While I really enjoy this game and believe $1.99 to be a great one-time price, I don’t get to play it nearly as often as I’d like due to the “Welcome Message” not going away despite me clicking the “X” in its corner. Waste of time.
Bugs vs. AI
It seems to me the AI (especially the hard AI) often cheats. If you play a slap card, for example, or a double slap card, the AI seems to ignore it and slap you back where you have to take multiple turns. I have beat the hard AI, but the way that bot plays especially makes it all luck and no fun. And the other two bots are too easy. So I deleted the game. Probably better with real cards in person.
Fun but crashes randomly
Perhaps it has something to do with Stage Manager...?
Free game rocks
Butt when you buy cards there are no multi players to play with. It is like I got penalized for helping out the developers. I like the new cards but are no good if no one will play with me.
Stick to free game till you get board of the cards I guess. That makes it worth two stars.
Stick to free game till you get board of the cards I guess. That makes it worth two stars.
Don’t buy additional decks
Would not recommend purchasing additional decks. You will have to wait for at least 15-20 minutes to get any players.
Barking kittens is a mess
Y’all need to fix the technical glitches in this game.
Local game not working now
Local game via bluetooth is not functioning on latest ios
Game used to be fun…disconnects now
Just finished 5th game in a row that ended with a disconnect. I certainly wouldn’t buy it right now. Is this a one time thing, I’m not sure but it certainly isn’t working right now.
Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)