Most people will agree; kittens are adorable except when they steal food from your plate.
| Kleptokittens! | |||||
| Designer(s) | Cassie Simpson | Artist(s) | Kaiami, SQUISHILICIOUS | Publisher |
Katzenspiel Solutions |
 |
2-6 |  |
6+ |  |
15-30m |
Kleptokittens is a card game that focuses on the darker side of kitten shenanigans. Sure, they look adorable sitting on the floor in your kitchen as you bring in a nice, hot steak right off the grill. You pet the sweet fur ball as you walk by to grab something you forgot outside, and you come back in less than 30 seconds later...your steak is gone...the sweet little kitty is also gone. WHAT HAPPENED?! You quickly walk into the living room to find the grilled steak you were excited about sitting on the floor being ripped apart by your traitorous best friend. This is a true story that happened to me about seven years ago...
In all seriousness though, Kleptokittens is an adorable memory game with push your luck elements. Players will have 30 seconds on their turn to quickly flip pairs of cards at a time trying to find matching "Treasures" while avoiding the dreaded Spray Bottle...that could have saved your steak... Or perhaps you find some really special treats in the form of Catnip. After 5 rounds, the player with the most points is the best Kleptokitten!
Box and Components
I only had access to this game digitally on Tabletop Simulator so I won't be discussing the components; artwork and layout may not be final. Based on the information provided by the designer, the cards will be using a 280gsm blackcore with a linen finish; this means, the cards should feel very good.
Per the Kickstarter page, the game will include the following components:
- Six Playmats - The playmats primarily provide a space for players to player their Treasure Tokens.
- 80 Cards - These will be placed facedown at the start of the game and will be the primary component the players interact with during the game. The cards include 30 pairs of treasure, 10 spray bottles, and 10 catnip cards.
- 8 Card Mini Expansion (not shown in this graphic)
- 20 Double-sided Treasure Tokens - These tokens will be collected as points are earned by successfully matching pairs of treasure and ending their turn without flipping over a spray bottle.
- 30-Second Timer
While I can't discuss the quality of the components, I can comment on how adorable the artwork is. Each unique type of card has cute artwork representing the treasures the players are trying to collect and the cards they are trying to avoid. The artwork is simple but very suitable for this type of game.
Mechanics
The basic goal is very straight forward; find more treasures than your opponents after 5 rounds and win!
Setup
- Shuffle the 80 cards and place them all face down on the table in rows/columns that best fit your space and is within reach of all players.
- Provide each player a playmat.
- Place the Timer and Treasure Tokens within easy reach of players.
The player who last petted a cat will be the first player.
Player Turn
When the player is ready, the 30-second timer is flipped. That player will quickly flip over pairs of cards and perform the following actions based on the revealed cards:
- Matching Treasure: Keep the two cards face up and continue their turn repeating the same process.
- Mismatching Treasure: Flip both cards back over and continue their turn repeating the same process.
- Either Card is Catnip: The Catnip stays revealed until the end of your turn; the second non-Catnip or non-Spray Bottle card is flipped back over, and the turn continues.
- If you avoid revealing a Spray Bottle by the end of the turn, you will take the Catnip Card and place it on your playmat. This will be used during the final scoring.
- Either card is a Spray Bottle: Your turn immediately ends allowing you only to keep the last matching treasure you obtained this turn; meaning, you would earn 1 point if you had revealed at least one matching pair this turn.
In between flipping pairs of cards, the active player can choose to stop the clock and keep any revealed treasures and Catnip from that round.
After the player's turn is over (the timer is stopped by the player willingly or if the time runs out without revealing a Spray Bottle), you will collect a number of treasure tokens for each pair of matching treasures collected as well as the taking any revealed Catnip cards revealed during your turn. If you revealed a Spray Bottle and had at least one match revealed this turn, collect a single treasure token.
Before play passes to the next player, flip all of the cards in the middle of the table back to their face down position and shuffle them around. The next player clockwise begins their turn.
End Game 
After all players have had five turns (5 completed round), players will add up their tokens and multiply their total by their collect Catnip Cards. The rules on Tabletop Simulator weren't clear on how to handle multiple Catnip cards, but I would assume you would add the multipliers together (x3 + x3 = x6, 2x + 3x = 5x) and then multiply by your Treasure Token total. The player with the most points is the winner!
Final Thoughts
Kleptokittens! is an adorable card that should be easily accessible by most people and especially children. There is no language dependencies on the game components outside of the rules; this should be an easy game to be played in any region of the world regardless of their language if some translated rules are created by either the designer or fans. The rules are very simple and should be easy to quickly learn as well. The multiplication is the only part that may be trouble for young children during final scoring.
I can see the game feeling fiddly in between rounds simply because you have to shuffle the cards up, but it shouldn't be too bad especially if you don't care to keep everything nice and neat like in the digital version of the game. As for the rules, I was using the rules in Tabletop Simulator so there were some questions I had, but I fully expect with how easy the game is, the rules should be a card or two and should be easy to finalize.
Overall, I think there is definitely a market for this game. It isn't aiming to make a game changer in the memory or push your luck genres, but rather, it is a creating a fun game that can be easily taught to any member of the family for some quick fun. The game is on its last week on Kickstarter so be sure to check it out if you would like to support the project and pick up a copy of the game. 
Links/Media
Kleptokittens! Board Game Geek Page
Kleptokittens! Kickstarter Page
Disclosure
Since I only had access to the digital version of the game, most of the pictures within this article were taken from the game's Kickstarter page and Board Game Geek page.