Game Review: Bears vs Babies

I know this isn't directly related to any sort of book, but I wanted to share my love of this game with everyone.

First off, Exploding Kittens is an amazing game that I got over a year ago and have played about a billion times with friends and family alike. It's quick, doesn't get boring, and can be picked up by anyone within a turn or two. When I saw that they were creating a new game I immediately went and backed it on Kickstarter. Bears vs Babies fulfilled and surpassed my expectations, to say the least.

It's more complicated than Exploding Kittens, and the video they made only helps understand it slightly better than the written directions. It took three of us playing, and constantly rechecking the rules, to really understand how to do this at all. And even once we started it was easy to lose track of all the options we had when playing. Still, forgetting a rule here and there didn't negatively impact the game at all, as there are enough options when playing for it not to matter too deeply.

The cards are hilarious. I played with the regular and the NSFW decks combined and had a blast! Mixing and matching our monsters to defeat the colorful and chuckle-inducing babies (that half a baby card is absolutely the best) made everything ten times better than it already was. The variety of bear parts also means the game relies not just on luck but on skill and forethought, something Exploding Kittens doesn't need as much of.

Overall, this is a great game. Even more than that, it's a great ice breaker (which is low-key what I used it for). I strongly recommend it if you're looking for something new and unconventional.