Reflex-based tabletop games and kids are a combo that often seems like it’s only a few moments from disaster. Karate Cats and Kung Fu Dogs takes the classic snap formula and adds a few simple modifiers and a fun, animal theme.
When it comes to Snap, there’s actually a surprising amount of room to innovate. Karate Cats and Kung Fu Dogs takes the formula that Snap has done so well — namely, splitting a traditional French-suited deck between the players and then taking turns to place them, grabbing at the deck when a pair appears and ending the game by being the last remaining player with cards in your hand. In Karate Cats and Kung Fu Dogs you, however, want to be the person who gets rid of their cards first.
Karate Cats & Kung Fu Dogs follows the same players taking turns to lay cards situation, but it’s about having the vast majority of the cards match one suit. The difference is that rather than suits, there are instead four faces of animals — two cats, two dogs — each in a different colour. When the majority (in the case of a four player game, three) of the cards are the same creature then you race to karate chop the matching character. The player who gets it gets to pick who gets the discard pile, and if somebody mischops then they get the discard pile.
There’s some other stuff at play too; There are six sleeping cards, as well as three fish and three bone cards. If a fish or bone card appears then players race to chop either of the applicable animal cards – with the two then picking who they give their respective discard pile to. If a sleeping card is played then all other cards are null and void (including fish and bones) until the sleeping card is covered over. Anybody breaking those rules, similarly, gathers up the discards and adds them to their hand.
Is it an incredibly simple game? Yes. There are most definitely restaurant menus out there that are more complicated than the rules of Karate Cats and Kung Fu Dogs. However, the absence of complex rules, and the simple chop-to-confirm gameplay works great, and the deck is small enough that there’s quite often a sense of anticipation and tension as two of the same coloured cards appear in quick-succession.
Karate Cats and Kung Fu Dogs is incredibly easy to pick-up and play, and makes for a great warm-up game if you’re building up to a game with your children or niblings.
You can pick up a copy of Karate Cats and Kung Fu Dogs on Amazon.
FUN AND EASY GAME TO PLAY