Exploding Kittens Presents: Row Your Goat - a Rapid Fire Tic Tac Toe Event- 2-6 Players - Ages 7+ - Family Game - Party Game (Walmart Exclusive)

Excellent product, exclusive to Walmart

The rules are very simple, but play can be deceptively difficult. You have to remember to match both colors and patterns, while also trying to make sure that your opponents pick up the most cards. If playing with younger kids, I might modify the rules a little bit so that collecting the life preserver is based on who made the match rather than who is the fastest. This would be a fun party game.

This game is so much fun, played with my friends (all of us are around early 20s) and we had a blast playing the game! We even decided to keep the life-savers in another room after we played for a good while. We had to run to the other room as we saw the set, which made the game, where the person who didnt get the life-saver had to take a drink, and take the piles, that much more chaotic!! We also thought about turning this into a drinking game with the other room idea.

Row Your Goat is best played with a smaller group of older children(6+ years old). The fast-paced tension with finding 3-in-a-row is lost on younger ones. My school-agers liked yelling 'Row The Goat!' (A house-rule they came up with. ) The game plays -fast-, and is great for short bursts. Very little setup and cleanup. A great find!

Really fun game from top to bottom, with the sole drawback being the need for a round table to effectively play the game with more than two players. There's a distinct advantage to the player in the 'middle' of a non-round table that can't seemingly be worked around. But other than it's a terrific, easy to pick up, hard to put down, blast. Will play for years and years to come.

Who played? Three avid gamers in our 50s, 40s, and teensHow did we learn? We used the QR code to watch the How to Play video then reviewed the instructions.What did we think? The game was easy to learn in our mixed-age group, a good workout for our brains, and a lot of fun. The combination of visual processing, pattern recognition, and quick reflexes kept the game challenging.We liked that there were both color and object elements to look out for to increase the complexity.Things we noticed: We needed to make the placement of life preservers change through the game. It became reflexive to go after the same spot, so moving them around kept it challenging. It is a combination of a lot of old games, Tic Tac Toe, War, Uno, Spoons, with elements easily recognizable as Exploding Kittens style. Final thoughts? Row Your Goat was quick to play and made us want to play again immediately. Fabulous.

This game is so much fun and we laughed all throughout the game

Row Your Goat turned out to be a fun and lighthearted card game with plenty of laughs built in. The mechanics are simple enough to pick up quickly, but they leave room for some sneaky plays and memorable moments.That said, the two-player version starts to drag after a while. Without a natural endpoint, rounds can feel repetitive, and it sometimes becomes more about waiting than strategy. The real fun kicks in when you add more players. With three or more, the game opens up—suddenly there’s more chaos, more interaction, and the life preservers really change the flow of play. Those extra dynamics make the experience feel much more engaging and unpredictable.Overall, Row Your Goat is best enjoyed as a group game. It’s a bit flat with only two, but with more players, it shines.

Played with three friends for total of 4 players. Seems like the optimal group size for play. 6 players would seem too cramped and fewer players loses some excitement. Setup and instructions are very easy. Having both color and image sets adds just enough of a curve ball that keeps everyone on their toes. After a few rounds, the game got much faster and competitive. We played for about an hour then it became a bit repetitive. Modifications to rules. The flipping top card out gave the other players a slight advantage so we instituted a quick flip rule. Player needed to quickly flip and place the card for all to see. While some got overly aggressive on the flip and mess up the grid, we added a penalty if you break the grid. This rule also extended to messing up the grid when going for a life saver. Added excitement. We did add some drinking game elements to the game, but the game speed made it no fun so we ended that part.Overall, the game is a fun time killer. Perfect for a camping/travel game. It’s solid for about an hour then starts to get repetitive. Biggest issue is the size and spacing of the lifesavers. They are small and nearly impossible to evenly space that doesn’t give at least one player an advantage. We rotated the setup each round and the player with two lifesavers in easy reach rarely got out. Not sure the solution, but there is clear advantage to at least one player every round.

Easy to pick up and get into. We played it as a 2 player and it was fine, but feel like more than two would make it better and more balanced as the person putting the card down seemed to have an advantage since they knew where they would put the card. Card animations are great, but the cards bend a little easier than expected. Will play again in as larger group for sure