When comparing Secret Hitler vs Exploding Kittens, the Slant community recommends Secret Hitler for most people. In the question“What are the best party card games?” Secret Hitler is ranked 4th while Exploding Kittens is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Secret Hitler is:
To win Secret Hitler players have to be able to play logically and figure out, using logic and the information they have, how the other players are playing. At the same time, there's a good amount of lying and deception going on, and that social aspect of figuring out who's not being honest meshes well with the logic reasoning. There's also an element of randomness coming from the Laws cards that takes the difficulty of the game up a notch.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Good combination of logic and social deduction, with a pinch of randomness
To win Secret Hitler players have to be able to play logically and figure out, using logic and the information they have, how the other players are playing. At the same time, there's a good amount of lying and deception going on, and that social aspect of figuring out who's not being honest meshes well with the logic reasoning. There's also an element of randomness coming from the Laws cards that takes the difficulty of the game up a notch.
Pro Clever and interesting take on historical events
This is an historical themed game, and one that took a very smart and creative approach to the historical events it portrays: Hitler's rise to power. Even if, admittedly, the setting is simplistic when compared to true history, most will still learn something from the game or at least feel compelled to do some reading on the subject.
Pro Fun at parties
The game is very fast paced and chaotic, making it more fun for parties. The illustrations are very humorous and original, likely to be the source of much laughter.
Pro Simple rules
There are very few rules to the game, which makes it both easy to pick up and for new people to join.
Pro Completing a full game doesn't take much time
Due to the way the game is designed, a full round will require that you use (at most) the entire deck, which is not substantially large. This means you won't end up with situations like other games, where a round will end up taking over an hour to play. This makes it a good warm-up game.
Cons
Con The information distribution between the two teams could be more balanced
The way the game is built, while the Liberals have lots of information to figure out and deduce, the Fascists have access to almost all of it. It is true that, in the "hidden identity" family of games, the general setting is an informed minority VS an uninformed majority, but other games usually integrate something that's hidden from the informed minority, like a one-player team that wins alone or a vigilante that kills bad guys. Something like this is strangely missing from the game.
Con Limited replayability without buying expansions
Much of the fun in Exploding Kittens comes from the illustrations on the cards. If you play it regularly then this aspect might become dull due to frequent exposure. There are expansions, such as an NSFW (Not Safe For Work, aimed at an adult audience), that you can get to mix things up a bit.