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Hey, have you heard the exciting news? The classic Milton Bradley card game “Uno” has just celebrated its 35th anniversary? (35 years, God I feel old!)
Come on, you guys you remember “Uno”, don't you? Of course you do!
There are some card games in life that are timeless like Go Fish, and Old Maid and Uno. These games are ones that many of you will remember playing as a child, when the only thing on your schedule was the hopscotch game down the street or your 2 o’clock tea party with your stuffed animals.
Well now thanks to the developers at Carbonated Games we can all play “Uno” again on the Xbox Live Arcade, with other people online which will definitely rekindle some nostalgic childhood memories for a lot of you . A card game on Xbox 360! Yeah right! Oh sure, some of you are laughing now but it’s actually quite fun!
Draw four, sucker!
But first, let me refresh your memory on how to play since it’s probably been awhile right!? You are given 7 cards and you compete with up to 10 other players to match colors and symbols. Basically, as the name indicates, the object is to get rid of the number of cards in your stack until you get to down to 1. As with any good card game there are a few specialty cards in “UNO” to help shake things up a bit. There are wild cards, which allow the player to change the color to whatever they need it to be, then there are draw 2, reverse, skip and the blasted Wild Draw Four card which makes the next poor bastard draw 4 more cards from the deck.
But that’s what makes “UNO’ such an interesting game to play; the way things can suddenly turn for and against you. One minute you could be joyfully shouting out the word "UNO", and in the next minute your opponent is forcing you to pick up 6 more cards.
Come on, throw down a yellow already!
Have you ever been itching to play a game of “Uno” and couldn’t find anyone to play with? Well with Xbox Live that problem is gone. Online there are always living, breathing people looking for a game of “Uno” as well. Unfortunately the only way you can only play this game multiplayer is over the XBLA and not against real family and friends in your living rooms (or wherever your Xbox is in your house.) Since it’s sorta impossible to have people play on the same Xbox and not have the each others cards showing.
Adding to the gameplay is the addition of the Xbox Live Vision Camera element. That’s right you can now see your competition- the good, the bad and the ugly. Ah, the beauty of online gaming.
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Controls: The pick up/put down action of Uno is easy enough, so it is no surprise that the controls are super easy as well. The A button is your select/action button and is the one that you will be using most often. Just remember, when you’re down to your second to last card, you have to press the X button to shout out “Uno”. If you don’t, another player can press Y and challenge your Uno, making you pick up 2 extra cards. The B button’s only used to pass a turn or to challenge the Draw 4.
Gameplay: I’m going to keep this short and sweet because there’s really not much more to explain, it’s Uno! (See Above)
The Pros: Playing with other human players is where the game really shines and it’s Uno, so it’s a proven formula for a game already-fun, addictive and familiar.
The Cons: It’s Uno, a card game we’ve all played before that’s fun, addictive and familiar but that kinda takes away from the “Whoopee, I’ve got a new game” feeling.
One minor annoyance that I have within the gameplay is whenever it’s your turn to play a card you’re given a “suggestion” from the computer as to which card to throw down. Umm, I don’t need any help thank you very much, but guess what? There is no option to turn this help off. You can always choose a different card than what’s suggested of course but it is still annoying nonetheless.
Graphics: Not really important in a card game, the graphics mainly consists of just 4 different colored cards on a blue table in each round. They look good, for cards, but that's what they are. Don't expect to be wowed or anything.
Look, it's not about the visuals, all right! Why do you think all of my screenshots are practically identical to one another?
Sound: The music is kind of jazzy and mellow, which is fine, but it can get old really fast.
But then again I can’t think of any other music that would fit this kind of game.
• 3 game modes: Standard UNO, Partner UNO, or House Rules UNO.
• House Rules UNO: Customize 10 different game rules.
• Single player: Go up against 3 computer players.
• Multiplayer: Go online with Xbox Live against 3 other players.
• Bluff: Bluff on a Wild Draw Four twice in the same game.
• Quick Change Artist: Change the color of the discard pile five or more times in a single round.
• Wild Abandon: Go out with a Wild or Wild Draw Four card.
• Ace: Go out without ever drawing a card.
• Wild Thing: Successfully play 40 Wild or Wild Draw Four cards.
• Skip to My Lou: Play 40 Skip cards.
• Twister: Play 40 Reverse cards.
• High Noon: Play 40 Draw Two cards.
Wow, you can do a lot of neat stuff in this game. That’s amazing, it really gives a 35 year old game new life.
But never mind all that, the real reason why you should at least download the demo version of “Uno” is the fact that it's so much fun to play. It's hard to describe exactly why; you'll just have to give it a go and see for yourself. As a matter fact, just forget about the demo version all together and just go for the full game, and be sure to download the 35th anniversary deck for free from the Marketplace while you're at it.
Although this doesn’t compare to the fun of a real life game of “Uno”, it comes pretty darn close in giving you the same amount of good clean fun as the classic. Sure, it seems odd to have a $400 system and a fancy flat screen TV just to play “Uno”, but so what!
Amazingly enough at 400 points ($5) it costs about the same as a real deck of “Uno” cards. (Except on Xbox you don’t have to shuffle or deal out the cards!)
Find Out More About Uno Here
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Posted by oxyjen on May 11, 2007
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