Uno 52

My wife and I enjoy playing UNO on our DSs, we got a couple of the Skip-Bo/UNO games late last year and our entire house was thrown into the frenzy of smack talking and bragging as the UNO tournament made its way through the family. So when my wife saw that there was another UNO style game available to review, she darn near put me in a headlock to get it. Good thing too, when she has her mind set on something as important as an UNO game, then you can be sure that I make it happen.

So what's different this time around? Well, the developers decided to add a pretty cool little side game to the standard UNO game, that being a form of poker. Now in UNO, the idea is to discard all the cards in your hand into the community pot. Only you can play off of the last card placed there. So you need to play either a card of the same suit, or the same number, if you cannot play a card you must take one from the stack. The idea is to be the first one who has eliminated their cards. Now it is important to know that after each time you place a card into the discard pile, you may place a card into your poker hand pile as well. Meaning, that you must get rid of your cards but you must also create the best poker hand, whether it's two pair, a straight or a full house. If it sounds tough, it really isn't, since the game is based on a chip total, you can score chips by either winning the round of UNO and going out first, having the best poker hand or both. The thing is, you can see everyone else's poker hand, so if it looks like you don't stand a chance at winning the UNO round, you can attempt to create a real mean poker hand. However, the same rules apply in your poker hand, you can only put cards on top of other cards (you start out with five already in your poker hand) with the same number or suit.

 "Oh bother!"

Now being a pretty regular poker player I must tell you that there is a couple of things just plain wrong with the whole poker set up, first off, the UNO cards are all colored red, blue, green or yellow. This makes things kind of difficult when you think you have a decent poker hand with a three of a kind only to find out you lost the poker hand because someone else had a flush, not thinking that you must look at the cards' suit even though they are colored differently, yes the folks who designed this one must have been laughing at all the poker players who would be shooting steam out of their noses at this little "quirk". So it made me think, maybe UNO players normally aren't poker players and would it matter to them. So I asked my wife and she told me it made no difference to her, she played to win the UNO round as it provides the most reward, playing the poker hand was secondary to her. Then she proceeded to show me each time afterwards she won the UNO and the poker hand six times in a row. 

I didn't get it, what was I doing that was causing me so much problem, I couldn't win the UNO game and I couldn't get a decent enough poker hand, I was concentrating on one or the other and never making it work. Then my wife told me her secret. It seems that every time a person is down to one card, they must press the UNO button before any other players can press the UNO button themselves, forcing the player with one last card to take another from the pile. This was a tremendous relief to me, as I, a professional game player was completely incapable of beating a silly card game on my DS. Well after learning that little fact, things got better for me, a little. I began winning some of the UNO rounds and even a poker hand or two, but to this day, I still cannot match my wife's ability to win both on a consistent basis; she rocks.

 
"Not much to it, then why is it so hard for me."

The game has very basic graphics, and that's the beauty of it, there is no need for anything fancy, it is a card game after all. The card are easily readable, and so are the suits, but I just can't seem to get past the weird card colors. The background can change to your liking and they are an easy on the eye selection of colors. I can't say the graphics are great but again, they do the job adequately. What I can say is how the stylus seems to be laser accurate as you select cards to discard and move, a nice design touch. The games audio seems to exist in the ether. As I type this, I can't really recall any sort of audio, whether that's good or not is up to you.

Gameplay: 7.5
The stylus is easy to use and spot on, and the quick tap to call another player who has UNO and give them another card is kind of cool.

Graphics: 6.0
They are boring, but adequate. 

Sound: 6.0
The background noise really fades into the background and becomes nothing more then a fleeting memory.

Difficulty: Medium
It can be really difficult and then just as easy, it's a card game, it's all in the cards baby.

Concept: 7.6
Putting a poker bend on an otherwise solid card title, was a clever thing to do as it adds a whole other dimension of play.

Multiplayer: 7.1
To play multiplayer, you need a second game card. Fortunately these are bargain priced titles and picking up a second one isn't too much. It can be worth it if you have a competitive streak running through your household.

Overall: 7.0
I like it, my wife likes it, and the beauty is in its simplicity, although it may not seem all that simple once you are neck deep in a game.