As you might already be aware, we play lots of board games in our house – we love our family game nights. As much as we love our game nights, sometimes we are just not in the mood for a long or complicated game and prefer something quick and easy. Quick and easy games are generally a card game of some sort, and one of our favourites is the cult classic, UNO.
UNO is a classic family game that has been around for longer than I have, it’s over 50 years old. It is a card-shedding game of matching colours and numbers.
UNO is a card game for 2-10 players, age 7+ and is an excellent family game – simple to learn and play. Whilst it is super easy to learn, pick up and play, it is also impossible to put down! Players take it turns to match a card in their hand with the card in play on the table. It is not just a case of matching a number, but matching colour or number. And with the aid of special action cards, they introduce game-changing actions to alter the passage of play to help you defeat your opponents. It is fast fun for family and friends!
In the pack:
- 112 UNO Cards – 25 of each colour (red, green, blue, and yellow), plus wild cards
- Instructions with Scoring Rules
I’ve already mentioned that it is a card-shedding game. The aim of the game is play over several rounds and be the first player to reach 500 points. Reaching that target is a lot quicker than it sounds.
Playing the game is simple. It is a game for 2-10 players so is great for couples, family or even party games. Each player must draw a card from the deck and the player with the highest number is the dealer for that round. The player to their left will be the starting player. The cards are then placed back into the deck and the deck is shuffled. The dealer then deals each player 7 cards. The remaining cards are placed face down on the table to become the DRAW pile. The top card from the DRAW pile is turned over to start a new pile, the DISCARD pile. Now the real fun can commence.
The starting player looks at the card that is showing face up in the DISCARD pile and looks at the cards in their hand, they must match a card from their hand to it. For example, if the card on the DISCARD pile is a RED with a 7 on it (Red 7) the player can either lay down any RED card or any colour 7 from their hand. But if they can’t match with either they must take a card from the DRAW pile and add it to their hand. If they can now make a match they can do so. If not, play continues to the next player. Play continues clockwise around the table until a player plays their next to last card, leaving them with one card in the hand, where they then MUST shout UNO (if you don’t shout before the next player takes their turn then you must pick up two new cards).
That is all simple to play, as long as you are paying attention. But the game does feature some twists just to liven up the game some more. The deck also contains special action cards. These special cards help to change the direction of the game and perform functions to help you beat your opponents. The special action cards include Skips, Reverses, Draw Twos, colour-changing Wild cards, Draw Four Wild cards and even customised cards that you can write your own rules on. When one of these cards is put into play, the direction of play can be reversed, players lose a turn, players having to pick up more cards and you can even swap cards (players can swap their all their cards with another player). These special cards inject a bit more fun into the game and can change the outcome.
To win the game, a player must score 500 points. Whilst that might seem like a high number of points to score, it is very easily achieved. The game is played in rounds, with the winner of each round being the player that gets rid of all their cards. The winner of the round gets points which are determined by adding up the scores of all the other players remaining cards. Number cards are face value, but if the other players are holding wild cards, these are worth between 20 and 50 points each (a list of scoring values are in the instructions). By adding up all the other players cards it is very quick and easy to hit that 500 mark.
Overall, we love playing UNO. It is a fast game to play, simple for anybody to learn and play and it can be played anywhere. But most importantly, it is lots of fun, especially with the wild cards changing the game and adding in a bit of strategic play.
UNO is an excellent game for kids, adults and families to play together, and is perfect for game nights, keeping the kids entertained on rainy days or during the holidays. As it is just a pack of cards, it even makes a perfect game for playing on your travels as it is compact and can be played anywhere (you can even purchase a UNO carry bag if you want something more durable on your travels).
Gameplay is excellent. We love that some cards have blank spaces on them so that you can add in your own rules (just write on in pencil and it can easily be erased and reused for different rules).
Uno is an easy game to play and enjoy. It is also a very addictive card shedding game of matching colours and numbers. Lots of fun for everybody from 7 to 107.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £9.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
