#685 Uno

Posted: 6th January 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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298th played so far

Genre: Puzzle/Strategy
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 2006
Developer: Carbonated Games/Gameloft
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios/Gameloft

For a long time, Uno was (possibly still is) the highest selling Xbox Live Arcade game. Yeah, that’s right, with all the options videogames afford us, it’s a virtual version of a board game that people prefer to buy. An interesting situation, really. Don’t knock it, I used to love my Cluedo video game when I was younger.

All of that is, of course, for a good reason. The game is meant to have a good implementation of the rules, being pretty intuitive and easy to follow. Of course, that’s also down to us to weigh in on.

Our Thoughts

It’s a double-edged sword. Looking at the numbers and a lot of what you can do, this game is pretty complex and playing it without computer help would need a lot of pen and paper, figuring out how to keep track of the score, what moves you can make and what they do.

The videogame version takes a lot of that away from you. It obviously keeps track of the score, prevents you from making illegal moves, and reduces it all to button presses and paying attention so you can catch cheaters.

If this sounds simple… that’s because it is. Because the rules are all worked out for you, it really is a matter of selecting the card or pressing the indicated button to draw a card or such. This is a disadvantage sometimes – even after playing it for a while, it didn’t really become clear how the colour change cards worked.

All of that, though, doesn’t really diminish the fun of playing the game. While you don’t always get the satisfaction of play, with part of it reduced to button pressing on command, when you do get a chance to choose strategy comes in, figuring out what cards the other players have and how you can most effectively block their moves. It’s where the game shines more and provide ssomething meatier.

Most of the real fun, then, comes from playing against other people. The AI is just too straight forward that there isn’t much satisfaction in figuring out whether you beat it, with no bluff elements possible. What doesn’t help is that a lot of this game is random, like a computerised version of Snakes & Ladders.

Graphically, you just can’t expect much from a boardgame, even adapted like this. One of its nicer surprises is probably the use of avatars. They react to what happens in-game, being a nice ‘thing’ to read. While not a major thing, they’re a nice touch, creating a bit more involvement with the game and allow play to be less abstract.

Final Thoughts

Don’t get me wrong – we enjoyed the game. It is quite addictive to play through. It just leaves you wondering whether an adaption of a card game like this doesn’t limit your interaction a bit much sometimes. It’s fun when there’s some actual strategy involved, unfortunately however, these occasions can be lacking sometimes.