Draw 4+ motherf$%##@!
Gameloft has satisfied a personal craving of mine by producing one of the best card games for the iPhone. Some might argue that this is the ‘best’ card game. UNO has been around forever. It has been faithfully reproduced with some good bells and whistles. Let’s get right into it.
The game offers a few ways to play: Single Player, Multiplayer and Quick Game. The Single Player mode allows you to go through a fifteen round tournament. The tournament is interesting and compelling, as it continually changes the rules and mixes and matches normal UNO rules with customized rules. From round to round you’re required to think and strategize on the fly. For example, sometimes the numbers ‘0’ and ‘7’ allow for card rotation. So, just when you think you’re about to win the game, an opponent has been waiting for you to get your card count low and pulls out a ‘7’, which gives them the option to exchange cards. It’s interesting stuff and it doesn’t stop there. There is also a ‘JUMP’ option where someone lays down a card and number that you have and it gives you a chance to put yours down and ‘JUMP’ the next player’s turn. Again, interesting little elements that didn’t need to be included in an already fun game, but are thanks to some sharp minds at Gameloft.
Now, speaking of sharp minds, the A.I. is ruthless in this UNO! It starts out easy and helps you to build confidence. Around round 5-7 you start feeling the heat a bit. The computer players will start working together (sometimes they don’t) to make sure you’re tanked and the advantage is on their side. It’s fun to watch and it happens gradually and forces you to really think through all the possibilities when making a move. Add that to the fact that you get ‘Challenges’ in the game, where a player can challenge a Draw 4+ card. The way that works is that you can say the person who put down a Draw 4+ card did it to just make you draw four, not because they ran out of a particular color that was on the table already. If they have the current color (before the Draw 4+ card) then they will be charged with the additional cards instead of you. It took me two to three games to figure this out, but it’s basically a game of chance. If you are wrong though, you’ll be given six cards instead of four. Again, another example of how you need to think things through before you move.
The Quick game is self-explanatory, no need to go on about that. The Multiplayer game, which I was dying to play, allows you to play friends on a Wi-Fi network or online. I don’t know anyone around me with UNO desires (damn, young kids these days!) and I couldn’t find anyone to play online (damn, young kids these days!). I can’t honestly say how that worked out if I didn’t get a chance to play it. I can only imagine how great it is. Maybe I should buy my grandmother an iPhone…. hmmm….
If I had only one complaint about the game it would be the scoring system. I’m not disappointed with how the scoring works, as it works the right way. The problem I have with it is that if you lose it instantly matches everyone’s score evenly except the person who just won. You never create true separation from the players below you as they always catch up. Call me crazy, but I don’t recall that being the case in the old game. Either that or my grandmother has been hustling me in this game for years. She’d better not be. She does hustle me in golf though. Different story for another time; I digress though, the point system needs to be adjusted. Possibly through an easy iPhone update?
More than just colors
The presentation that Gameloft’s UNO brings to the table is unmatched when it comes to card games. It’s an elegant presentation with bright/vivid colors and a great voice-over. Everything about the game screams UNO as all the graphics are built from the color scheme and style of the original game. The music and backgrounds work well as they keep the fun going visually and audibly.
As for the value, you can find this on iTunes for $4.99 (which is super cheap!) and you’ll play this a lot! This is the perfect iPhone game for the road, for the bus, for the mid-afternoon break. It’s addictive and fun and just such an easy decision when it comes to expanding your library of iPhone games.