Uno is a card game, that sneaked its way into my late childhood, but never could replace the quite similar game Mau Mau, played with a regular card deck. So it's that simple, you got your numbers and instead of pictures, you have some more obvious special cards that make it a little easier to define what cards let you pick a colour or draw additional cards for instance. In any incarnation, Mau Mau or Uno and its counterfeits, it's fun and challenges friendships.

I've always been open to play games based on golf or pool on electronic devices since I had my first Atari VCS, but board or card games? I have Monopoly on Sega's Master System and Mega Drive/Genesis, but that came later and wouldn't have been a substitute to the board and card game affine household I grew up in. I was lucky I had two parents, a brother and friends visited to play as well. I had plenty of games and if we didn't borrow additional at the library, the friends brought some along as well.

Then, I didn't have an idea of advantages an electronic version like Uno could have and those Monopoly examples I tried later appeared too complicated to play with humans if you own the boardgame plus the computer wasn't the most pleasant opponent. Maybe on a rainy and very lonely day it would have been an option.

But since things have changed, having online options that turned me towards Texas Hold'em for a couple of years more recently and now, having to shelter against COVID-19, a game like Uno appears quite convenient.

A while ago, we tried free copycat versions on Android. Sure, the basic game was there, but neither were house rules nor a good way to find additional human players if needed.

Same goes for the variant on the Clubhouse Games collection for Nintendo Switch. There, Uno is just a game of 51 and you can't expect it to be really refined, I suppose. We often play as two humans and so filling in with two dumb computers doesn't make it great fun.
So, when Uno was on sale for 3,99€ in Nintendo's eShop, we went ahead and grabbed it for our Switches.

There's a tutorial if you didn't know how to win Uno by playing all cards from your hand before anyone else does. Judging from how some novice players act online it should be mandatory anyway to learn what buttons to use in specific situations.

On one Switch, you can play solo or tag team with one compagnon offline against the computer. You could also connect up to 4 Switch devices locally, but then you could also use a physical card deck.

Another good reason to pick an online game is XP you don't collect from playing locally. There's also achievements in online Uno to make it a little more interesting and to impress opponents with a badge next to your Mii avatar, I guess.

You can randomly join a game or lobby as it comes up or create your own lobby with your favourite house rules and DLC theme to invite friends to or have random players join once you make it public. There's also a tag team mode to play online, if you like to.

Doesn't sound too bad, does it? Well, it depends. Actually the house rules cover anything I wish for in Uno. There are also daily rule settings if you can't decide on your own. You can also choose between just one round or points to win a set. The maximum length of 500 points may sound short, but can expand to more than an hour of grueling battles.

I got a winter themed DLC for free, but for the usual, Ubisoft themed (like Rabbits or Rayman) DLC, you'll be asked an admission. The latter will come with a set of extra action cards able to twist and turn your game massively if played at the right moment.

As for now, I don't really like them, especially because the alternative card design is rather confusing. I didn't have to buy any though, as you automatically play those Uno themes when joining another online game with that setting.

However, the achievement system encourages you to use them, as well as it will lead to players seem to make stupid decisions sometimes to fulfill the tasks. Often that will help you though, so nothing to worry about.

What is a bummer, drumroll, is that Ubisofts servers are lagging big time. That's not so much the problem, when it's hard to join a game or you don't find a stranger to play Uno from your lobby within 30 minutes, so if you have friends to play then it will be fine. Mostly. The game will freeze if you let others join or if they lose connection. It also crashes completely every now and then, probably at times people actually want to play.

I must admit though, there was a patch lately and things might have been a tad better since then, but far from flawless.
You can sense from that report I still like to play Uno online, especially as a side activity to listening music for example (the in game music isn't worth mentioning) and of course together with friends to shout at via Discord.

For side activity it would be better if you could start a game from your own lobby without opponents, so you can always play with the Uno rules and theme you like. You can't and so have to lurk around for someone to join far too long most of the time. Once started, if that one guy you needed to start leaves, you will play against three AIs anyway.

Instead, you're forced to rejoin the same game over and over, bothering others who like another set of rules by freezing their Uno game until you found another round more of your taste.
(I don't like to be that guy, so I often sit through a round I don't prefer until I hop on. Others don't.)

Gee, if the Robbins family didn't adapt older rule ideas into such a great card game back in 1969, I probably wouldn't still be playing Uno on the Switch. But it is that excellent foundation, even just half decently turned into an application, that can't be destroyed by poor performance. After all, you've got to be resilient to play Uno anyway, don't you?

I won't go as far as calling it a feature though, no, and I really want you to know what you're getting into unless Ubisoft is able to fix this, but still, Uno is a fun game and who knows when we'll not have to worry about health issues anymore. So I rather have a server crash than my immune system.

But, dear Ubisoft, I've done everything to improve my internet connection so I can play without disturbance and I know, sometimes, there can be technical difficulties, but of course I would prefer to play a game how it was intended, expecting you not to have planned to have those lags and crashes in Uno.

Did I buy discount? Of course, but that doesn't mean support should be cut down. It just means if I had paid more, damn would I be angry anytime I boot an otherwise entertaining program. Rating would be at least 4 stars without the technical problems.

Reviewed on Dec 15, 2021


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