It’s still not a common occurrence for an iPhone/iPod Touch game to have head-to-head multiplayer elements for various reasons.  I would imagine cost would be at the top of that list.  When one finally comes down the pipes it’s difficult to not get overly excited.  Multiplayer games are the best way to get the most bang for your buck because of added re-playability, so it’s really a shame that Uno has a great system set-up for multiplayer but the developers did a poor job on the technical side of things.

The game isn’t a complete bust by any means.  The single player and quick play modes each offer hours of entertainment without a hitch.  The ability to customize each game fully to your liking is fantastic.

Quick play offers exactly what you think.  Fire up quick play whenever you have only a moment of downtime to get your Uno fix.  Quick play has three levels of difficulty to choose from and that is it.  It plays by the classic Uno rules that everyone knows and loves.

Customized mode offers tons of options to mix up the gameplay.  You can change the scoring type from 250-5000 points to have the shortest or longest game possible.  The draw settings can also be changed along with force play, 7-0, and jump in mode.  The 7-0 can really throw the game for a loop.  When a 7 or 0 card is played, players must exchange the cards that are in their hand with another player which can be quite irritating or a life saver, depending on which side of the coin you are on.  The jump in setting allows players to jump in and play a card even if it isn’t their turn as long as it exactly matches the card the previously player put down.  All of these options are great if you get bored of the classic game.

Tournament mode offers 15 rounds of varying gameplay.  You must win each round to advance to the next.  Tournament mode is the only way you are able to unlock new backgrounds and icons to use in the game.  It also has trophies and a table of pieces to get even more rewards.  Tournament mode also tracks your statistics just in case you are interested how many times you have called Uno or how many wild cards you have used.  It is a sobering experience looking at your wins and losses if you are a Uno novice like me.

Uno has solid controls.  Even if you have a large hand of cards after getting smacked with too many wild draw four cards, you can easily scroll through your hand to find the best playable match.  Playable cards are highlighted so you don’t have to search for long.  To play a card, either double-tap the card or just tap and drag it on to the pile.  If a player has placed a draw four card, you can suck it up and take the four cards without complaining or challenge the player.  The challenge can be used when a player has played a wild draw four without the need to, for example if they had a matching color or number in their hand and didn’t choose to play it.  The downside to challenging is if you lose, you must draw even more cards, so call your bluffs wisely.  When you have achieved Uno you must call it, a button pops up right before you are down to your last card.  If you fail to tap the Uno button before the other players tap their challenge button, you will be penalized with cards.  Don’t forget, the name of the game is Uno after all.

Multiplayer is probably the main reason people would be purchasing Uno.  The idea of being able to play against the person sitting next to you on the same device, through local WiFi or online is just too tempting to pass up.  Multiplayer offers fully customizable games.  You can easily find rooms to play in at anytime of the day and there is very little lag.  My first attempt to play multiplayer was through a local WiFi connection and that’s where everything went wrong.  The game constantly had network issues and dropped out; I assumed it had something to do with the network where I was located.  I later tried the online multiplayer with a lot of the same issues.  Sometimes the game would crash completely forcing me to keep my cool and relaunch the game for another attempt.  Out of about twenty attempts to play an online multiplayer match, I probably only finished two or three.  What’s the point of having this option at all if it doesn’t even remotely work?

The single player elements of Uno work great and all of the customization keeps it feeling fresh, but you can only play single player for so long.  The cost of Uno could easily be justified by all of the multiplayer elements, but neither the WiFi nor the online options work consistently.  If you intend to play this game most of the time by yourself, it is worth a purchase.  If you have full intentions of playing it online like me, steer clear.  Uno has been out for a while now and even with the updates, it still doesn’t work properly online, so don’t hold out any hope at this point.

Overall: 6.5 out of 10

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