Thanks to its ability to go on longer than expected, volatile nature and all the strange house rules people make, the UNO card game has basically been a meme for almost as long as memes have existed. That, however, hasn’t stopped Ubisoft and Mattel from regularly trying to make the game both more exciting and infuriating to play with modes like UNO Flip!, UNO Anniversary and UNO Rayman. Now players have a new way to enjoy the game (and make their friends miserable) thanks to the launch of UNO Party! Mania on both PC and consoles.
Just like past variations of UNO, the base game in UNO Party! Mania remains largely unchanged. Players attempt to play all of their cards by matching either the number or color of the discard pile with each card they lay down, all the while doing their best to prevent the other players from doing the same. There is a key difference in this mode, though: the addition of three new action cards.
The new “Point Taken,” “Drawn Together” and “Wild Pile Up” cards introduce new forms of chaos into an already very chaotic game.
The last thing one wants to do when playing UNO is draw extra cards, yet that’s exactly what all of these new cards force their victims to do. The “Point Taken” card has all players virtually point to each other and then draw one card for each finger pointed at them. Considering that the maximum draw off of this card is three, this is actually kind of tame compared to some other UNO cards and rules.
The “Wild Drawn Together” card does a lot more to mix things up in that it allows the user to “link” two players together. After the link is established, whenever one linked player has to draw, the other linked player must draw too. The effect lasts until another Wild Drawn Together or Point Taken card is played, so dropping this card can potentially be absolutely devastating.
Lastly, there’s the “Wild Pile Up” card, which establishes a second discard pile that players discard into until someone can’t. Once that happens, the person who wasn’t able to play must add the entire pile to their hand. Again, this one could be a run-ender if used at the right time, so it’ll likely be a really fun one to drop on people.
Again, UNO Party! Mania DLC is available now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch for $4.99. Those who want a more complete package would be better off waiting until September 10, when UNO Legacy Edition launches. This collection will include UNO, UNO Party! Mania, UNO FLIP! And UNO 50th Anniversary.
Review: XDefiant
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