Uno! – A game where friends become your enemies

It’s Friday night and you and your friends wonder what to do. Someone founds a set of Uno playing cards, and you decide to spend the rest of the evening playing them. Only one of you survives the night alive. Just joking! Even though playing Uno can get quite competitive, it’s a fun and exciting card game for all ages.

Types of cards of an Uno deck.

The deck consists of 108 cards containing yellow, blue, green and red cards with numbers and actions. The game starts when each player is dealt seven cards. Players must play their cards to match the opponent’s card in color, number or symbol. The goal is to get rid of all the cards first and yell “Uno!” before laying down their final card. A player can draw extra cards from the deck, if necessary. A player can also play various action cards to spice up the game, for example, “Skip- “, “Reverse- “, “Draw Two- “, “Wild- “, and “Draw Four Wild- cards”. “Skip-action”- card skips the next player in turn. “Reverse”-card flips the playing direction. “Draw Two”- card determines the number of cards the next player in turn must draw while losing their turn. “Wild”- card requires the next player in turn to match the color announced by the player playing the card (yellow, blue, green and red). “Draw Four Wild”- card forces the next player in turn to draw four additional cards and lose their turn. The player playing the card also announces the next color to be matched.

A Draw Two – card.

There are also a plenty of house rules, penalties and strategies that can be employed during game, but the core of the game is what formerly mentioned. In essence, Uno is so simple and easy to play that it requires almost no former knowledge of the game. One round can also take ten minutes to even an hour depending on how it’s played, and which cards are dealt, so the game manages to be flexible in that sense. No Uno rounds are alike. You can also play Uno in varying sizes of groups, and still have a lot of fun. The main characteristic of Uno is strategizing, i.e. which cards to play to get rid of your cards the quickest. This can inspire a lot of competition between players, resulting in emotional outbursts and ending in a sweet sense of victory.

For me, Uno has been a staple since childhood, and I continue to play it with friends till this day. My fondest memory of playing it is from my primary school days, when I first learnt the rules of this legendary game. I wouldn’t say I was exceptionally good at playing Uno, but I loved the rush of winning a round. Needless to say, I still crave for the same rush while playing it nowadays (And I’m no longer friends with any of my primary school Uno-buddies).

You can also play Uno anywhere, and there also digital and online versions of the game. I’ve not tried them myself, but they follow the rules and style of the original. This adds to the playability aspect of the game. All in all, I would definitely recommend this game to everybody regardless of their age.