I’m sure a lot of you are saying “hey, didn’t he review this yesterday?” or “Wow, he’s getting lazy and instead of including both systems in one review he’s splitting it up!” The reality of it is that Uno on PSN is completely different (well, still Uno, but you know what I mean) from the XBLA version. Different developer with different controls, options, etc. It had enough differences that I felt it warranted another review, so here it is.
I won’t go over the basic rules of Uno again, you can read my review of the Xbox version if you have never played the game before in real life (and by that I mean actual physical cards). This review is going to focus on what makes it different from the XBLA version. This version is released by GameLoft who is more known for their cell phone games but have done a few other downloadable games like Prince of Persia Classic and TV Quiz Host. Unfortunately right away you can tell this game was working on a smaller budget and just does not seem as polished as the Xbox version. Since PS3 does not have Avatars like Xbox, the game just has you create your own that’s just for this game, but has very few options (and appears to be the same exact setup from TV Quiz Host, which was just a Wii port). The avatars look cheap, the cards tare smaller, there is less animation and various other things that aren’t major but still make for a game that doesn’t look as good as the competitor’s version. It is still Uno, and it is still fun for that reason, but for a game that came out 2 years later and is 2x the cost you would expect a bit more. Another minor aspect is that the controls are slightly different, which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that now to Challenge someone you have to hit the R1 button when on Xbox all controls were with your 4 main face buttons. Uno is meant to be a simple pick up and play and now people are having to remember which buttons do what when there is the Square button that doesn’t do anything.
Luckily not all the differences are bad though. The first thing I noticed was that instead of single player being just you vs. 4 AI players, there is a sort of single player tournament/challenge mode to go through. I tried this out first to see what the game was like, and it was a great way to start because it eases you into the game and gradually shows you all the different modes and even allows you to unlock more backgrounds and card types (sadly, nothing that affects gameplay, it’s all just cosmetic). It is labeled as Tournament so you may not realize that is the game’s single player mode, but once in you can choose a difficulty level and it starts you off with 2 players and works your way up to 4, and eventually 6 players. Having 6 player games was really cool to me due to the fact that the Xbox game is only 4 player, so this made for a nice addition. I did find it odd that there were no options for 5 player, and you cannot actually play 2 or 3 player outside of this mode either. Besides finding out that there were more player number options (XBLA Uno didn’t even have 2 player either, it was always 4 player) you are introduced to the different variations on the rules that are included in the game. One is Uno 7-0 – Every time a 0 is player, all players must give all their cards to the next player and every time a 7 is played, that player must exchange cards with any player they choose. The other is Jump-In where if you have exactly the same card (number and color) that is on top of the discard pile, you can play it immediately without waiting for your turn. These variations are fun to have, especially since they do not have those in the XBLA version. The Tournament mode has you go through 15 matches with different combinations of players and rules and then you can start a new one on a higher difficulty level to continue unlocking items.
While it’s all good and well that they have a single player mode, Uno is definitely more fun to play with other people. In a strange move, GameLoft has actually included a local multiplayer option despite the fact that seeing your opponents cards takes away a lot of the challenge. It is only up to 4 player which I also find a strange choice since you can have 6 controllers on one system, but I do not find myself playing this mode much anyway for the whole reason of the cards being shown. To their credit they do at least hide the cards when you aren’t playing. It also seems that you cannot change any of the options when playing local, you have to play basic Uno with the default rules and settings. At first I thought that this might have been to make it so that you could play multiplayer by passing the controller but I found this was not the case since each player requires their own controller to play. Thankfully there is online player as well in both ranked and non-ranked games just like the XBLA version. Again, only 4 and 6 players, but luckily you can have AI sit in if you can’t get enough people to join which is a good thing since this game is a ghost town online. You would think something as popular as Uno would do well on here, especially since it is still so popular on XBLA, but I have a hard time ever finding anyone to play a game with. If ever I do find people it is always in a non-ranked game, and never in a ranked game, and it is usually someone who was just playing online with AI opponents hoping for someone else to join. While sad, this can be easily fixed if you just have other friends that you want to play online with and you know they will get it as well. Online play does not support the PS3 Eye.
As of this writing there has been no DLC for this game and I have not heard of anything announced either. While the XBLA version has the different decks to download, this game has the 2 variations built in and the only other decks are mostly color changes. This could be due to the fact that the DLC decks on XBLA were to advertise for other games and this is GameLoft and not Microsoft, but I am sure GameLoft could find something to advertise for or just come up with a non-licensed extra design.
3.5/5 Stars – While it is nice to see some extra variations and options not in the XBLA version of Uno, overall it is just not as well made. The addition of local multiplayer may seem appealing but it is too easy to cheat and the online multiplayer is dead unless you coordinate with friends. Another reason that saying PSN is better than Xbox Live due to it being “free” is not true: the online community is just not there for social gaming.
