Uno (card game)

Uno

The game of Uno.
Players	2 +
Setup time	< 1 min
Playing time	> 5 minutes
Chance	Medium
Age range	5 +
Skills	Saving important cards; knowing when to put down those cards.

A deck of English Uno cards from 1995. Notice that letters are used instead of symbols.

Special action cards from an old-style non-English deck. L-R: Skip, Reverse, Wild, Draw Two, and Wild Draw Four.

Uno (Spanish, Italian "one") is a card game played with a specially printed deck (see Mau Mau for an almost identical game played with normal playing cards). The game was originally developed in 1971 by Merle Robbins. It is now a Mattel product. The game's general principles put it into the Crazy Eights family of card games. Despite being developed in America, Uno is officially pronounced exactly the same way as the Italian and Spanish word for "one", uno.

Official rules

The custom deck consists of cards of 4 colors: red, green, blue, and yellow. The ranks in each color are 0-9. There are 3 "honor" cards in each color, labeled "skip", "draw two", and "reverse". There are special black cards, "wild" and "wild draw four". There are two copies of each regular and honor card, except for the naughts, which only have one per suit. There are four "wild" and "wild draw four" cards each, producing a total of 108 cards.

To start the game, seven cards are dealt to each player, and the top card of the stock is exposed to start the discard pile. If the exposed card has a special ability, it is treated as if the dealer played that card, and the special effect occurs (i.e., skip, draw two, reverse, or wild). If the exposed card is a wild draw four, however, it is returned to the deck and the next card is exposed.

At each turn, a player may play a card from their hand that matches the color or rank of the top exposed card, or play a wild or wild draw four. If a player has no legal card to play, that player draws the top card of the stock, and may either play it or place it in their hand. A player may choose to draw the top card of the stock even if they have a legal play (known as reneging), but after having drawn the top card of the stock only that card may be played that turn (a player may intentionally do this when desperate to keep another player from going out). After playing a single card or drawing, the next player clockwise takes a turn, unless a reverse is in effect. If the stock is emptied, the discard pile is shuffled and turned over to replenish the stock.

The hand ends when a player plays all his/her cards. When a player plays down to only one card, that player is required to say "uno". If another player catches someone not calling "uno" (after the second to last card touches the discard pile but before the next player starts their turn), then that player must draw two cards.

After a player plays all of their cards, the other players count the number of points pertaining to the values of the cards in their hands. Number cards are face value (with zero cards worth ten), colored special cards worth twenty, and wilds worth fifty. The first player to go out receives points for the cards left in their opponents' hands. The first person to reach a certain point value (officially 500) wins.

Variations

• Only a numbered card can start a hand. If a wild or an honor card is exposed, then the next card from the stock pile is turned over until a numbered card is exposed.
• If a player cannot play a legal card, then he/she draws from the stock pile until he/she finds a card that can be played legally, rather than drawing just one and play moving to the next player.
• If a draw card is played, and the colour called matches the colour of a draw 2 in the next player's hand, he/she can play it. Similarly, a draw 4 can be played after a draw card is played.
• A Player may play more than one card with the same number (not same colour). e.g. XXX plays red 4, XXXXX can play blue 4, yellow 4 and green 4.
• Another variation, also a very popular one is that no player can finish on an action card (draw, skip, reverse, wild, etc.). If that's their last remaining card, they'll draw a card.

Special cards

Image (New, English)	Image (Old, English)	Image (Old, non- English)	Card	Description
File:Uno Draw 2 card.jpg	File:D2 Card old.jpg	File:Uno draw two blue non english deck.jpg	Draw two	The next player must draw two cards and lose their turn. Many people play with a cumulative draw rule (see below) although this is not an official rule.
File:Uno Skip card.jpg	File:Skip Card old.jpg	File:Uno skip green non english deck.jpg	Skip	The next player must skip their turn.
File:Uno Reverse card.jpg	File:Reverse Card old.jpg	File:Uno reverse yellow non english deck.jpg	Reverse	The order of play is reversed from clockwise to counterclockwise, or from counterclockwise to clockwise. If there are only two players, reverse acts as a skip.
File:Uno Wild card.jpg	File:Wild Card old.jpg	File:Uno wild non english deck.jpg	Wild	The person playing it names a color, and the next legal play must be that color, unless another wild is played.
File:Uno Wild Draw 4 card.jpg	File:WildD4 Card old.jpg	File:Uno wild draw four non english deck.jpg	Wild draw four	Acts like a wild, but the next player must draw four cards and skip their turn. This card may only be played if the player holding it doesn't have any card matching the current color.

File:UnoWLM.jpg

Uno being played in Windows Live Messenger.

Note: The newer style English Uno action cards bear symbols which denote their action, except for the Wild cards which still bear the word "Wild." Before the design change, such cards in English versions of the game bear letters. Other versions also use symbols and images in both old and new designs, especially those with Wild cards that do not bear the word "Wild." The Xbox 360 version of the game uses the new English style of the cards in gameplay.

Penalties

If any player fails to say "uno", then another player may force him or her to draw two penalty cards ("Challenge Uno"). If nobody notices the failure to say uno before the next player takes another turn, there is no penalty. The penalty for calling a false "uno" is that the player has to draw three cards.

If a player gives card-play suggestions, he or she must draw two cards.

If a player plays an illegal card, he or she must draw two cards.

If a player plays a wild draw four card when he has a playable card in his hand, he can be challenged by the player having to draw the four cards. If he or she played the card correctly, the challenging player must draw six cards instead of four. If the player playing the card cheated, he or she has to draw four penalty cards.

If a player plays a Reverse or Skip card in a two player game, and has no playable card to go after it, he or she must draw two penalty cards from the deck.

File:-unochan.jpg

There are many implementations of Uno. As an example, #unochan on irc.rizon.net is a Internet Relay Chat version of Uno with support for multiple human players.

Duo is a free computer implementation of Uno.

Records

Size of Game Record Three hundred and thirty people helped celebrate the 35th anniversary of Uno. They set a new Guinness world record for the largest card game tournament ever played, beating the old record by 10 players. (The previous record of 320 players was set in Portugal.) The ultimate winner was Lucinda Kowalewski of Poca. She received 2007 season tickets to the West Virginia Power Games and an XBox 360 along with several other prizes.

Unoplayer 07:47, 6 June 2007 (UTC)==Trivia==

rhys and simon do total pwnage when they play uno on msn. also green and purple suck uber ass The Mail on Sunday reported on May 6, 2007 that Mick Jagger plays Uno with his children.

Special packs

Certain special packs of Uno are available in shops. These sometimes include more special cards.

• Barbie Uno - which features the "friendship" card, where the player can swap his/her hand with another player.
• Batman - feature a Joker, when you discard this card you can choose 1 to 3 players to draw 1 to 3 cards
• Family Guy Uno - in which players can try for world domination, a la Stewie Griffin, with the exclusive "Dominate" card and rule.
• Hanna-Barbera Edition Uno - Yogi Bear adds to the fun with the exclusive ‘pic-a-nic’ card – the player with this special card gets to steal the top card from the discard pile at any point in the game.
• Harry Potter Uno - which features a Draw Three (instead of Draw Two) card; also features a "howler" wild card where, if played, the player who uses the card may select another player to say all of their cards aloud; also features an "invisibility" wild card where, if played, the player can block any card placed down (such as, a card that forces them to draw cards)
• Hot Death Uno - features 27 additional or modified cards
• Nintendo Uno - Has pictures of various Nintendo characters on each card and has writing in classic 8-bit style. Also contains the Power card; this card can be used as a regular Wild card at any time, but can also be used to block a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 card played against the player after which it acts as a regular Wild card.
• One Piece Uno - a One Piece version of Uno released in Japan. The gameplay is the same as normal, but all card's artwork is made into One Piece related artwork.
• Sesame Street Uno - Features a Grouch card, which allows players to give up to three un-needed cards in their deck to another player, so it removes their "garbage". The character featured on it is Oscar the Grouch. There are 4 Grouch cards in the 112 card deck.
• SpongeBob SquarePants Uno - which features the Super Absorbency card, a wild card which requires the next player to draw one card from all other players hands at random. There is controversy as to what happens when the Super Absorbency card is played as they players' penultimate card. Some contend that the person playing the card would win as the next player would be required to take that card from him/her. However, some play that there is an exception whereas the Super Absorbency requires a card to be drawn from all player's hands except those who are in the uno stage.
• South Park - The special card is called "Dead Kenny". When you play this card, you decide which player will share Kenny's bad *luck. You may choose any player's hand to "kill" by having that player draw cards from the DRAW pile. The chosen player must keep drawing cards until he/she draws any card with Kenny on it.
• The DOG UNO - The deck features pictures of various dogs on each of the cards, and contains a Fetch Wild Card.
• The Simpsons Uno - features a Draw Three card
• The Simpsons - GREAT SCOT Uno - which features a "GREAT SCOT" card, with Groundskeeper Willie, where a player selects another player and gives that player two of their cards
• The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror Uno - features a Witchcraft, the player who plays this card can use it to block any Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 played against him/her.
• Spiderman Uno - the special card let you know the player's hand.
• Star Trek Uno - based on the original Star Trek series with special cards, each of which appears once per pack:
  • Double Tribble card - The player who plays this card chooses the color of play, then next player doubles the amount of cards in their hand and forfeits their turn.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty card - This can played to stop any command card (a "Draw 2" card, for example) and allows for the color of play to be chosen.
  • Mind Meld card - This commands the next player to show the person who played this card their hand.
  • Live Long & Prosper card - This can be played at any time to discard the players hand and pick up an entirely new one, then allows him/her to choose color of play.
• Superman - This version features a battle card. When this card is played, the player who plays it selects another player to "battle". The player who played the card chooses to be either Superman or Bizarro, and the player he/she selected is the other character. Superman must discard a blue card since Bizarro is vulnerable to blue Kryptonite, and Bizarro must discard a green card since Superman is vulnerable to green Kryptonite.

• Uno 35th Anniversary - A special deck made to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the first edition of Uno released in the United States in 1971. in this deck, there are specialty "35" cards, when, if the card is in play, only 3s or 5s of any color must be played after the card is delt.
• Uno H2O - A deck with transparent water-proof cards. It includes 2 extra cards called "wild DownPour" cards; when played ALL the other players must pick up the number specified on the card (either 1 or 2) and may choose the next color of play.
• Disney Theme Park Edition - Evil card: the player holding this card can steal the top card from the DISCARD pile at any point in the game, even if it's not his/her turn.
• Peanuts - Good Grief card: this is a wild card, the player playing the card designates the recipient who must start drawing cards from the draw pile until he/she draws a card with Charlie Brown on it.
• Muppet Show - Mayhem card: the player who plays it causes everyone one swap hands. The direction of the swap is determined by the player playing the card.
• Happy Feet Edition - Mambo! card: the player who plays it must give each opponent one card from his/her hand, and then places a card on the discard pile to start the next round.

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• Versions available on the Xbox 360 Live version of Uno:
  • Project Gotham Racing Uno - In this game, the cards are drawn like cars seen in the Project Gotham Racing series of video games. In this game, the rules include a card called the "Gotham Live" card, which is the same name used as the replay feature in Project Gotham Racing 3. This card allows a player to look at the hand of any of the other players.
  • Kameo: Elements of Power Uno: This pack was released on November 1, 2006. This is a custom deck with artwork from the Kameo game. In addition, a special play card allows you to swap your hand with the hand of another player in the game.
  • Uno 35th Anniversary - (see above)

Other Uno Related games

• UNO Spin
• UNO Attack (Uno Extreme in the UK and Canada)
• Uno Wild Tiles
• Uno Stacko
• Uno Dice
• Uno Blitzo
• Uno Dominos
• Uno Rummy Up
• UNO (Xbox Live Arcade Game)
• O'NO 99
• Uno H2O

Similar games

Uno is a member of the shedding family of card games. The shedding family of card games consists of games where the objective is to get rid of all your cards while preventing the other players from getting rid of their cards.

• Mau Mau (game)
• Mao
• Crazy Eights
• Finlander's Uno
• Macau
• SKIP-BO
• MAD Magazine Card Game
• Taki
• duo

External links

• Mattel's Official Uno website
• Uno variants at pagat.com
• Uno Newsaty Wonkanavator
• Uno at BoardGameGeek
• Duo, an open source Uno implementation in Python
• UNO over TCP/IP - open source UNO implementation in Java designed for playing over a network
• Unonet, an open source Uno implementaion for Network play in wxWidgets
• UnoChan, an Internet Relay Chat version of Uno.
• Uno on Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360)
• http://uno.spetsnaz.be online uno against other people from around the world (relay play)
• UNO on MSN Games Play online with MSN Games