UNO Ultimate Edition – PS4 Review 3

Initially we were a little confused when Ubisoft sent us their 2016 release UNO for review. Thankfully it transpired what we actually had was Uno Ultimate Edition featuring all the DLC to date. That being the winter theme, Rayman and Just Dance 2017 rulesets and new in January, the UNO Flip! game mode.

For those of you not necessarily familiar with UNO, this is one of the classic licenced game conversions. We played the Xbox 360 version far more than we’d care to admit, we even had our stupid webcam attached to justify owning it. Although unlike a female friend of ours, we were never privy to genitalia being exposed on camera. You could replicate the delights of this if you had a PS4 camera.

Anyway, if you’ve ever played UNO in reality, you’ll know what to expect. The standard ruleset is all present and correct, replicating the real life game perfectly, only without having to hunt at the back of a drawer to find your cards. It’s a fair bet you or someone in your family has bought one of the 150m editions of the game sold globally. The winter theme is just that, standard UNO reskinned with snow and ice.

The PS4 version supports local multiplayer via that Playlink thing that lets you play on your mobile phone, so just the thing for these locked down times if all other entertainment options are exhausted. You can also play with a standard controller if you so wish, but you’re limited to AI bots and PSN multiplayer.

We get that Ubi are keen to use their licenced properties and the Rayman game set is fun and all, but Just Dance 2017 ruleset is just baffling. It’s using their own IP for the sheer sake of it. It’s understandable given the family friendly aspect, but it feels odd. The Crew would be just as suitable though. The main attraction for long term players here is the new UNO Flip! game mode.

Flip! has a real world counterpart that’s been out for just over a year. On the one hand, it plays like standard UNO does. But there’s a new addition in Flip cards. They turn everyone’s cards over to play in a modified ruleset featuring +5 cards and skip everyone to name a few. This game mode is great fun for seasoned hands, especially if you’ve played the standard flavour as much as we have.

We found ourselves playing Flip! well past midnight, put it that way. It’s very much like Lumines in that it nails the one more go feeling and before you know it. There’s no such thing as a quick game, though moreso when the AI shats all over you as it did in the game below.

Yes, we have 22 cards due to all three AI players spaffing 5+ cards all over us. If it were a real life we’d have probably lost the plot and killed our fellow players. The fact you can go from an almost winning position to being dead last in the matter of a couple of turns shows how arbitrary UNO can be, moreso in Flip!

UNO Ultimate Edition is a great value proposition given it includes all the DLC to date, but if you already own the game there’s a caveat in that the Flip! DLC has no new trophies. If you’re an UNO fan already you’ll probably enjoy it all the same.