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So, there is a good possibility that you have heard or maybe even played the popular card game called UNO or UNO Flip, which is a deviously simple game that has the potential to ruin relations 😈 that is strictly speaking from my personal experience. However it is definitely not as bad as a round of Monopoly, which still remains the king of destroying relations. 

Over the years a bunch of different variations have been released for UNO. My family still prefers to play the original version but this new Uno Flip variation is equally fun if not somehow even more brutal. So, the basis of the game are quite simple as it requires a minimum of 2 players and a maximum of 10 players. But truthfully speaking, you can always add more playing decks to accommodate more than 10 players. When you have a large group and you add your own twist to the rules (commonly referred to house rules) into the mix, the chaos that ensues is truly something else.

About Original UNO Card Game

Here is quick run down of the rules for the original version of the game; 

• After the deck has been shuffled, the dealer gives each player 7 cards faced down.
• The remaining cards in the deck are placed faced down, this deck can be referred to as the “Draw” pile and the top card from this pile is drawn to be the starter card and is placed in the middle which acts as the “Discard” area where players can now place their respective cards.
• The person to the left of the dealer is the first person to start following a clock-wise pattern.
• The gameplay can be described with the help of the below example; 
  • Lets say the top card placed was a blue number 2 and now the first player (clock-wise order) can play any blue card that may of may not have the number 2 on it or if they have a number 2 in another color, lets say in red then they can play that card.
  • If they don’t have any card that can be played then they need to draw a card from the draw pile and depending on what they get they can choose to either play or pass their turn onto to the next player.
  • Also another possibility is that you may have an action card (Skip, Reverse, Draw 2) in the same color as the top card, then you can play any one of them as well.
• The only exception are the Wild Card & Draw 4 cards as they can be played at anytime and ignore the top card that is currently in play but they can not be played when the previous player has skipped your turn and when the previous player has put down a draw 2 card. Do not get overwhelmed by the Uno card game, as it gets much easier once you have a few games under your belt.         
• The games continues until the player has his last two cards in his hand and when they are about to play their second last card the player must announce or shout out “UNO”, signifying that they only have one card left.
• In case the player does not say the word UNO and plays their second last card, the remaining players must say “caught” and the player must draw 2 cards from the draw pile as a penalty.

The game goes on until one person finishes playing all the cards and has none left.

Do not get overwhelmed by the Uno card game, as it gets much easier when you have a few games under your belt.

About UNO FLIP Card Game

Now that we have had a quick refresher of how the base game is played. Let’s see how the UNO FLIP variation adds more to the original formula.

Well the first thing that Is noticeable right away is that the deck is much more colorful and that it is printed on both sides. Hence the variation “Flip”.

Now you may have also noticed that the Uno Flip deck has a light side and a darker side and now you may be thinking, hold on; now all the players can easily see what cards their opponents are holding at any given time since the information is now on both sides.

Now the thing to keep in mind is that some rules have remained the same from the Original version of the game. That being

• All players still get seven cards each
• You still need to say UNO while putting the second last card before you finish the game
• There is still a penalty if you get caught
• There is still a Draw pile and a Discard pile
• Action cards like Skip and reverse still exists

All the core elements of the game have still remained the same but now comes the array of twists in the system;

The new 4 colors on the other side / dark side of the cards

New light side action cards

New dark side action cards

Now the keen eyed UNO players among you must have noticed some significant changes to the regular card types such as;

• Previously draw 2 cards are now just draw 1’s
• The wild draw 4 have also been dropped down to just wild draw 2’s 

So far you must be thinking they just nerfed some cards and made the game a whole lot easier, but sadly no they just made things a whole lot interesting. Allow me to explain;

Light side version of UNO FLIP deck

The light side version of the deck is something that old players will feel familiar as most of the cards are similar in how they behave besides 2 exceptions (Draw 1 & Wild Draw 2) the only difference being that players will now draw 50% less cards than they used to previously before.

The one extra addition to the light deck is the FLIP card which is where the game literately flips on its head. As the name implies this card is the new party trick of this deck. Once a player plays this card (light or dark side) all players must turn their cards over for example if you were playing with the light side facing towards you then you must turn the card over where now the dark side of the deck is facing towards you.

Note:- when the Flip card is played (light or dark side) not only do the players cards turn over but the Draw Pile & the Discard Pile must also turn over.

So, you see here is where the new element kicks in because all this while you would be guessing which cards a player must be holding on to but when the flip card is played everyone gets to see what each other was holding onto. So then it sort of becomes a memory game. Not to mention each time a person draws a card from the Draw Pile the more stuff you need to keep track off.

Dark side version of UNO FLIP deck

Now all of this is without even getting into the new cards introduced in the Dark Side.

• Draw 5: As the name suggests the person needs to draw 5 cards and this card can be stacked with another Draw 5 card and there is a total of 8 of these cards (each in a different color) therefore the potential to be on the receiving end of to draw an insane amount of cards is very high. Ask me, as I have been the victim of this card like forever 😭. You will see the evidence of it in the video below.
• Skip: This is essentially a card that skips everyone’s turn and brings the play back to you.
• Wild Draw Color Card: This is sort like an “Insult to Injury” card, wherein when this card is played the next player must keep drawing cards from the draw pile until the color of your choice has come (so this card has the potential to be a draw X? where X could be any number. If your lucky could mean draw only 1 or 2 cards and if your luck is bad then it could mean a draw 5+ card) 

Here’s a clip of what a round of UNO FLIP looks like;

As you can see there is a huge potential for loads of fun to be had and that is why this version will remain a stable in our family game nights. 

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