Numero UNO

It's something you see all the time, on a bus, in a plane, or sitting on the subway—someone with a thousand-dollar notebook computer, playing solitaire. You might think, why? All that hardware, those chipsets, that technological sophistication, and they're using it to play a game you could replicate with a ninety-nine cent deck of paper playing cards.

The simple fact is that regardless of what you're using to play the game, gameplay is still king. If the game's a good one—engaging, fun, socially oriented, easy to learn, yet embedded with enough subtleties and levels of play that it can keep you engaged beyond the honeymoon phase—then it doesn't matter what you're playing it on.

Family entertainment for thirty years.

If you happen to be playing it on a powerful piece of gaming hardware that is  already in your living room, a game system already wired into a network of fellow players that spans the globe and has the benefit of a playing audience that has known the game for thirty years, well, then, you're SET. UNO is a card game that, if it wasn't on the top shelf of your closet, then very likely was on the top shelf of your parents'.

Like Monopoly or Backgammon, it was (and still is) fun, simple to learn, quick-paced, and social. The game, for all its simplicity, has a staying power that's already spanned nearly half a century.

Download it, brush up your play skills,
and get into the fray as fast as you can.

Microsoft's selection of Xbox Live® Marketplace Arcade titles covers a broad range of territory already, from retro arcade classics from twenty years ago to independent startup games, action games, strategy titles and oddball hits. Curiously, they elected to host a console-based adaptation of a card game that has been around since this reviewer was a boy (and he's old … ).

History of UNO
UNO was the brainchild of Merle Robbins, who invented the game after some dissatisfaction with the family sessions of Crazy Eights. Robbins designed the game in 1971, and after enjoying the game with his family, he financed a printing of the game professionally at the modest price of eight thousand dollars for five thousand copies of the game, which they sold out of the family barbershop.

Later, they sold the rights of the game to a funeral home owner for $50,000, plus a very modest royalty of 10 cents for every deck sold. Still, the game is a monumental success in 80 countries worldwide has sold 150 million decks. That's a lot of dimes on top of $50,000.

UNO 's an oddity in that it's a game that you wouldn't go out of your way to make into a home console game—after all, it's a game you can recreate with a cheap deck of cards and a few interested players kicking around. Throw in some killer tunes, a social beverage or two, and you've got the ingredients of some seriously engaging fun for several hours.

What's cool is that Xbox Live® has made a unique playing field that is ideal for games like UNO—a common ground where gamers meet regularly to play on a number of different battlegrounds. Sometimes we're here to play Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3 or Halo® 2, or we're here to race in Project Gotham Racing® 3 or Need for Speed™ Most Wanted.

Set your favorite house rules.

Sometimes, we just want to play for fun, have a blast, not get any blood on our hands, and go home feeling like it was a good time well spent. And UNO's about that kind of a vibe.

UNO 's a simple card game where you draw a handful of cards—numbered zero through nine plus a few tricky ones—and you throw down cards into the center of the table in an attempt to empty your hand until you don't have any cards left. When you're down to one card in your hand you have to warn the other players you're a shark's grin shy of winning ("you shout "UNO!", hence the title).

Classic Gameplay
The rules of the game are simple—play cards until your hand is empty. You can throw cards out of your hand if you have a card that is the same color as what's on the pile, or if you have a card that is the next number—if there's a seven in the center of the table you can throw an eight out of your hand, for example. It sounds simple, but so have many historical battles that turned out to be different in the field.

Xbox Live UNO is unique in that it completely accommodates all of the 'house rules' you and your friends might have come up with over the course of the past few twenty years of camping trips playing the game. Your house rules are saved in your account, and are accessible to other players who might join in on a game you host. The fact that several processing cores and a motherboard full of the most powerful gaming hardware are going full-tilt depicting a playing table full of cards (and some pleasantly engaging theme music) is ironic and remarkable.

However, this thought will be forgotten quickly as you scan the table watching for opportunities to empty your hand of cards. Outside of the expected scoreboards and achievement awards, Xbox Live Marketplace is already offering modification packs for the game—the first is the anniversary theme pack, featuring new music, art, and music for the game—which will only enrich a game that boasts a heritage going back through three decades.

Download it, brush up your play skills, and get into the fray as fast as you can. This game is chat room meets strategy meets pastime, and will likely account for some of the most satisfying minutes you spend on Xbox Live this year. See you there. :)

Article by Xbox Addict