After sharing some of our disappointment in Uno All Wild it only seems fair to balance that out with our thoughts on Uno Flip which we bought at the same time.
What the flip?
In Uno Flip all the cards are double sided with a light side and a dark side to them. The light side of the cards plays like a regular game of Uno with the familiar red, blue, yellow and green number and action cards and expected wild cards. There is one additional action card in the pack though – the flip. Once the flip card is played all players need to turn over all the cards in their hand and the draw and discard piles on the table are also flipped.
Play then continues as before using the dark side of the cards, but whatever is now on top of the discard pile is taken as the last card played instead.
The Dark Side
When you flip the cards over to their dark side it isn’t just a case of the familiar red, blue yellow and green being replaced by stylish teal, orange, purple and pink. The cards take on a darker feel with new action cards. Instead of draw four for instance you now have to draw 5. There is also the addition of a skip everyone card and a “draw colour” card which requires you to keep drawing cards from the draw pile until you draw one of the colour specified by the person playing the card. It is quite frankly cruel and can result in a player having to draw a whole handful of cards sometimes. Or, they may pick up the required colour first time. It’s down to the luck of the draw. Literally.
Changing the game
Flipping in Uno Flip changes the game far more than I imagined it would. Just the fact that you very suddenly are faced with a whole different hand can actually be quite jarring, and just when you might be on a run to get rid of all your cards you just need another player to play a draw 5 card and it can all change again. And then there’s the prospect of having to flip back to the light side again too – which is completely possible if someone plays a dark flip card.
What we thought of Uno Flip
Can you improve Uno? It’s such a classic game that whilst there can be many different versions most people normally agree that the classic is still the best. Although with Uno Flip I fear that opinion may be flipped on its head.
We took both original Uno and Uno Flip on our recent camping trip and Uno itself never came out of the box, such was the demand from the kids to play Flip instead. It really does change the game so much, and adds an extra level of excitement to it too.
It’s not all perfect though. I have to be honest and say that whilst flipping the cards in your hand over is easy enough, having to flip the draw and discard piles too is a bit more of a faff. The dark side of the cards looks fantastically stylish, but unfortunately that makes the light side look slightly cheap and tacky in comparison. Something that I didn’t think possible with a classic like Uno.
As with Uno All Wild, I have the same complaint that the box is a terrible design (although we did take a Uno Carry Case camping with us – more on that soon) and the cards themselves are cheap feeling compared to the vintage Uno cards that we usually play with.
My final comments though have to be about scoring in Uno Flip. Oh dear…
Uno Flip Scoring
Regular Uno players will know that number cards are scored at face value, coloured action cards are 25 points each and all wild cards are 50 points each. In Uno Flip the scoring system is insanely complicated.
- Number cards: Face value.
- Draw One: 10 points.
- Draw Five, Reverse, Skip, Flip: 20 points.
- Skip Everyone: 30 points.
- Wild: 40 points.
- Wild Draw Two: 50 points.
- Wild Draw Color: 60 points.
Basically an action card could score anywhere from 10 to 60 points. Trying to remember what everything is worth when playing the game is nigh on impossible and at the end of each game we kept having to get the instruction sheet out so we could look it all up. A card in the pack with the scores on might have helped a bit, but it still just seems far more convoluted than it need be.
Once you have worked out scores though it can again be a very high scoring game. In a multiplayer game it is definitely possible for someone to get the 500 points required to win in a single hand. I would definitely suggest that families have some house rules here as to what score they are going to play to as 500 just doesn’t seem high enough.
Final thoughts
Uno Flip has definitely won a place in our family’s gaming hearts. We’ve already been taking about removing the flip cards and maybe playing a dark side only version to remove the faff of having to flip the draw and discard piles.
We also think it should be possible to play on Zoom or Skype in a very similar way to how we play Uno with our friend Gary. As long as all parties have an Uno Flip deck it should be straightforward with just always declaring outlet what we’re playing and what is on the top of the discard pile after flipping.
Flip is definitely here to stay!
Where to buy Uno Flip
We picked up our copy of Uno Flip in Smyths Toys, but have also seen it for sale in Asda locally. You can pick up a copy online here.
Disclaimer: We paid for our copy of Uno Flip and all opinions remain my own. This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. If you go to Amazon via them and make a purchase it will cost no more than normal, but I will receive a very small commission. Thank you for any purchases you do make. They are greatly appreciated right now.
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