UNO Classic 2007By Concrete SoftwareMGN Rating - Rating Legend
1 star: Find something else; save your money
2 star: Below average; not recommended
3 star: Average; performs as advertised but not inspiring
4 star: Good; worth the money
5 star: Great; best of its kind on the market
Review by Adam HeitkeReview Date / Feb 14, 2008Looking for a rendition of one of the most popular card games? Concrete Software has developed a true-to-form port of the classic Uno game called Uno Classic 2007.
Game Play:Concrete does a great job of making the navigation interface clean and easy to understand. The game opens up by asking if you want Sound On/Off. This is especially helpful for the times when you definitely don’t want bells and whistles resounding from your mobile device by accident (School, Church, Public Restrooms…).
The main menu presents you with some standard options including the ever important game Instructions. Included in the main menu is also a Profile menu which gives access to a simple player customization applet. You won’t be designing your next Mii, but it adds cool points in my book.
Uno accommodates one player mode or multi-player game play (although not as cool as Concrete’s other apps based on Bluetooth multi-player), as each player takes turns on the same device.
Game play begins in a sort of familiar Windows Hearts layout with the addition of the cartoon personification of your opponents. Due to screen real-estate, your hand of cards is displayed in a left-right scrolling view. This took me a second to grasp as I drew a card from the pile on my first turn when I really didn’t need to. But after the 2 second learning curve, it functions quite adequately. For the novices, the scrolling hand of cards pops up valid cards that can be played on your turn.
At regular speed the game moves quite well. There are no long pauses, and it is easy to follow along with whose turn it is, and what cards have just been played. The game simulation is accurate and true to the real card game, and don’t forget to call “UNO” when you are down to one card...
Losing the game is not defeating and I wasn’t discouraged from playing again. Winning is also not very emotional. I was hoping for some bursting bombs, or something.
Back on the main menu Uno has a game statistics section, so you can keep track of your overall stats, or reset them once you get your UNO skills back to back up to bragging par to erase any newbie evidence.
Graphics:Clean 2D cartoon graphics are used throughout the game, and Concrete did a modest job of adding tasty animations where appropriate.
Sound:The in game sound effects suit the game perfectly and are not overdone. I’m not really sure where the inspiration for the opening anthem came…little bit spacey / psychedelic, not what I would expect.
Overall Rating:Concrete Software has delivered a quality UNO sim for the Windows Mobile platform. Easy to understand game play, quality 2D graphics with appropriate sound. Replay value for card games is always good, especially if you like the card game. I would encourage anyone looking for new pass time on their mobile device to pick this one up. Enjoy!