Matthew BaileyGame 9# of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” and by the looks of it the second in our “Uno” sub-series that we seem to have started for the Summer is “Uno Show ’em No Mercy,” Played with Jack(9) and Toby(6).
“Uno Show ’em No Mercy” is one of the less complex versions and plays very similarly to regular “Uno,” with a few differences in how the general rules work.
The general idea here is that the penalty cards are much stronger than they are in regular “Uno.” However, there are some pretty cool mechanics that allow you to try and mitigate these and potentially turn the tide on your opponent.
The first key difference is that there are some pretty brutal cards, such as a reverse +4 card and + cards leading all the way up to +10, increasing from +2 in increments of 2.
One particularly interesting mechanic is that if you play a +2 card on your opponent, they can then lay either a + card of the same amount or higher to essentially add to the + stack and then move it along to the next player. This theoretically means that it could go all the way around in a circle back to the original player. This means you really have to think: do I want to lay my + cards now, when there is a risk it could circle all the way back around to me, and I would then have to ensure that I can raise it before having to take the whole pile myself!
This is actually quite an interesting mechanic in that you find yourself wanting to play the damaging cards but also wanting to keep them just in case you need to raise a future attack on yourself.
The other key difference in this version of “Uno” is that, as well as the usual way of winning by getting rid of all your cards, there is also a second win condition: to be the last player standing. If a player collects 25 cards during the game, which is actually a lot easier than you think—it could potentially be done in one round if players went around the circle once or twice continuously raising—then the player is out of the game.
This extra win condition adds an extra element of interest and means that there are more tactics involved than you would find in a normal game.
All is not perfect, though, and while I thought this was a cool variant, I definitely think it depends on the group you’re playing with. This could be a big hit or potentially a big miss.
Firstly, the 25-card cap decides if you are eliminated from the game or not. This is obviously a cool idea and is definitely a way of trying to eliminate an opponent, but in reality, holding up to 25 cards in your hand isn’t fun. Small kids find holding cards difficult at the best of times, and holding 20-plus cards for a six-year-old, such as Toby, was very difficult indeed. The main issue is that continuously having to count to see if you have 25 cards takes ages and really puts a damper on the latter stages of the game.
The other thing worth considering is that, as per the title, this is a really strong game with some strong take-that elements. A small child could potentially feel a bit victimized, and the first time Toby had four cards remaining and then had to pick up 18 didn’t exactly go down super well in terms of his feelings about the fairness of the game.
All in all, I would say this is a good “Uno” variant. I’m not sure I would recommend it for young children; butthis is definitely something that would work better with slightly older children. To be honest, this is the type of “Uno” that I can see working quite well with a group of adults after a few beers.
