UNO Flex Review

You know how to play classic UNO, but the new UNO Flex brings in new types of cards that add more strategy to the game and allow you to be flexible with how you play a card.

You’ll need two to eight players ages 7 and up to play this game. Each player receives a power card placed with the green side facing up and seven regular UNO cards in their hand. Just like in regular UNO, there will be a draw pile and a discard pile in the center of the playing space. On your turn, try to get rid of your cards by playing one card onto the discard pile. You can match the card by number, color, or symbol. If you don’t have a card that matches, draw one card from the draw pile. (You can play that new card right away if it matches.) When you’re down to one card, make sure to yell “Uno!” or suffer the penalty of adding two cards to your hand. The first player to go out wins. 

But this version of the game has some different cards. Some of the numbered cards are Flex cards, showing two colors. If the card to match is red, but you don’t have any red cards, but you do have a Flex card with a red secondary “flex” side, you can play that card. It doesn’t mean the card turns red for the next player, so if your Flex card has a primary side that is blue, blue is the next color to match.

Some of the Action cards are similar to what’s in a regular UNO card deck: Draw Two, Skip, and Reverse. But the Wild All Flip card means that you can call a new color and all players must flip their Power card. If the green side of the Power card is showing, players can use the Flex side of the cards, but if the red side is showing, you may not.

Even some of the Action cards are Flex cards. Flex Draw Two acts as a regular Draw Two card, but if you’re playing its Flex side, then every other player must draw one card. If you play the Flex side of a Flex Reverse card, play reverses order and the first player in that direction is skipped. Playing the Flex side of a Flex Skip means play passes over all other players so the turn comes back to you. The Flex side of a Flex Wild All Draw forces every other player to draw two cards. The Flex Wild Draw Four comes with a challenge when played regularly. You can only play it if you do not have any card in your hand that matches. The next player can accept drawing four cards or can call your bluff. If you really don’t have a card that matches, that player has to draw six cards, and if you do have a card that matches, you have to draw four cards. If you play this card’s Flex side, choose the player to draw four cards. And playing the Flex side of a Flex Wild Target Draw Two card means you choose the player to draw two cards. 

Something else interesting about these cards is that each one has special graphic notches to help colorblind players easily identify the colors on the card. 

The game comes with 112 cards and instructions.