Uno could very well be the best $5 I ever spent.
Even if you have never played Uno before, it's an easy game to learn. Four players, in a circle, are dealt seven cards each, which are colored red, blue, green, or yellow; some cards have numbers and others have actions applied to them. One card is also dealt into the center discard pile, and play begins with a randomly chosen player. Play can circle in either direction around the circle. A card can be played if it matches the color, number, or type of card that is on top of the pile. Wild cards can also be played if none of these conditions can be met. However, if a player cannot play, a card must be drawn, making it harder to win. The action cards involve making other players draw cards, skipping turns, and reversing play. When a player has one card left in his hand, Uno must be called. Play continues until one player or team wins.
To make things more interesting, Uno's rules can be customized and tweaked. There are many options to change, such as how card drawing works, whether or not penalties from draw cards can be stacked, and the score necessary to win, which can even be turned off. From my experience online, I can tell you that hardly anybody actually uses scoring, so it's nothing to be too worried about. Perhaps a few more options would have been nice, but there are enough options available to change to significantly alter the flow of the game to your liking.
The graphics of the game do leave a bit to be desired, but considering this is a simple card game, perhaps leaving the graphics simple was for the best. The cards look like real Uno cards, the animations on most actions flow well, and there are no stand out frame rate issues. The background is a bit plain, which is a tad disappointing. Still, for a simple card game, perhaps a simple background was best.
The only real stand-out issue with the game is its terrible sound. The background is this looping, overly cheerful elevator-like music that you will likely mute right away. The free downloadable deck, the 35th anniversary deck, which celebrates the thirty-fifth birthday of Uno features even worse music. This music is a fiesta-like party theme, which also loops, and after about an hour is just grinding. Considering this is the only sound in the game other a few card sounds or the cheers of victory, it's hard to say muting the game would be a bad thing to do.
Uno supports like most other Xbox Live games the ability to play player matches and ranked matches. The game's ranked matches are always the same settings, settings that make it difficult to win, no matter how skilled you are. Sure, there is strategy involved, but with the way the rules are set up it seems ranked matches are more tests of luck than anything else. So, likely enough, you will spend most of your time in player matches; even over a year after its release there are still many games to choose from. The game does feature a single player mode, but the computer AI is not very good, so don't expect too much from it.
Uno is a fun, simple game that anyone can enjoy. Sure, it may not sate your bloodlust like Gears of War would, but for five dollars, this game is hard to beat. It also features support for the Xbox Live Vision Camera if you own one, which has the potential to make the game even more interesting. It also features leaderboards that rank you based on the total number of wins you have in single player, player matches, and ranked matches, as well as keeping track of your Trueskill rating. For $5, Uno is a bargain that's hard to beat.