Setting up the Game
Grab 1-9 friends or family members to play with you. The game is pretty simple, so you can include people of a wide range of ages, starting at about 7 years old. If you want to play with a really little kid, you can have them join up with someone older to help them out.
Shuffle the cards and deal 7 per player. Deal one card face up in the middle where everyone can see it. This will be the start of your discard pile. If the first card is a Trade Hands, put it back in the deck and choose a new one to start the discard pile. If you can’t decide who should be the dealer, have everyone pick a card, and whoever has the highest number on it gets to deal. (Special cards count as 0 for this purpose.)
Set up the card launcher by adding batteries and inserting cards. If this is the first time you’ve played the game, you’ll have to take the top and bottom halves of the launcher out of the packaging and click them together. If it’s a new launcher or out of power, put batteries into the battery compartment on the bottom of the launcher. Once the launcher's ready, open it up and put the remaining cards facedown inside. Close the launcher back up. Now you’re ready to start playing!
Starting to Play
Match one card on your hand to the top card on the discard pile. You can use any of the cards in your hand, and it can match by number, color, or word. If you have a match, place it face up on the discard pile. This will become the card that the next person uses to start their turn. For example, if the card on top of the discard pile is a blue 3, you can discard a 3 of any color, or a blue of any number or word.
Press the Launcher button if you don't have any cards you can play. The Launcher will shoot an unpredictable number of cards out to keep you on your toes. Sometimes you won’t get any, but you have to take any cards it shoots out and add them to your hand. Your turn is now over once you've collected your cards—you don't get to discard any. If there are some cards sticking halfway out of the launcher, you have to take all of those too!
Continue playing clockwise, until there is a reverse card. Each person uses the previous person's discarded card as the starting point for them to play. As it becomes each person’s turn, rotate the launcher in their direction, so they can easily get the cards.
Follow the special card instructions. The special cards have words on them, not just numbers, and these words will either effect you or other players when you play the card. Most of the cards are self-explanatory, but some can be more confusing. Here's a list of what each does: Reverse: reverses direction of play. Skip: skips the next player’s turn. Hit 2: You have to hit the Launcher button twice. Trade Hands: Trade your hand with a player of your choosing. Discard All: This card lets you discard all the cards of the same color as the last card on the discard pile. Wild Card: can be played on any card. The person who played it gets to decide the color going forward. Wild All Hit: The person who played it calls a color, and then everyone has to hit the Launcher button except the player who played Wild All Hit. The play continues with the color the player called. Wild Hit-Fire: The person who played it calls a color, and the person after them presses the launcher button until it launches cards. Then they take all the cards and lose their turn.
Winning UNO Attack
Yell “Uno” when you first put down your second to last card. Make sure to do this, because if someone catches you sneakily putting down your second to last card, you have to press the Launch button twice! You can’t catch a player for not saying UNO after the next player begins their turn, so pay close attention to your fellow players’ hands.
Discard all the cards before anyone else to win the round. You can’t go out on a Trade Hands card, so play this one earlier. It's surprisingly hard to discard all your cards, because once your fellow players see you're down to just one, they'll try to skip your turn or stick you with new cards. Younger players will appreciate having a winner after every round, instead of the more complicated scoring system if you extend the game.
Play multiple rounds and keep score of points to create a longer game. If you don't want to end the game after just one round, you can play until one person scores 500 points. You get points for the cards left in your opponents’ hands once you are out of cards. Numbered cards are counted by their face value, Reverse/Skip/Hit 2 are 20 points, Discard All/Trade Hands are 30 points, and all Wild cards are 50 points.
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