GENRE
	Puzzle
	DEVELOPER
	Black Lantern Studios
	PUBLISHER
	Destination Software (DSI)
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONNECTIVITY
	No
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Destination Software, Inc. (DSI) is one of the most prolific distributors of family-game-to-video-game software, focusing exclusively on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Their resume of game adaptations includes Battleship, Clue, Connect Four and Sorry. The UNO license is, likewise, an important part of DSI’s game lineup, with several variations -- including UNO and UNO 52 -- available or on their way to the GBA and DS markets. UNO Freefall is a Tetris-like variation on the classic UNO card game, and it comes to GBA as a budget title. Unfortunately, some serious flaws keep this game from being a really compelling puzzle title.

visuals

Most players probably don’t give much thought to the visuals on a title in this genre. That said, UNO Freefall looks good. Backgrounds are textured and nicely-done, fonts are large and stylish, and the game’s signature UNO blocks are easy-to-read and suitably big. Freefall employs a few subtle, but nice effects, including a slick beam-out effect for blocks leaving the queue and a nice dissolve effect for disappearing blocks.

The game also uses some practical visual cues that enhance the way the game is played. (See the gameplay section for more on the game rules behind these visuals.) For example, a pair of blocks on the verge of dissolving emit a brief shimmering effect that makes for a nice visual cue, showing they player where a near-complete block group is located. Another visual cue comes from the timer bar, which adds a new level of blocks after depleting; the bar will flash before time expires to warn the player.

audio

The music in UNO Freefall is, like the visuals, surprisingly good. There are four tracks to choose from, and all of them create a full, ambient sound that is more inspired than one would expect from a budget title. Sound effects are few, but they get the job done, giving specific audio cues to both disappearing blocks and special combos that can rack up additional points. The crushing sound that accompanies combos is a particularly nice touch.

gameplay

Those unfamiliar with how UNO Freefall is played may find themselves a bit confused at first, especially given how bare bones the manual is; but the game makes up for it with a decent set of in-game instructions, complete with illustrations. Equally fortunate, the learning curve is small enough that a reasonably-intelligent player can figure out most of the game in under a half-hour.

UNO Freefall incorporates many of the basic features of a standard UNO card game and places them in a Tetris-style setting, where the object is to keep blocks from stacking up to the very top. But unlike Tetris, UNO Freefall tasks you to remove blocks of like color or number that are horizontal or vertical to one another, rather than a solid row of blocks.

The basic game operates under a sort of rule of three. Essentially, blocks disappear when you can get three touching blocks that have something in common with each other. For example, three of the same color cause all three to disappear. The same would happen with a blue 4, a blue 7 and a red 7. All the standard UNO cards are here, including the standard numbers, Reverse, Skip, Draw Two, Wild, and everybody’s favorite, Wild Draw Four. Each of the non-numbered cards have special effects depending on the game mode, although some of those effects are only broadly similar to those in the original card game.

The gameplay offers a few additional layers of challenge. One is the presence of UNO blocks, which are similar to UNO cards turned over. The block underneath is only revealed when adjacent blocks are turned over. A second layer of challenge is a time bar, which repeatedly cycles down; when it disappears, a new layer of blocks appears at the bottom of the blocks in play. Between the blocks that fall increasingly faster as the player progresses (just like Tetris) and the blocks that periodically spring up from below, the game offers a decent amount of depth.

In addition to the standard classic” game, UNO Freefall offers a few other single player gameplay modes. Most of these modes, unfortunately, aren’t as much fun as the classic mode and wear out their welcome quickly. More interesting is the collection of vs. AI modes, which pit the player against up to three CPU opponents. This mode mixes up the action by allowing both the player and the CPU competitors to hurt each other by triggering accumulated blocks. For example, Wild Draw Four drops four random blocks on a single opponent. In general, going up against three AI opponents can be a brutal experience, even on the easy mode; gamers looking for a challenge over and above the standard classic mode will find it here.

Although UNO Freefall has some merit as a puzzle title, it also suffers from some serious disappointments. For one, there is no multiplayer mode for playing against other humans; the game only supports competitive play versus CPU opponents. Two, the game requires a player to enter a name and choose an avatar every time the game is turned on; there is no way to save that information -- or any information -- on the cartridge. Three, although the game keeps score of each game, there is no high score list of any sort or any other benchmark of how good a score is.

All of these shortcomings are inexcusable; even the Game Boy pack-in Tetris had multiplayer back in 1989, and a great many GBA games incorporate a small amount of on board memory to save profiles and high scores. Without these features, UNO Freefall’s versus AI mode seems like a cheap substitute, and the name-entry and scorekeeping functions come off looking like useless components.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

Ultimately, UNO Freefall winds up being a heavily-mixed bag. On one hand, it is a game that has solid production values, an interesting gameplay concept, challenging AI, and one or two gameplay modes that have some staying power. For players looking for a simple pick-up-and-play puzzler, this game is that.

Unfortunately, UNO Freefall also suffers from some tragic design decisions, particularly regarding the lack of features that a late-cycle GBA game simply ought to have. Worse still, GBA users really get the short end of the stick here, since DS owners can get three games -- Uno, Skip-Bo and Uno Freefall -- all on one cartridge for roughly the same price as this game, plus wireless multiplayer to boot. These issues, combined with the fact that there are better, more full-featured puzzlers out there for the GBA (Puyo Pop, for example) make it hard to recommend this game, even at its initial $15 budget price point.

5.0/10