When it comes to games, bigger doesn’t necessarily always mean better. You get monstrous games with hundreds of components, and people go crazy for it. But does a game really need all that to really be a success? Uh-Oh! is a minimalistic party game that aims to challenge that way of thinking. Does it succeed, or is its one and only card not enough to win everyone over?
| Uh-Oh! (2021) | Cosmo Duck |
| 3-100+ players | 5 minutes |
| Ages 6+ | BGG Weight – Not yet available |
Disclaimer: We were provided with a preview copy of Uh-Oh! for the purposes of this preview. You are invited to check out the Kickstarter campaign when it launches later this month! -L
Uh-Oh! is a one-card party game that plays in about 5 minutes. Players will be making bets and passing the card around the group in an effort to eliminate opponents and be the last player remaining. To setup for a game, choose a starting player and place the card in front of them, Yay-side up. That’s it, easy peasy! To start a round, each player will secretly make a bet under the table or behind their back. Bets can range from 0-5, and are counted on fingers (zero is a closed fist, etc.). Once everyone has decided on their bet, all bets are simultaneously revealed to the group. The first player then moves the Uh-Oh! card clockwise around the group corresponding to their bet. So if I bet 2, I would move the card over 2 players. The next player then moves the card according to their bet, and so on, until all bets have been resolved.
If a player has bet Zero, when their turn comes around, the card gets flipped to the Uh-Oh side. If another Zero were to be resolved in the same round, the card ‘explodes’ and eliminates the player who has the card in front of them! What happens if the card makes it an entire round without exploding? If it’s on the Yay side, then a new round starts and no players are eliminated. If the card is on the Uh-Oh side but didn’t explode during the round (a second Zero was not played), it explodes now, eliminating the player that ended up with the card in front of them. A new round then begins, flipping the card back to the Yay side, and with players making new secret bets. The game continues in this fashion until there is only one player left! Or if 3 rounds have gone by without a single explosion, the card goes supernova and eliminates everyone left….
So as you can probably tell, this is a very simple game. In terms of strategy, there really isn’t any – it’s all pretty much luck-based. You know what your bet is, but you have no idea what anyone else is going to do, so you really can’t strategize or plan ahead. One neat thing about the gameplay, though, is that everyone’s bet is played in turn order, even if the card is not necessarily in front of them when it is their ‘turn’ to resolve their bet. That just throws an even bigger wrench into things because it makes it impossible for you to count ahead and try to anticipate or target other players with your bets.
To touch on components, this game is literally only one card. And you really don’t even need this card to play. You just need something two-sided to keep track of the ‘uh-oh’ status. I did get a physical copy of the card from the publisher, and I have to say that it is simple and cute. The artwork on both sides gave me a chuckle, and the card itself is nice and sturdy.
What do I think of Uh-Oh! overall? Is it the greatest party game out there? No. But it’s a good one for when you need something on the fly. Maybe you weren’t planning to play a game, but the group has some time to kill – bust this bad boy out while you wait! You don’t even really need any official components to play, which makes it even more accessible wherever you are. Uh-Oh! is a neat little idea that makes for a cute filler game. Consider backing it on Kickstarter soon!
