UNO Flip!

Overview

UNO Flip! is UNO with a double-sided deck. Every card has a Light Side and a Dark Side, and a Flip card turns the entire game over — the discard pile, the draw pile, and every hand at the table. The Dark Side is the same game with much crueller penalties.

Two to ten players, 112 cards, first to 500 points.

Written against Mattel's instruction sheet, item GDR44 (PDF), quoted where the wording matters.

1. The deck

112 cards, and unusually the sheet itemises both faces.

Light Side (white border)

Cards	Count
Blue, green, red, yellow, 1–9	18 of each colour — 72
Draw One	8 — two per colour
Reverse	8 — two per colour
Skip	8 — two per colour
Flip	8 — two per colour
Wild	4
Wild Draw Two	4

Dark Side (black border)

Cards	Count
Pink, teal, orange, purple, 1–9	18 of each colour — 72
Draw Five	8 — two per colour
Reverse	8 — two per colour
Skip Everyone	8 — two per colour
Flip	8 — two per colour
Wild	4
Wild Draw Color	4

There are no zeros. Numbers run 1 to 9, two of each per colour. Classic UNO has a single 0 per colour and 19 number cards; Flip has 18 and none. This trips up anyone importing a house rule that does something with zeros.

The Dark Side uses different colours entirely — pink, teal, orange and purple — so a colour never carries across a flip.

2. Setup

1. Sort the deck so all Light Sides face one way. It is two-sided, so this matters.
2. Each player draws a card and reveals the Light Side; highest number deals. Symbols count as zero.
3. Deal seven cards each. Hold them Light Side toward you — which means your opponents are looking at your Dark Side the whole game.
4. The rest form the draw pile with the Light Side face down.
5. Turn the top card over to start the discard pile.

That third step is the design's whole trick: everyone can see the dark face of your hand and you cannot, and vice versa.

3. A turn

Match the top of the discard pile by number, colour or symbol, exactly as in classic UNO. If you cannot, draw one card — adding it to your hand facing the same way as the rest. If it plays, you may play it immediately.

You may also decline to play a playable card:

You may also choose NOT to play a playable card from your hand. If so, you must draw a card from the DRAW pile. If playable, that card can be put down in the same turn, however you may not play any other card from your hand after the draw.

4. The Flip card

Once the Flip card has been played, flip over the Discard Pile (the card just played will now be on the bottom), then the Draw Pile, then everyone's hands must flip to the other side.

Three piles turn over, in that order, and the card you just played ends up buried — the new top of the discard pile is whatever was underneath it, now showing its other face.

A Flip card may only be played on a matching colour or on another Flip card. Play stays on the new side until somebody flips it back.

5. Light Side action cards

Draw One — next player draws one and misses their turn. Playable on a matching colour or another Draw One.

Reverse — direction reverses. Matching colour or another Reverse. If turned up to start play, the dealer goes first and play moves right.

Skip — next player loses their turn. Matching colour or another Skip.

Wild — choose the colour that continues play, including the colour already in play. Playable even when you hold a playable card.

Wild Draw Two — choose the colour and the next player draws two and loses their turn. Conditional, as in classic UNO:

You may only play this card when you do NOT have another card in your hand that matches the COLOR on the DISCARD pile (but it is acceptable to play this card if you have matching number or Action Cards).

Challenge it and the challenged player shows their hand. Guilty, they draw the two instead. Innocent, you draw two plus another two — four in total.

6. Dark Side action cards

Draw Five — next player draws five and misses their turn.

Reverse — as on the Light Side.

Skip Everyone — every other player loses their turn and play returns to you. Matching colour or another Skip Everyone.

Wild — choose the colour.

Wild Draw Color — the nastiest card in the game:

the next player must draw until they get a color of your choosing (no matter how many cards they have to draw to do so) and lose their turn.

Same conditional as the Wild Draw Two — only playable when you hold no card matching the discard colour. Challenge it and, if the challenger is wrong, they draw until they hit the chosen colour plus an additional two.

7. Going out

Call "UNO" when you play your next-to-last card. Caught before the next player begins their turn and you draw two.

If the last card played in a round is a Draw One, Draw Five, Wild Draw Two or Wild Draw Color, the next player still takes the penalty, and those drawn cards are counted in the scoring.

If the draw pile runs out before anyone goes out, reshuffle the discard pile and carry on.

8. Scoring

Card	Points
Number cards 1–9	Face value
Draw One	10
Draw Five	20
Reverse	20
Skip	20
Flip	20
Skip Everyone	30
Wild	40
Wild Draw Two	50
Wild Draw Color	60

The winner of a round scores the cards left in everyone else's hands. First to 500 points wins.

REMEMBER TO SCORE POINTS BASED ON WHICH SIDE (LIGHT OR DARK) THE GAME ENDED ON.

That note is on the sheet twice, which tells you how often it gets missed. A hand of Dark Side cards is worth far more than the same hand counted light.

Alternative scoring, also on the sheet: tally what each player is left holding each round, and when someone reaches 500 the player with the lowest total wins.

9. What the sheet does not say

• Nothing about stacking. No Draw One onto Draw One to accumulate, in either direction. As with classic UNO, the sheet is silent.
• No two-player rules. Reverse-as-Skip is not mentioned.
• Nothing about what happens to the Flip card's own colour once buried.
• Nothing about a 0 or 7 rule — there are no zeros to begin with.

Commonly argued

• There are no 0 cards. Numbers are 1–9, 18 per colour per side.
• A flip turns over three things — discard pile, draw pile, and every hand.
• The card you flipped with gets buried, so the new top card is the one that was beneath it.
• Flip cards need a colour match or another Flip. They are not wild.
• Wild Draw Color makes you draw until the colour appears, with no cap.
• A failed challenge costs four on the Light Side, or draw-to-colour plus two on the Dark Side.
• Score by the side the round ended on. Dark Side hands are worth much more.
• Dark Side colours are different colours, so nothing carries across a flip.

Where this comes from

Mattel's instruction sheet for UNO Flip!, item GDR44, hosted on Mattel's own servers. One printing of one SKU, unversioned. Mattel also publishes a sheet under item GDG37 with the same rules text.

Where this entry and the sheet disagree, the sheet wins. Tell us.