Nuke Your Neighbor

If I had to sum this one up in one word, it would have to be Nuketacular.

This game rocks, it has the overall polish and atmosphere that other video card games lack and it does what most others don’t – make the most of the medium.

For you see this is no ordinary card game, one that you could play around the table at home, no no. Where this game really shines requires the use of the curvy slab of plastic and circuitry you and I call a 360 controller, but I’m getting ahead of myself so I’ll settle down and get into the review.

Basically at its core, Nuke Your Neighbor from developer SD Ruthless is a mash up of Uno, Rummy & Switch but it does it with a delicious twist.

Just like Uno, there are Wild cards – Jacks, Reverse cards – Aces, Skip cards – Sevens, Draw Two cards – you guessed it & the namesake card the NUKE – which is this games equivalent of the Draw Four card in Uno except you must draw…wait for it…FIVE CARDS! That is an unadulterated game-turning-on-head card right there and it rears it’s big carnage rendering head on a few occasions per round ensuring that the result of any given round is never a foregone conclusion.

Like those other games the winner of a round is whoever can get rid of their cards first, sounds simple right?

Well on top of all those special cards flying everywhere making things interesting, whenever someone gets down to their last card instead of having to simply press the “Uno” button like a certain unnamed XBLA title, they must enter a randomly generated combination of face buttons, sounds simple right?

Well on top of entering the combination, the player must beat all the other players to the punch as whenever someone reaches the final card every player has the combination on the screen and it is a race to enter it first. If the player with one card left doesn’t enter it first then two more cards are automatically added to their hand from the deck and they must regroup and try again.

Sounds simple right? Well on top of…oh no actually that part is pretty simple…but damn is it FUN.

Then there is Wild mode, ah beautiful Wild mode. Enter the combination first, nuke someone or make someone draw two and you get a bonus block. Accumulate three bonus blocks in a round without being nuked, made to draw two or losing the button combination battle that you started and you go into Wild mode. Once in Wild mode your name catches on fire and every card you play is Wild, meaning it doesn’t matter what card it is, you can play it. This adds extra importance and focus to the combination battles, which compliments the best aspect of this title well.

The only things I would have liked to see are CPU avatars for a bit more personality, some tense music during play & a tutorial mode for people (like me) who like to get stuck in without having to read a manual first.

For 400 points you might think it’s a little expensive for a video card game, but for the hours of entertainment potentially to be had with online play, if you are the type of gamer who likes to chill but not completely chill then this is the perfect choice.

It has a perfect balance of a traditional card game, fast paced action and strategy all with a pickup and playability (especially if you know how to play Uno and who doesn’t?) that earns it the prestigious honor of being the best video card game – nay the best card game – I have played in my entire career.

Well done Mr Ruthless, well done.