A promising mobile card game that feeds on nostalgia more than anything else.If you’re like me and played UNO a lot as a kid, Phase 10 World Tour may surely bring back some pleasant memories. Well, to be more precise, this is actually a digital version of a similar game called Phase 10 (itself a variant of rummy), which was marketed by toy manufacturing giant Mattel in 1982. With that said, I’m not convinced this is the exact same game as the 1982 original. Some purists decry how this is a “mutilated” version, though, luckily enough, I’m not a purist! Nevertheless, this game has even bigger problems than its lack of fidelity to a 30-year-old card game, as we’ll see shortly. But let’s talk about some positives first.

If you’re a newbie, you thankfully have the option (I italicized that on purpose!) to access a highly informative tutorial to get the gist of the mechanics, albeit, in all honestly, they’re not really that hard to master. The good thing about these tutorials (including the introductory tutorial I just described) is that, as highlighted just now, they’re optional. They’re not shoved down your throat, as it’s sadly the case with most modern mobile games. In this respect, Mattel shows some respect for their players’ intelligence, which is commendable!At first, you’ll be given a hand of seven cards. You’re then prompted to find a set of cards of the same number from that hand, and you can steal from the “discarded” deck as you see fit to improve your chances. You may likewise scrap a card that you don’t need to skip a turn. In addition, the game also allows you to add other cards to the set (provided that they fit the rule), so you may run out of cards faster.

The rules change slightly across matches, and the game will let you know each time it happens, also granting the possibility of opening a brief tutorial in each case (which, once again, is entirely optional).On a more negative note, while I somewhat enjoyed my time with this game, there are some small (and other not-so-small) criticisms I feel I should make. My first beef is with the input accuracy, which I found a bit clunky. More often than not, the game would trigger the card next to the one I was attempting to move, which was a bit frustrating.The other arguably more irritating issue is that I couldn’t help but feel a bit cheated by the “computer” (what you’re playing against most of the time). As I continued, I kept asking myself whether I was playing exactly as the developers intended me to, which kinda kills the charm.

I understand that these types of card games have a degree of randomness to them. Still, I suspected that the game got unjustifiably difficult, as if somehow that “randomness” was scripted to a degree (as in “not as random”, if you catch me). In this regard, the multiplayer managed to feel more satisfying than my single-player experience, though not by a substantial margin.

Naturally, I immediately inferred that these artificial difficulty spikes were there to “stimulate” me to purchase boosters, precisely the type of monetization I despise. I found the other monetization elements a bit less offensive, even when other players tend to criticize them just as much.

For example, I reckon the implementation of the “energy” system is not really as problematic here as it tends to be in other games. While I generally don’t appreciate games offering you essential gameplay features behind a paywall (apart from cosmetics or experience enhancers), here, you’re only encouraged to pay or wait. I’m not going to pretend that I enjoy this approach, but it’s the least of the problems where Phase 10 is concerned.To conclude, visually speaking, the game is not exactly an eye-sore, yet it doesn’t look terribly appealing either. The interface is clean and intuitive, but it errs on the generic side and lacks a bit of character, which is heavily disappointing considering it’s coming from Mattel, of all places!

Phase 10 World Tour is an interesting proposal with little delivery. I already had doubts about whether these types of games should be played against a computer in the first place, but the computer in this game is peculiarly offensive and prone to do proverbial “sleights of hand” more often than not. I’d probably let it slide if that weren't such an essential gameplay aspect. Sadly, the entire “house of cards” (pun definitely not intended, by the way!) relies on this computer’s behavior. Quite frankly, I would not recommend the game unless you only care about multiplayer.

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