Sega’s brain teaser: Touch de Uno DS

Touch de Uno DS fell off the radar, even though it is going to be released in Japan. Its history is sort of odd, Touch de Uno was originally an arcade game and even though the name suggests it is not a touch screen version of the card game. Touch de Uno has more in common with Big Brain Academy, you’re given mind teasers to solve and everything is controlled with the touch screen. In one game you see pieces of a broken sign on the top screen and you have to piece them together in your mind and tap on the appropriate sign. Another game tests your memory by showing a grid you colored hexagons. After a quick glance the board flips over and you need to remember which blocks were colored.

Touch de Uno DS is geared at the emerging market of neo casual gamers that picked up Brain Age, but passed on Mario Kart DS. What really makes this release interesting is it is another sign that Sega is continuing to dig in their vault of arcade games for appropriate releases. Touch de Uno heads to the DS because it has an audience ready for it and Ghost Squad goes to the Wii because the remote can act like a light gun. Perhaps one day Sega will dig deeper and bring out Top Skater or Brave Fire Fighter on a console in the future.