Uno Hello Kitty — sold by Mattel Games as UNO Hello Kitty & Friends — wraps the familiar colour-and-number matching game in Sanrio artwork and adds one card you will not find in a standard pack: the Wild Badtz-Maru. If you already know how to play UNO, you can pick this edition up in a couple of minutes, but the Badtz-Maru card, the pink fourth suit and a few turn-order details are worth getting right. This guide explains the deck, setup, every card, scoring and the rule mix-ups players most often argue about — all checked against Mattel’s own instruction sheet.
Quick Facts
| Full name | UNO Hello Kitty & Friends |
| Publisher | Mattel Games |
| Licence | Sanrio (Hello Kitty and friends) |
| Players | 2 to 10 |
| Recommended age | 7 years and up |
| Deck size | 112 cards |
| Starting hand | 7 cards each |
| Signature card | Wild Badtz-Maru (4 in the deck) |
| Winning score | First to 500 points |
| Released | Around 2017–2018 |
| Availability | Older release; mainly found secondhand or via specialty sellers |
What Uno Hello Kitty Actually Is
Uno Hello Kitty is a licensed re-skin of the classic Mattel card game, released around 2017–2018 under licence from Sanrio, the Japanese company behind Hello Kitty. The characters and colour palette change, but the game underneath is standard UNO: you race to empty your hand by matching the top card of the discard pile, and you call “UNO” when you are down to one card. Because the rules are so close to the original, it is a gentle way to introduce the basic UNO rules to younger players while still giving adults a tactical game.
The set is built for 2 to 10 players and recommended for ages 7 and up. It is an older release that is no longer in wide retail distribution, so a brand-new, sealed copy is now easiest to find secondhand or through specialty toy sellers rather than on general supermarket shelves. Collectors prize it for the artwork featuring Hello Kitty and friends such as My Melody, Keroppi and the mischievous penguin Badtz-Maru.
What Is Inside the 112-Card Deck
The deck holds 112 cards. That is four more than a standard 108-card UNO pack, and the extra four are the edition’s signature Wild Badtz-Maru cards. The four suits are blue, green, yellow and pink — the Hello Kitty version recolours the usual red suit as pink, although Mattel’s own instruction sheet is inconsistent and still refers to “red” in a couple of places. The Sanrio characters are printed as decoration across the cards; they do not change how matching works, so you still match purely by colour, number or symbol.
| Card type | Quantity | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Number cards | 76 | 19 in each colour (blue, green, pink, yellow): one 0 and two each of 1–9 |
| Draw Two | 8 | Two in each colour |
| Reverse | 8 | Two in each colour |
| Skip | 8 | Two in each colour |
| Wild | 4 | Plain colour-change wilds |
| Wild Draw Four | 4 | Colour change plus a four-card penalty |
| Wild Badtz-Maru | 4 | Exclusive to this edition (see below) |
Setting Up a Round
Setup is identical to standard UNO. Each player draws one card, and whoever draws the highest number becomes the dealer (any symbol card counts as zero for this). The dealer shuffles and deals seven cards to every player, regardless of how many people are at the table.
- Place the rest of the deck face down as the Draw pile.
- Turn the top card over to start the Discard pile; this sets the opening colour and number.
- If the first flipped card is an action card, its rule applies at once — a Draw Two makes the first player draw two and miss their turn, a Skip skips them, and a Reverse makes the dealer go first with play moving the other way.
- If a Wild Draw Four is flipped to start, it is returned to the deck and another card is turned over.
Taking Your Turn: Matching Cards
On your turn you must play a card that matches the top of the discard pile by colour, number or symbol. For example, on a pink 7 you may play any pink card, any colour 7, or a Wild. If you cannot match, you draw a single card from the Draw pile. If that drawn card can be played you may put it down immediately; otherwise your turn ends. You are also allowed to draw voluntarily even when you hold a playable card, but then only the drawn card may be played that turn.
Note that the official rules use a single-draw rule: you take exactly one card when you cannot play, not a handful. Drawing repeatedly “until you can play” is a popular house rule, not the printed rule, so agree on it before you start. If the Draw pile ever empties before anyone wins, the discard pile is reshuffled (leaving the current top card in place) to form a fresh Draw pile — the same approach used across standard UNO when the draw pile runs out.
Key Points
- Match the top discard card by colour, number or symbol; draw one card if you cannot play.
- Four suits: blue, green, yellow and pink (pink replaces the usual red).
- Seven cards each to start, for 2 to 10 players aged 7 and up.
- The Wild Badtz-Maru makes the player with the fewest cards draw four — not the next player.
- Call “UNO” on your second-to-last card or risk a two-card penalty.
- Numbers score face value, action cards 20, and all wilds (including Badtz-Maru) 50; first to 500 wins.
The Standard Action Cards
Three action cards appear in all four colours and work exactly as they do in the original game. They can only be played on a matching colour or on the same type of action card.
| Action card | Effect | Two-player note |
|---|---|---|
| Skip | The next player loses their turn. | Skips your opponent, so you play again. |
| Reverse | Reverses the direction of play. | With two players it returns the turn to you, acting like a Skip. |
| Draw Two | Next player draws two cards and misses their turn. | Opponent draws two, then you play again. |
Two wild cards round out the standard set. A plain Wild lets you choose the colour that continues play and can be played at any time, even when you hold a matchable card. The Wild Draw Four changes the colour and forces the next player to draw four and miss a turn — but you may only play it when you have no card matching the current colour in your hand. If you think it was played illegally you can challenge it, and the way a Wild Draw Four challenge is settled matters: a guilty player draws the four instead of you, but a wrong challenge costs you six cards.
The Wild Badtz-Maru Card: the Edition’s Twist
This is the one rule most online guides get wrong, so it is worth stating precisely from Mattel’s instruction sheet. The Wild Badtz-Maru card does not punish the next player in turn order. Instead, when you play it, the player currently holding the fewest cards must draw four cards from the Draw pile. If several players are tied for the fewest, every tied player draws four. Like any wild, it also lets you choose the colour that continues play, and if it is flipped to start the game, the player to the dealer’s left picks the opening colour.
That targeting rule makes Badtz-Maru a natural anti-leader weapon: it hits whoever is closest to winning rather than simply the person sitting next to you. If you are the one in front, holding only one or two cards, expect it to land on you. Each Badtz-Maru card is worth 50 points if it is caught in a hand at the end of a round, the same as the other wilds, so it is also risky to hoard. There are four of them in the deck.
Scoring and Winning
A round ends the moment one player plays their last card. That player scores the total value of every card still held by their opponents, so the aim over several rounds is both to go out quickly and to avoid being caught with heavy cards. The first player to reach 500 points across rounds wins the game. The card values are standard UNO values, explained in more depth in our guide to how UNO scoring works.
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Number cards 0–9 | Face value |
| Draw Two, Reverse, Skip | 20 each |
| Wild and Wild Draw Four | 50 each |
| Wild Badtz-Maru | 50 each |
An alternative method some groups prefer is to tally the points each player is left with at the end of every round; when someone crosses 500, the player with the lowest total wins instead. Agree on which method you are using before the first deal so there is no dispute later.
Saying “UNO” and Ending a Round
When you play your second-to-last card you must call “UNO” to warn the table that you have one card left. If you forget and an opponent catches you before the next player begins their turn, you draw two penalty cards. If the last card played in a round is a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four, the next player still has to draw those cards, and they are counted when the round is scored.
Common Mistakes and Rule Clarifications
Beyond the Badtz-Maru confusion, a handful of points trip up new groups:
- Badtz-Maru targets the smallest hand, not the next player. This is the single most common error copied between online rule pages.
- Two-player Reverse. With only two people, reversing direction sends the turn straight back to you, so a Reverse works like a Skip — the same quirk explained in our guide to the UNO Reverse card.
- Draw Two does not stack by default. Under the printed rules the penalised player simply draws two and loses the turn; piling Draw Twos onto one another is a house rule.
- Wild Draw Four is restricted. You may only play it with no matching colour in hand, which is exactly what a challenge tests.
How It Compares With Other Themed Editions
Uno Hello Kitty sits alongside Mattel’s other licensed packs that keep core UNO intact but add one signature card. The 112-card count and the pattern of a single exclusive wild mirror editions such as Uno Angry Birds and its King Pig card. If the Sanrio theme is the draw, Hello Kitty delivers the artwork without steepening the learning curve; if you want a bigger rules twist, the themed line has spicier options. Either way, the game suits families, Sanrio fans and casual groups who want a recognisable game with a cute, collectible finish.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many cards are in an Uno Hello Kitty deck?
There are 112 cards: 76 numbers (19 in each of blue, green, pink and yellow), 24 action cards (eight each of Draw Two, Reverse and Skip), four Wild, four Wild Draw Four and four Wild Badtz-Maru cards.
What does the Badtz-Maru card actually do?
When you play it, the player holding the fewest cards must draw four from the Draw pile; if players are tied for the fewest, each of them draws four. It is also a wild, so you choose the colour that continues play. It is worth 50 points if left in a hand at scoring.
Can you play Uno Hello Kitty with two people?
Yes. It supports 2 to 10 players. In a two-player game, a Reverse card simply sends the turn back to you, so it has the same effect as a Skip.
Is Uno Hello Kitty different from normal UNO?
The setup, matching, action cards, scoring and 500-point target are all standard UNO. The only real rules difference is the four Wild Badtz-Maru cards; the rest is Sanrio artwork and a pink suit in place of the usual red.
Is Uno Hello Kitty still sold?
It is an older release from around 2017–2018 and is no longer in wide retail distribution, so a sealed copy is usually found secondhand or through specialty sellers rather than general stores.
