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A great game; just don't take it seriously.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 37 / 42
Date: November 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Sonic Shuffle is Sega's attempt to enter the "party game" genre, along with Nintendo's Mario Party series and Sony's Crash Bash. And it's a very worthy entry indeed.

In terms of game flow, Sonic Shuffle is very similar to Mario Party, though with enough differences to allow it to narrowly escape the "rip-off" label. Each player controls one of the Sonic characters. As in Mario Party, players take turns moving their characters around a game board, choosing which of many branching paths to take. Depending on which space you land on, you may gain or lose rings, enter into battle with a monster, or trigger a mini-game in which all players battle for rings. The players race to pick up "Precioustones" which appear in various locations on the game board. When all the Precioustones have been collected, a final mini-game is played, and the winner of the game is determined by who has collected the most. So far, Mario Party players have seen all of this before.

But the most critical difference between Sonic Shuffle and Mario Party is hinted at by the name of the game. Instead of rolling dice to move around the board, Sonic Shuffle players must play cards. Each player has a hand full of cards, numbered 1 through 6, along with the occasional "Special" (allowing characters extra movement or special attacks) and "Eggman" (disaster) cards. When it's your turn to move, you must play a card; playing a 3, for example, allows you to move 3 spaces. Likewise, battles with monsters are settled by card play; in order to defeat a monster, you must play a card at least as high as the monster's number. Importantly, you are not required to play a card out of your own hand; you can pick a card from another player's instead--but you won't be able to see which card you're choosing, and you must play whatever card you picked.

This card-play mechanic sets up some very interesting decisions. You might be tempted to play your high-numbered cards for movement as soon as you can, to race to the Precioustone before anyone else--but if you do, you likely won't have a card high enough to defeat the monster that guards the stone. You might be tempted to draw cards from others' hands in order to conserve your own; but in doing so, you run the risk of drawing a low-numbered card that forces you to move to a poor space--or worse, drawing the Eggman card which dumps a random calamity on your head!

(One important note here: If you're going to play multi-player, you should have a VMU for each player. If a player's controller has a VMU installed, then that player's cards will only be shown on the VMU screen, preventing other players from seeing them. If you don't have a VMU in your controller, you will be at a disadvantage, as your cards will be visible to all.)

Movement around the board is complicated by the fact that the characters aren't identical. Tails, Amy and Knuckles each have special spaces on the board that only they can cross; for example, Tails can fly across some gaps that block other players. Sonic has no special spaces, but his "Spin Dash" ability allows him to move at double or triple speed if he plays cards with the same number on several turns in a row.

The mini-games are very similar to Mario Party's. In most of these games, it's every hedgehog (or fox or echidna) for himself; but some games divide the characters into teams of two, or pit three characters against one. Most of the games require skill, but a few are sheer luck (for example, picking a can from a soda machine, avoiding the pre-shaken can that will explode in your face). These mini-games allow the characters to collect rings, that can either be saved or spent to purchase Forcejewels--special gems that allow a character to briefly break the rules of the game (for example, by playing several cards instead of one when moving, or by placing a forcefield around a space so that other characters can't pass).

Unfortunately, these mini-games are where Sonic Shuffle's one major flaw kicks in: load times. Games like this work best when the action is kept fast and furious; Sonic Shuffle has to pause for about 15 seconds while it loads each mini-game from the disc, and pause again when it returns to the main game board after each mini-game. This breaks the flow of the action, a problem which Mario Party's cartridge format allows it to avoid.

A single-player Story Mode makes Sonic Shuffle a reasonable one-player experience, but as with Mario Party, the real fun comes when three or four players compete. Just make sure that none of your friends take the game too seriously; there's a large amount of luck involved. As with Mario Party, a skillful player will win more than his or her share of games, but the outcome of any one individual game is anybody's guess.

In summary, Sonic Shuffle is a great way to kill time with friends; if you liked Mario Party, you'll like this at least as much. And if you play me, remember, I get to be Tails. :)

A must buy. Ignore these bad reviews.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: December 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is so cool. At first, I didn't like it, but after a while, I began to get into it. Before I knew it, I was playing this game at partys, and on story mode for hours and hours on end. I'll bet a lot of the bad reviews on this page were written after playing the game for ten minutes. Here are the good things about it: Great mini games, good plot, good graphics, only takes 4 blocks up on your Vmu, great party game, fun story mode, great way of having battles, cool characters, eventually 8 players to choose from.

The only problems with this game are: you have to unlock 4 out of the 8 characters, sometimes I think they made the computer a little too smart, bad voice acting, and more boards would be nice.

This game is one of the best games on the Dreamcast right now. If you are a Sonic fan, pick this game up. Don't hesitate because of these bad reviews.

Party full of fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: January 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've got to laugh when I read reviews around the net about how *complicated and difficult* this game is -- come on, my 5.5 yr old (granted he is very bright and pretty good at video games) picked it up right away and did quite well. Sure, you have to give it a little thought, but most average 6 yr olds would catch onto it pretty quickly from what I've been seeing around here. It's a big fave for all the age groups and mom and dad like it too. It's fun for one, but even more when you have 2 or more playing. Loading times for the mini games could be shorter, vmu in controller is recommended since your cards will show on that and not be visible to anyone else and it's one of those addictive hard to put down games that needs a time limit put on. (Ohh, mean parents here, LOL.)

Different from Sonic Adventure, in that it's a simulated board game, not an adventure game. But a bit of a nice change as we wait for the long delayed (like next christmas now?!) Sonic Adventure 2.

Summation

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: November 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Since the previous review has already covered the details of the game, I will be brief. The game is interesting enough and is a good game for the whoile family to play together. However, the mini-games are very brief and anti-climactic, so it is unlikely that older players will get into the game. It is a nice game, but not very exciting. It does make great use of the VMU, allowing you to see your own cards on the controller. This is a great game for families who play together, otherwise rent it first to be sure its for you.

Great Game, and a good buy too.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

When I first heard of this game, I had my doubts. Only because of the whole "copying Mario Party" thing, but after I played it over a few times, I realized that I liked it much better! Too many people are focusing on the negative points of the game, and not looking at all the good ones. This game is great, there are items-a-plenty and the game boards are cool and creative. The mini-games are fun to play, even if your alone. There are a total of 8 characters to choose from, 4 of them need to be unlocked. The only reason I subtracted a star from my rating for this game is because of the loading times, but really, they aren't that bad. Also, just cuz its a major rip-off of Mario Party, it doesnt mean its a bad game. Look at Crash Team Racing, that game is the biggest rip off of Mario Kart that I have ever seen, yet its MUCH better. In short, just give Sonic Shuffle a chance, and u might like. And for that price, its definitly a GOOD buy.

Sonic's lookin' for love here...and he's gettin' some!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Okay. I don't know why people hate this game. I've been reading reviews and noticed that Sonic Shuffle got some bad comments. However, I've been a Sonic otaku (as my friend called me) and rented the game. Even though I haven't beat it, I fell in love with it.

First off: the story. Maginary World was one minute the best place to be in a dream and the next, Void decided that Maginary World was too good. So, he decided to shatter the Precioustone made of people's dreams. Illumina, the Goddess of Dreams, became prisoner in another world. Lumina Flowlight, however, isn't gonna take this, so she calls Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy to give her a hand to get the Precioustone. Recently, I've been thinking that the plot was ripped off from the Sailor Moon SuperS series.

Next, info about the game. You start off on a board from one of the earlier Sonic zones (the only ones I know of are Emerald Coast and FireBird). You can chose if you want Lumina to tell you how things would go at the beginning. As soon as the game starts, you pick a card from the deck and go the number of spaces. If you pick a "S" card, you get choose from 1 to 6 spaces. Get the S and you'll move 7 spaces. Get the Robotnik card and things would get ugly for you. You can also collect some stone to annoy other players or give yourself an advantage. There are also mini games (you should know what these are), mini events (kinda like cutscenes), and battles (where you fight a monster by picking a higher card). You main purpose is to get the Precioustones. There will be 6 in all. Get the most and you'll win and go to the next stage.

Now, my opinions.

GRAPHICS: The characters look really cute and the boards look great. I can't really explain why...

SOUND: The music's great! It really fits the mood of the game. I just love the FireBird music. It reminds me of Ryo-Ohki (Don't know why). As for the voices, they're cool. I'm guessing the same voice actors from SA did 'em. Great job for once again giving me sound that's pleasing for the ears, Sega! ^_^

GAMEPLAY: This is the part where everyone hated. Well, I loved it. Sooner or later, you'll get better at this game if you really try. The mini games are tons of fun! I really like the one where you have to pick a soda and if you picked the one that's been shook up by Eggman, you lose. Even those I lost that one the first time I played it, I laughed so hard that I thought I was watching a Sonic the Hedgehog version of Tenchi Universe. The battles were easy...until I got to the last Precioustone. My only complaint was that I find that the computer always know what card to pick and ends up picking one of mine. Other than that, it's great.

CONTROL: Good and simple control. The only complaint in this area is that at the mini games, the control gets a little tight at times.

BOTTOM LINE: Extremely enjoyable. If you like games like this, get it. Even though I never played Mario Party, this was a lot of fun. I don't know why people hate this and have it "shelved in minutes". I still play it and I usually have a lot of fun and sometimes get a laugh out of it while playing!

Please remake this game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The reviewers who gave this game 1 star are both right and wrong. This game is related to Mario Party (Involving winning or losing rings, using special power-ups, playing mini-games, etc.) But I think it's a lot better. It involves Sonic and his friends in the dream world, saving 5 special dreams from the evil Void. However, they get to move across the board with cards. There are cards labeled 1-6, the awesome Special cards, and the tricky Eggman cards. Also, the reviewers forgot to mention that this game has a Sonic room feature where you can check out all the cool things you've unlocked.

This is a great game and we would have played it more, but our old Dreamcast refuses to work properly and instead of entering or exiting a game mode, it sends us back to the Dreamcast menu entirely. How annoying.

Since our Dreamcast isn't working, I would love to own this on a newer system. If it does get remade however, I will revise my review into a thank you note.

Average game...but fun.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Party games are all the rage. Sonic Shuffle, the Dreamcast's Mario Party and Crash Bash, was sold just after the release of Sonic Adventure to keep it popular. In Sonic Shuffle, you start out with 4 characters-4 others are hidden. The object of the game is to race around the board collecting rings, Precioustones, Forcejewels and other knicknacks. The graphics are very anime-esque, and I love the music. Just listen to the tutorial background music! My only complaint, though, is that it's too cookie-cutter--you have to beat the level in 1st place to continue to the next level. The plot? Very ridiculous. Overall okay.

Very good, but one thing is wrong....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It's a very good game, but there is one thing missing, ORGINALILLY! It is the same thing as Mario Party, but with cards and Sonic charaticers. The grapics are good, I rate grapics:8.5/10 How fun it is, well it isn't my favorite fun game, but it should get a pretty good score:8/10 Gameplay, how long it lasts, well I would say about 10 hours, with me so I rate Gameplay:5/10, it needs to be longer! Sound is fine:8/10 and overall playing this game:8/10=Great, you should get it.
Basically, it's Mario Party 2 with Sonic characters, and cards.

one of the best freakin game on the dreamcast

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: November 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

You have to buy this game it is very fun the mini games are fun to so go out and buy this game and don't listen to any of those dumbasses who say the game suck

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