Sonic Shuffle

"Mario parties harder, but not bad (or slow)."

This game got a lot of bad press. Many think it's slow or just flat out bad. I disagree.

LOAD TIME - Sonic Shuffle is not slow. Granted, it's the slowest game I've played on Dreamcast, but if you think this game is slow you've been spoiled and should stick with cartridges. The longest time I had to wait was around ten seconds. Mostly it's five seconds here or there, backed by music. I got the impression it would be years of load times, but it was mere seconds.

GAMEPLAY - I hope you've played Mario Party, as that is what Shuffle is closest to and it will give you something to compare against. First, You use cards, not dice, so it can be easier to get where you want to go. Also, the maps are not linear, so you can go in any direction. The maps are huge! There are more than 100 spaces per map. It can take many, many turns to reach you destination, however, because you only play mini games when you land on a particular space, the game moves an a decent rate. You can, in theory, go thorough an entire game without any mini games, but this is an extreme rarity which has never happened to me.

STORY - Your goal is to save the Presioustones. In story mode, there are seven per map. Void had shattered the Presioustone and you must retrieve it before Maginaryworld ceases to be. WARNING: the story is extremely corny, but at least it gives you something to work towards.

GRAPHICS - Not much to say here. The graphics are standard Dreamcast graphics. Not wowing, but good. The immense maps display flawlessly, and the characters are cel shaded, which is a nice touch.

SOUND - I greatly enjoy some of the music in this game, good stuff. Nothing exceptional as far as sound effects and voices go, just good, Sonic Adventure like stuff.

REPLAY VALUE - Much like Mario Party, you can play it for a long, long time. Mutliplayer is also quite enjoyable. It will get boring if you play it 3 hours daily, but you should get a lot of replay out of it.

BUY OR RENT - Rent this first, buy it if you like it. If you liked Mario Party, rent it. It is, however quite different, so I wouldn't recommend jumping into the purchase.

BOTTOM LINE - If you liked Mario Party, try it, it's certainly worth looking into.

SCORES
Gameplay - 8.4
Graphics - 8.6
Sound - 8.9
Replay value - 8.8
Overall - 8.4

I don't average scores.
Tens are as near perfection.
Nines are excellent.
Eights are good.
Sevens are average.
Sixes and below aren't worth you time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/01, Updated 06/27/03