"Is it a gem or is it crap?"

I've been hearing a lot of things about Sonic Shuffle and most of them have been negative, to say the least. There have been comments about ''long'' loading times and ''boring'' gameplay. Well, I'm here to give a different view about the game. I warn you, some of my views may be offending, so if you are easily offended, please click the back button and return to your lives. That is all.

Graphics: 3
I didn't really care for the graphics of Sonic Adventure or even the sequel Sonic Adventure 2. I mean, sure, they were beautiful, don't get me wrong, but what I was looking for was a game with gameplay and fun added to it. I've learned from past experiences that graphics aren't the main factor to a game. Sonic Shuffle didn't change my view on this. The cell-shaded graphics are pretty bold, though I preferred the FMV graphics to the somewhat-jagged in-game graphics. The backgrounds are nice and extremely colorful, so that gives it a plus for keeping to the traditional style of the Sonic games. But, seeing the insides of Sonic's mouth was pretty ugly. Even if he is a hedgehog. does that mean that he has to have teeth like a person who just came out of a street fight? My friends and I sometimes made cracks that Knuckles had probably beaten him up before the opening scene.

Storyline: 1
Ewww. Man, did I hate the storyline for this game. Basically, you could take the much-better storyline of Nights, change the badguy from Wizeman to Void, and replace the Precioustones with Iydeas. Oh, and Lumina is basically a two-dimensional(character-wise) version of Nights. Its not that I hate her or anything, but I felt that Sega and Sonic Team could have came up with a better character, or even better, made this game a crossover with Nights. As for Void, talk about a lame badguy. When I first heard about Void, he was supposed to make Super Sonic look like a uberweenie. Amazing what happens when you actually play the game. All he does is pretty much appear in the level, break a Precioustone(a.k.a. Iydea), and leave. Heck, he doesn't even taunt you like good old Eggman! And to make matters worse, he makes up a lame excuse for trying to destroy Maginaryworld(a.k.a. Nightopia). ''All I wanted was some friends.'' Bah humbug. Sometimes it makes me wish that they had beaten him up for just having the gall to say such a cruddy excuse.

Gameplay: 4
The gameplay is nothing to write home about, but I give some praise to Sonic Team for at least trying. The ability to fight and move with cards reminded me of the various card games(ex. Pokemon, Harry Potter) which are becoming really popular(and notorious) in the United States. However, I preferred the dice style of Mario Party. It was easier to use and more fair than the cards. This was noticeable in the monster battles, where you could screw up almost all the time because the monster you were fighting had a perfect six, then as soon as you were almost dead, the computer could reach the same monster and the monster would have a one. The mini-games are average for the most part, with some being absolutely irritating and others being better than Mario Party's minigames. The mini-events are cheesy. If they ever make a sequel to this game, they should just keep the mini-events in the beginning and in the end like in Mario Party.


Secrets: 2
Compared to the rest of the Sonic games, there aren't many secrets in Sonic Shuffle. There are only special characters which can't even be used in story mode and the ability to play mini games and view mini-events. Mario Party beats this game when it comes to secrets. Some of the secret features in Sonic Shuffle are readily accessible in Mario Party. I was hoping that maybe Sonic Shuffle would have an extra board or maybe a hidden movie like Sonic Jam. Still, it is better than getting nothing at all.

Loading Times: 5
The loading times are nothing to complain about. Maybe its because I've played and even owned systems where you may be waiting for *gasp* one minute for a game to load. Whoever whines about loading times should go back and play Sega CD or even better, look for a Neo-Geo CD. Once you've put up with the oh-so-long loading times with those two systems, Sonic Shuffle will seem like a mere breeze.

Cheapness factor: 5
This is not a good thing. The A.I in this game goes up there with Mario Kart 64 and Capcom vs. SNK in the cheapness department. This game has parts where you may find yourself throwing down your controller on the ground and buying a new system the very next day. Beware the card battles with the monsters, especially on Nature Zone and Riot Train. Oh, and don't expect to be beating a good majority of the mini-games anytime soon. It takes a lot of patience and practice to put up with the cheesy computer in this game. If you get angry very easily, or have been known for destroying entire video game consoles over cheap A.I, then please, be careful when playing Sonic Shuffle.

Conclusion: Sonic Shuffle is a fine game, despite its flaws. Try the game yourself and see how it works out.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/01, Updated 10/07/01