Sonic Shuffle

"Sonic crashes the party game genre..Is anyone going to hear him crash it?"

Sonic The Hedgehog, Sega's mascot, has done just about everything a mascot can do. He's done many adventure games, a Mario Kart rip off, and even a fighting game. But he has never done a party game...until now with Sonic Shuffle.

Story:

The story is right out of the Sonic playbook. The bad guy, Void, sees MaginaryWorld as a little too nice for his taste, so he steals the Precious Stones and threatens to turn this world into a dark nightmare. It's up to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy to stop this madman from reaching his goal.

Graphics: 10/10

Your jaw will drop after seeing the graphics on this game. The Cel Shading technique(used in another Dreamcast game, Wacky Races and another Sega game, Jet Grind Radio)makes Sonic and gang look very real. The backgrounds look a little blah, but seeing Sonic looking like he's coming right out of Outlaw Star gives me a 10 out of 10 for the graphics.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay here is part Mario Party, part card game and part old school Sonic game. In this game, you use cards to move your character around the game board instead of the dice use in Mario Party. Also, like Mario Party, rings are a major part of it and so are the mini-games..just watch out for Dr.Eggman, who's willing to play the role of a ACME product on the farthest player from Precious Stones. Here, it's a nice mix of gameplay and using a nice innovation with the cards, but the old school Sonic part is little harder(it's like playing Russian Roulette with a pea shooter) and that makes me give it a 8 out of 10.

Sound: 9/10

Sound is not a bad thing, or is it? The characters sound like their counterparts from the game and it neat to hear to hear some of those voices in this game. The Music, on the other hand, is the kind of music you'll come to expect from a Sonic game, which happy and cheery on the Emerald Coast board to a very bland rock on the Firebird board. May be a kind of great idea to all those Sonic fans, but the music can be very dull and repetitive. I give the Sound a 9 out of 10.

Replayability: 7/10

This game has a Story mode(which follows the plot I've mentioned eariler in this review), a Versus mode(which adds Mario Party 2-like duels as well), and a Storybook mode in which you can collect mini-games and unlock new players(Big, Gamma, and a Chao) to play in this game. After a while, you'll get tired and this is the kind of game that follows the party game creed: Bad with one player, but tons of fun with some friends. This dumb following of this party game creed by Sega makes me give a 7 out of 10 for this part.

Rent or Buy?

If you are a Sonic fanboy or a fan of the party game genre, then buy it by all means. If you are just looking for a game to help you use your Dreamcast and prevent it from gathering dust, then by all means rent it.

Overall: 8/10

This is just another example of how Sonic has become very popular over the 10 years he has lived with the Sega family. The game has jaw-dropping graphics and a innovative playing system that makes it fun, but it follows the party game creed and it's sometimes very tough to play the game in Story mode. Overall, this game will make a great addition to your Dreamcast collection.

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