Sonic Shuffle

"Don't shuffle this one into your deck!"

Mwaha. Sonic Team and Sega are known for their high rated games. They are a few average ones, but never any bad ones. Until now.

Story:3/10
What the hell!? They must have been pissed when they 'dreamt' this one up! Sonic and co have to save the Dreamland from the mysterious Void *yawn* who is voiced by the same person who did Omochao (Cue Omochao is evil gags). There are some nice looking cut scenes that tell the story, but these are too damn boring to be exciting, you'll be reaching for the start button within a few seconds.

Gameplay:5/10
Right.. I'll explain this as best as I possibly can, I am sorry if this is confusing.
You start the game with a turn deciding mini-game. Who ever comes first is first, and so on. You each start off with 8 or so cards, with numbers, an 'S' for special, or an Eggman on them. You see these on your VM screen, so if you don’t have a VM, the other characters can see your cards.. Which messes everything up. You can use other people's cards, but you never know what you are going to get (unless you can see them). The Eggman card spins the wheel and lands an 'evil invention', which Eggman then uses. The S card gives you special options.
Now what brings this crashing to the ground with a large thud, is that the CPU controlled characters can, in effect, see your cards. they can get wherever they went, when they, and how they want. They cheat a lot.
And I haven't said what you have to do. You have to be the person with the most Sonic Emblems at the end of the game. You get these by getting 'Precious Stones', collecting rings, and winning mini games. Mini games are triggered by landing an a mini game panel. There are just not enough damn mini games to keep us occupied, nor do you play them enough.
There are REALLY ANNOYING battle panels, which triggers a battle between the character and a monster. You have to sit and watch the CPU do these, and this is very tedious. You see a monster with a card spinning above its head. You then press A to stop the card spinning. You then select a card that is higher or equal to the number shown on the monster's card. Boy, that’s enough to piss anyone off.

Graphics:7/10
I have to admit, this are pretty good looking. The cell shaded characters are nice... but the lips!! They are way out of sync, and open and close like a goldfish's gob. Come on, you can do better than that. There is quite a bit of pop and, and a few glitches.

Sounds:6/10
All the standard Sonic sounds, and more besides. Some of the music is nice, and will remain in your head and haunt you forevermore. Other music is just crap. The sound effects are appropriate, and are used where needed. The voices are good, but that’s a matter of opinion.

Challenge:10/10
The computer characters cheat so much in normal, hard must be neigh impossible. I didn’t try hard mode. I got bored. You’ll either get bored or give up trying.

Overall:4/10
A shabby mess of a game that really isn’t worth the cash. A bloody shame.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/02, Updated 06/14/03