Sonic Shuffle

"Worth shuffling into your deck!"

I pretty much had to have this game given the fact that pretty much all sonic games are good, but I never expected to see a party game, sonic shuffle is very different from Mario party. You have to put a little more thought into where you are going to go, and if you make a mistake, you have to live with it for a while. But if the mistake hit you before the game saves your place or if you just want a different mini-game or mini-event you can just soft-reset your Dreamcast until you get it right.

Gameplay 70%
Like all party games, the real control takes it's part in the mini-games. Some games require you to tap a certain button really fast and all, and I don't like that much. Most of the other games just require good timing. And if you don't have that, then I do not know what you're going to do. Now there is the concept of Forcejewls. They are pretty fun to manipulate and all, you can change what space you are on, affect other players in both good and bad ways, gain or lose items, and pretty much bend to your whims. Now there are mini-events. Now I tell you what, I just love Mini-events. You can gain forcejewls, gain rings, change your space, rest for a turn, battle, or do nothing. Just take it from me, you will love them. Now there are battles. The thing with battles is, you have to fight a monster and fortunately, you get first shot. You pick a card and spin it, if it is at or above a monsters HP you beat him, if you lose you lose one third of your rings and if you have no rings you have to rest for a turn. If you fight a normal monster and hit him with an attack equal to his HP you get 2 forcejewles. There is a little trick to the whole card spinning thing, just press ''A'' at the number before what you need you'll be fine.

Graphics 90%
Needless to say, this is some of the best cell animation graphics I've seen in a while, not too many people like cell animation, but you will think differently after you check out what sonic team did with this game. They could have dubbed the characters mouths in cut scenes, but that is nothing much to care about though. Cut scenes are naturally great, it really makes 128 bit graphics go a long way my friend(especially after you beat level 3).

Sound 90%
The sound is pretty much great. The sound effects are just plain great too. In Mini-events and mini-games it is portrayed perfectly displaying the whole mood of it, like most good games that I've played.

Play time/ replayability 100%
Sonic shuffle takes quite a while to beat, I'm not sure exactly, but it took me months to beat the game, after you beat the first level it's all downhill from there. There are tons of unlockables like characters, pictures, dolls, toy boxes and sound tests. The characters are pretty much more than worth going through all the trouble to unlock, even though you can only use them in Vs. mode it's fun to take advantage of their special skills, and do without some of the bad stuff you would put up with if you were using a normal character.

Final recommendation
I would advise you strongly to buy this game, the loading time can take a while, but you will get used to it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/10/03, Updated 03/10/03