Sonic Shuffle

"Underrated Would Describe this Enjoyable Party Game in a Nutshell"

Sonic Shuffle is the first attempt by Sega at creating a party game featuring their blue bomber, Sonic the Hedgehog. The game has received extremely mixed words from different people; while some reviews are relatively positive, others criticise the game badly, milking the flaws for all they're worth. And yes. Sonic Shuffle is a flawed party game. But only slightly.

Story
Admittedly, the story could have been better, but that's not to say you can't understand or care about it. Maginaryworld (what mastermind thought that up, I wonder), the place where dreams come from, is under attack by an alien by the name of void. Simply, he goes against the dreams of others and destroys the crystal of all dreams, simply titled the Precioustone. Lumina, a fairy of the world, calls Sonic and his friends (Miles 'Tails' Prower, Kunckles the Echidna and Sonic's girlfriend-to-be, Amy Rose). It's up to Sonic and co. to collect all the broken pieces of the Precioustone in five huge worlds to restore peace. Believe you me, it's better than it may sound.

Graphics
In a word, excellent. Cel-shaded graphics are very popular these days, so it's a delight to find the characters have been cel-shaded in Sonic Shuffle, and done so in a pretty style. Scenery in every world and every mini-game or event is detailed and gorgeous to the eye, in typical Dreamcast fashion. The water effects, explosions and other random events look very nicely done, if a little cartoony. They are, by and large, superb Sonic graphics.

Gameplay
It's going to be a long, long ride in Sonic Shuffle and if you want to complete everything the game has to offer, you're going to be at it for weeks!

There are three modes to choose from - Story, Versus and Sonic Room. The heart of the games lies in the story mode, but the other two are important to completion, as will be detailed later. In Story, you travel across five massive boards to get every Precioustone piece (there are 7 in every stage) and each will last around three hours. Yes, that long. In the game, you are given a set of cards with numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. There are also two special cards: the S card and the Dr. Robotnik booby card. The 'S' lets you spin a roulette and move between 1 and 7 spaces depending on what you stopped the roulette at. The Robotnik card will cause trouble: you'll get a roulette and it will stop on an invention between 1 and 16. 12 of them affect you badly, three affect all the players and one, No.14, is good.

There are different pickups you get from landing on the various spaces. For instance, blue spaces with a ring will grant you a certain number of rings, while the red counterpart will lose you some. Landing on ring spaces 2, 3, 4 and 5 times in a row gives combos and doubles the number of rings you win/lose. A new addition for Sonic Shuffle are the Forcejewels, special rainbow-coloured crystals with different powers when used. These can be won (or lost) depending on how you progess in the game. Other spaces give different prizes/effects. The green space will trigger the Mini Games or Mini Events. Basically, there is a 75 per cent chance you will get a mini game and a 25 per cent chance an event will happen. Mini Games are the better of the two; all four players will participate in one of around 48 games where you will win or lose rings and forcejewels. Events, on the other hand, involve just the one player and result in the player winning or losing a heap of rings, missing a turn, or getting a forcejewel.

Battles can also happen: Either land on a purple battle space or land on the precioustone space. An opponent will show an HP card between 2 and 6. You must draw a card and a roulette will start; stop the roulette on the same HP number or higher to defeat the opponent. You will win a prize as a result.

There are five huge boards in the game: the beach-like Emerald Coast, the fighter-jet Fire Bird, the peaceful Nature Zone, the hectic Riot Train or the damn confusing Fourth Dimension Space. All boards offer different scenery, unique spaces and different enjoyment.

Now, all sounds positive and interesting, doesn't it? Well, here are the two big flaws in Sonic Shuffle, that completely ruin some people's experience of the game. First, the load times are slow. Not unbelievably slow, but certainly not fast. Many claim these to be the worst loading times in any game ever made but frankly, they talking untrue rubbish. Secondly, even on the Easy difficulty setting, the CPU opponents cheat. They will knowledgeably draw cards that are supposed to be hidden, always get Mini Events right, intentionally do things to you... unless they draw the Robotnik card: that's their most common mistake. In short, Sonic Shuffle is a difficult game to win. Don't expect an easy ride through story at all... the cartoon appearance is very misleading.

Controls
I won't beat about the bush. Controls are perfection: it's simple to move around the board, stop roulettes and control your player in mini games. Certainly a good aspect of the game here.

Audio
Well, it's a mixture. Some of the tunes are excessively childish (such as the silly lullaby tine when Lumina introduces you to the board at the beginning), and others can be very good. The music on games such as Fun Fun Sonic (trampoline game) and Sonic DJ (record game) are excellent, and the Sonic Live catchy tune will stick in your head. So while some are memorable, other childish ones would best be forgotten, particularly the horrendous music you'll hear on the Psychic Sonic or Over the Rainbow games... that one's nasty.

Challenge
Younger gamers and those looking for an easy ride might be disappointed: Sonic Shuffle can be extraordinarily hard, especially for a party game of its nature. The Easy difficulty level is just about do-able; Hard is near impossible as the opponents cheat for all they're worth and make next to no mistakes. Generally though, having a game as hard as this adds something - you feel inclined to keep going until you are good enough to finish it five times over and get everything.

Lifespan
Sonic Shuffle will last a good while. Complete the game once and you'll find a host of new additions in the Sonic Room. You'll be able to purchase pictures of the characters from a scrapbook, many of which are very, very expensive. The 150 ring ones usually open a new feature such as a music box and four new characters, as well as the mini game toybox. There are also dolls of each character to unlock in the Versus mode. Believe me, there's a lot of replayability here.

Overall
SCORE: 8/10

UPPERS:
-Fun and usually very enjoyable.
-Good variety of boards, games and events.
-Plenty to unlock.

DOWNERS:
-Load times are slow.
-Game itself can be slow paced.
-Can be a little childish at times.

Final Thoughts:
Should you buy or rent? I'd say try before you buy, as time has proven that Sonic Shuffle doesn't appeal to everyone. If you enjoy party games, then you'll probably like it but be prepared for the slow load times. I think Sonic Shuffle is overall a classic party game - fun and a good laugh with friends. There really is little reason NOT to buy it these days... few party games compare to it overall. Although, as other reviews have proven, Sonic Shuffle isn't everyone's game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/29/05