Sonic Party (Game) (1998)

Sonic Party is a party video game developed by PowerA and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. It was released in Japan on December 18, 1998, in North America on February 8, 1999, and in Europe and Australia on March 9, 1999. The game was targeted at a young audience. Takashi Iizuka served as development supervisor. It received mostly positive critical reviews for its multiplayer mode, concept, and music; disapproval of its slow pacing; and mixed reviews of its graphics. It is the first installment in the Sonic Party series, followed by Sonic Party 2 in 1999 for Sega Saturn. The game received its first official re-release on the Sonic Nintendo Switch 2 Online + Expansion Pack on November 2, 2024.
Gameplay:
Sonic Party is a party video game featuring six playable characters: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, Vector, and Cream. In the game's frame story, Sonic and his friends argue about which of them is the "Super Speeder", a figure upon whom the entire world can rely. To settle their dispute, they set out for adventure to determine which of them is most worthy of the title. The gameplay is presented in the form of a traditional board game, and includes six game board maps themed after each of the playable characters. Two additional board maps become available later in the game. Sonic Party includes multiplayer compatibility; each game on a board map consists of four players, including at least one human player and up to four. Any character who is not controlled by a human will instead be controlled by the game as a computer-controlled character. The skill level of the computer-controlled characters can be individually adjusted between "Easy", "Medium", "Hard, or "Master". After the players and board map have been determined, the player chooses how long the board map game will last: "Lite Play" consists of 20 turns, "Standard Play" consists of 35, and "Full Play" consists of 50. Upon starting a board, players each hit a dice block to determine turn order, with the highest number going first on each turn and the lowest number going last.
The goal of Sonic Party is to collect the most Chaos Emeralds within the allotted amount of turns. Chaos Emeralds must be purchased from Flicky with coins, which can be earned through a selection from one of 50 mini-games that is played once at the end of each turn. The first player initiates a turn by rolling a dice block that determines how many spaces they will advance on the board, ranging from one to ten spaces. Each board map has a variety of spaces. Plain blue and red spaces cause the player who lands on one to respectively gain or lose three coins; the amount of coins is doubled to six during the final five turns. Blue spaces labeled with a Emerald will initiate a single-player mini-game. Blue "!" spaces result in a Chance Time game, in which selected characters must give or exchange Rings or Chaos Emeralds; the player who landed on the space is given three blocks to hit, determining which characters and prize will be involved. Green "?" spaces result in an event occurring on the board map; each board features different events which can help or hinder certain players. Red spaces marked with an insignia of Dr. Eggman's head will cause Dr. Eggman to appear and hinder the player's progress. Blue spaces labeled with a Ring give players a chance to either take another turn right away or lose their subsequent turn. Aside from Flicky, other characters on the map include Crabmeat, Buzzbettle and Dr.Eggman. Crabmeat can steal coins or a star from another player on behalf of any player who passes him; stealing Rings is free, but stealing a Chaos Emerald costs 50 Rings. Buzzbettle is stationed at the starting point on board maps and will give ten rings to each player who passes him. Dr. Eggman will inconvenience players who pass him by forcibly selling them a useless item. On some boards, Flicky's location will change after he sells a Chaos Emerald.
After all four players have made a movement on the board, a mini-game is initiated. The type of mini-game that is played is determined based on the color of space that each player landed on. Players that have landed on a green space will be randomly assigned to "blue" or "red" status before the mini-game is selected. If all players have landed on the same color of space, a 4-player mini-game is played. Other color variations result in either a 1 vs. 3 or 2 vs. 2 mini-game. The specific mini-game is then selected via roulette. Mini-game titles are normally highlighted in green, though some titles are highlighted in red; the winner of any given mini-game receives Rings, and in red-highlighted games, the losers will lose Rings. Another turn is initiated following the end of a mini-game, and the process is repeated until the allotted number of turns have been completed. After the end of the last turn, the winners of three awards are announced, with each winner receiving one additional Chaos Emerald; the first two awards are given to the player(s) who collected the most rings in mini-games and throughout the board map game, and the third is given to the player(s) who landed on the most "?" spaces. The winner of the game, the "Super Speeder", is then determined by the number of total Rings and Chaos Emeralds collected by each player. If two or more characters have acquired the same amount of coins and stars, the winner will be determined with a roll of the dice block.
Category:Gameplay