Sonic Shuffle

***Sonic Shuffle*** (ソニックシャッフル) is a video game for the Sega Dreamcast and was Sega's answer to the successful Nintendo party game, ***Mario Party***. The game was co-developed by Hudson Soft, who also developed ***Mario Party***.

The story involves Sonic and his companions getting caught up in a mess in a land called Maginaryworld. A villain named **Void** has shattered the Precioustone into many pieces and **Lumina Flowlight** and the rest of Maginaryworld are counting on Sonic to restore it. At the end of the game it is revealed that Lumina and Void both are Illumina, the Goddess of the land who disappeared when the Precioustone was shattered. The game features around 50 mini games and around 30 mini events.

Despite Hudson's success with the ***Mario Party series***, this game failed to meet expectations. It was criticized due to the confusing rules in some mini-games, excessive load times, poor music, an unfulfilled promise of network play, and an AI which would frequently cheat and steal the player's best cards. The game manual and in-game tutorial was largely unhelpful to players as well.

## Gameplay

In ***Sonic Shuffle***, the player can select one of the main characters of the ***Sonic the Hedgehog*** franchise. The game supports 1 player in Story Mode and up to 4 players simultaneously in Versus Mode and the Sonic Room. The four players can play in teams and play against one another on a giant game board, going around and playing mini games to collect Emblems. Whoever has the most emblems at the end of each board wins. The overall goal of each board is to collect the most Precioustones, out of a total of 7. There are 5 boards in total: Emerald Coast, Fire Bird, Nature Zone, Riot Train, and Fourth Dimension Space.

The game also features 8 playable characters (four of which need to be unlocked), each with their own unique abilities. The available characters are Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. The unlockable characters are Super Sonic, Big the Cat, Gamma, and Chao.

The game features around 50 mini games and around 30 mini events. Mini games ranged in variety and challenge and they were divided by Teams of 2, Teams of 3 versus a Single Player and a Free-For-All. The mini events generally involved a little story, or event, and usually a choice given at the end to determine your prize or punishment. As well as having a single-player Story Mode and a two- to four-player Versus Mode, the game had a “Sonic Room” where you could play your favorite mini-games, after unlocking them, with your friends without starting a full game in a place called the "Toy Box", as well as a stereo to play your favorite soundtracks. Both of these must be unlocked by buying Photos from the Photo Album.

The game play involves playing randomly given cards. The deck of cards has four of every card numbering 1-6 and four wild cards. Three of the wild cards have an “S” and the remaining card is the “EGGMAN” card. Playing the cards would dictate the distance your player would move on the board. The S cards could be played as a 7 if you had decent timing as the card changed from 1 to S. The "EGGMAN" card was bad fortune for one or all of the characters and would generally cause trouble for the players in myriad ways. A full game could take anywhere from 20 minutes to two and a half hours, depending on how many Precioustones you decided to be available to you at the beginning.

## Mini Games

### **VS 4**

* Sonicola
* Stop and Go
* Over the Bridge
* Sonic Gun Slinger
* Sonic Live
* Psychic Sonic
* Sonic Tag
* Shadow Tag
* Frosty Rumble
* Great Escape
* Egg & the Chicken
* Sonic Tank
* Fun Fun Sonic
* Jump the Snake
* Zero G Snap Shot
* Thor's Hammer
* Over the Rainbow
* Twister
* Number Jump
* Egg in Space
* Tractor Beam Tag

### **2 VS 2**

* Sonic the Thief
* Shoddy Work
* Bucket-O-Rings
* Bomb Relay

### **1 VS 3**

* Wrong Way Climb
* Bungee Jump
* Manic Maze
* Sonicooking
* Gargantua
* Eggbot's Attack!
* Sonic DJ

### **VS 4**

* Sonic Parasol
* Ring Tide
* Rapid Climb
* Sky Bridge
* Croc-Attack
* Ring of Fire
* Thru the Tunnel
* Ring Lasso
* Final Frontier

### **Stage Clear**

* Sonic Surfing
* Sky Diving
* Earth Quake
* Stop the Train
* Void Battle

## Play Order

* **Sonic Slot** - Each players plays on a slot machine that first displays 999, then counts down. Turn order in the main game is based upon how close each player stops the slots to 000 without going under.
* **Sonic Darts** - The four players each throw darts at a moving target. Turn order in the main game is based upon the proximity of the players' darts to the center of the target.
* **Sonic Hi Lo** - A simple game of hi lo, with all four players playing at once. The players must act fast to get the card that they want. The winner moves first on the game board.

## Boards

* Emerald Coast
* Fire Bird
* Nature Zone
* Riot Train
* Fourth Dimension Space