Should Sonic Shuffle have been released on the GameCube also? Would you have bought it?

[Hero of Legend]

This game always felt like the black sheep of the series if you will, well that and Knuckles Chaotix. Anyway, out of the three DC games, Sega only brought two to GC, which sold really well.

 

And of course there's the Mario Party series which has so far had its record admission count of 4 games on the system, (3 on N64, 2 on Wii, and 1 so far on Wii U). So Hudson had lots of experience with party games on the system. What's also bizarre is that this wasn't even considered for a Wii release, the console that by all accounts was legendary (or infamous ) for being the ultimate party game console, where the games sold a gazillion.

 

The game wasn't exactly rated well (well there's your answer, some will say), but everything I've seen of it shows it's at least inoffensive, it's just the load times (at least being the worst aspect), which would have easily been fixed (the GC Mario Party games had great load times from what I remember).

 

I certainly would've rented it day 1 (I was a renter back then more than a buyer ), and honestly I think I would've loved it!

 

What about you? Would you have bought Sonic Shuffle on GC had Sega ported it over? What fixes would you wanted to see? Sega added new content in both SA1 and 2 on GC, so Shuffle would've surely had new additions of sorts.

[Tori Himemiya]

Nope. I don't think putting it on the Gamecube would help it one bit. Its just a dull Mario Party clone, nothing more, nothing less. If anything it would leave a bigger taste on the public if it was on the cube.

[Indigo Rush]

You probably could do something with the GBA connectors so each player can see their own hand, if that were ever a concern for someone. But in the end, Sonic Shuffle probably would have done better with a total revamp or a sequel moreso than a simple upgraded port. The original Sonic Shuffle had pretty poor AI and the game itself just wasn't very fun. The mini-games are standard Mario Party fare, but certainly not worth shelling out another $30-40 back then. 

 

At best, Sonic Shuffle could have worked as part of a collection package, similar to Sonic Gems Collection. 

 

I don't necessarily think a "Sonic Party" could never work, but it'd be extremely difficult to hit that same sweet spot that Mario hit without outright copying it, and even then, if they found their own sub-niche that helped it stand out, you still could never avoid the necessary comparisons to Mario. (Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing, anyone?) 

[Sonictrainer]

What about you? Would you have bought Sonic Shuffle on GC had Sega ported it over?

[Celestia]

I probably would've got it, or at least wanted to get it, at the time. Some simple math can explain why: ~10-year-old me + Sonic thing + Gamecube = $$$ for 2003-ish SEGA.

[Tara]

I probably would have bought it for completionist sake.

 

But I don't think it would have been a good move for Sega to have done so.  It wasn't received very well and I don't think it sold extraordinarily well.  This was back when Sega had some marketing sense and knew when to let lackluster games lie.  Or at least let them age just well enough to be considered classics, and then release them so people think they're good =P

[Jix Hedgehog]

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Edited August 15, 2015 by Jix Hedgehog

[Autosaver]

Isn't Sonic Shuffle available on the Wii?

 

[Sapphire]

Hell yes I would've got it. I STILL play this game on occasion with my brothers. That's not to say I think if it would've, it definitely needed some polishing up, pretty much in all the aspects Sonictrainer listed above. 

 

I still crave a decent Sonic party game or a Sonic Shuffle 2 though. 

[Your Vest Friend]

I would have got it if it came out on the Gamecube at the time. Why not, I like having a good collection (even though I already own Sonic Shuffle but not a Dreamcast so I already have it for collector's sake). 

 

But as if it should have for accessibility? I'd probably vote against that. At least with some others I could argue them on the value of being pieces of a historical jigsaw that provides clues on the progression of the franchise and its lore. Sonic Shuffle...is a badly executed Mario Party clone with throwaway characters and plot. It doesn't really have any value outside of being a curiosity.

[chirox the fox]

Well considering what a sonic fanboy I was when I was younger (which was also the time I had a working gamecube) I probably would have bought it, would I have done it today...no. 

[Salamander]

I'm kind of intrigued by the idea of a "Sonic Party" and would be interested in seeing the concept done again and done better, but what little I've seen of the first one appears to have numerous... oddities - like the weird anime plot that makes it seem more like it didn't start out as a Sonic game (and where have we heard that recently?).  But if nothing else it could make good use of the huge Sonic cast.

[Tornado]

Sonic Shuffle's entire reason for existence was "the Dreamcast equivalent of Mario Party." Releasing it on a system that actually had Mario Party would probably have been pretty ill-advised indeed; particularly considering most of the things Shuffle did to deviate from being a complete Mario Party knock-off just made it an inferior Mario Party knock-off.

 

 

I mean, yeah. It would have sold. Fucking everything Sonic sold by the absolute truckloads on the Gamecube, and were the only thing without Resident Evil in the name or Nintendo on the box that wasn't a disaster. Did anything with Sonic on the cover not become a Player's Choice game? But I'm still struggling to think of it as something that Sega should have done. All it would have done is cause people to draw more direct, almost certainly unflattering comparisons between the two during a time where the franchise was in almost a second golden age.

[Solkia]

 

Why would I play Shuffle when the best Mario Party ever made (5) is already readily available?