Is Sonic Shuffle worth playing again?

[J.R.]

Sonic Shuffoe came out in 2000 and was quickly written off as a Mario party clone and immediately forgotten. The End. Also due to the fact that it was on the Dreamcast which was dicontinued 4 months later in 3/31/2001. And the game is generally consider sub-par by the broader fanbase. But how about we give it a new chance and answer the question if its worth need being bothered with nearly 22 years later.

[GX -The Spindash-]

As a historical artifact, maybe.

As a game to play for personal fun and enjoyment? I mean, Mario Party finally has online, so...

[King Conne]

The game is fine but the loading times killed it!!...
The story was OK too...

[Tornado]

Absolutely not. The presentation was great at the time, but it wasn't really even that good by the standards of the glut of Mario Party ripoffs of the time period and the structure was terrible.

 

 

 

And then you have the awful load times.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I liked the story... I think???

IDK, it was like a dream (I know, fitting) i checked 2-3 times and still have hard time to describe. It's vague, maybe just dumb, but I liked the atmosphere. Those cutscenes of Void talking to Lumina and Sonic character just feel like something very profound is happening, even it might be just some anime rambling.

[light-gaia]

The last time I played this game, I was a child, and I think I've never finished. So, I have no idea if it's worth or not. From what I remember, the single player campaign is more difficult than Mario Party.

[Dr. Mechano]

Sonic Shuffle is only worth playing with other human beings. If you play against the computer, which blatantly and shamelessly cheats at every given opportunity, you are going to be miserable. The computer can see your cards and it never mis-times rolls in enemy encounters. Even on the easiest difficulty, it's ridiculous.

[Tornado]

Yeah, the single player AI is Fortune Street bad.

[Blue Blood]

I bought Sonic Shuffle years ago when I got a Dreamcast. I gave up not just  because of the cheating AI, but also because of the dreadful loading times on top of the AI. The game was painfully slow to get through, and every time you managed to through the long and frequent load times, you got slapped in the face with a cheat. 

There's no reason for the game to be as bad as it is with the AI. That could just be tweaked and the result would be just another Mario Party clone. I can't comment on the quality of the boards and minigames because my memory of is pretty poor. But it wouldn't have been offensive as a game. The loading screens though... They were a nail in the coffin. 

If you want a Sonic party game, go play Secret Rings. There were only ~40 minigames IIRC, but the variety of party modes was absolutely top notch. 

[GX -The Spindash-]

2 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

If you want a Sonic party game, go play Secret Rings. There were only ~40 minigames IIRC, but the variety of party modes was absolutely top notch. 

I will second that. It's been... probably more than a decade since I've touched that game, but I do have pretty good memories about its mini-game stuff.

Though still... I'm still gonna say there are just going to be better multiplayer experiences on all fronts out there these days, and ABSOLUTELY better digital board game experiences out there.

[batson]

I played the game with my buddy on his Dreamcast a few times back when it was brand new, but pretty much never again. We're still friends and we still play his old console games when we get together but we never play Sonic Shuffle, unlike the Nintendo 64 Mario Party games which I think says it all.

Honestly, even from our playing back in the day my only really strong memory is being kinda surprised and strangely titillated by seeing Sonic expressing attraction towards a girl (Lumina), as brief as it was. I was 13 at the time and I was kinda like "Wow, I guess even Sonic has feelings for girls sometimes" as that in itself was a completely new experience for 13 year old batson.

So yeah, even the ONE strong memory that the game created in me had absolutely nothing to do with the actual gameplay, so that probably says a lot.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I would probably play this game again if they tweaked up the AI system.  One of my biggest issues with the game (aside from the loading time) was that the computer would cheat constantly and I almost never got a 100% on the game because of that.

[Blue Blood]

17 hours ago, GX Echidna said:

I will second that. It's been... probably more than a decade since I've touched that game, but I do have pretty good memories about its mini-game stuff.

Though still... I'm still gonna say there are just going to be better multiplayer experiences on all fronts out there these days, and ABSOLUTELY better digital board game experiences out there.

Definitely. But at least back in 2007, SatSR was a better party experience than most of the Wii's party game library. I'd argue that it was even more fun than Mario Party 8, which released shortly afterwards. 

The only thing that Shuffle had over SatSR was that gorgeous voice that Ryan Drummond did for Knuckles. 

[GX -The Spindash-]

6 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

Definitely. But at least back in 2007, SatSR was a better party experience than most of the Wii's party game library. I'd argue that it was even more fun than Mario Party 8, which released shortly afterwards. 

I agree to a point, but so much of the Wii's library was just mini-game collections, and quality varied WILDLY. I probably would put it above Mario Party 8, though I've watched the entirety of Giant Bomb's Mario Party Party, so I might be broken on that front. Not sure that I'd put it above like a Wii Sports, or even the first Winter Olympics crossover game.

But it's just guesswork right now, I haven't played any of the games I've mentioned here in a long, long time, and am only going by broad memories.

[Blue Blood]

6 minutes ago, GX Echidna said:

I agree to a point, but so much of the Wii's library was just mini-game collections, and quality varied WILDLY. I probably would put it above Mario Party 8, though I've watched the entirety of Giant Bomb's Mario Party Party, so I might be broken on that front. Not sure that I'd put it above like a Wii Sports, or even the first Winter Olympics crossover game.

But it's just guesswork right now, I haven't played any of the games I've mentioned here in a long, long time, and am only going by broad memories.

It's just subjective really. Wii Sports isn't really the same thing though, being a smaller collection of larger games and without a any sort of mode that linked everything together. With SatSR you're still getting a Mario Party analogue that includes a board or something similar that serves to add substance to the minigames.

But this is besides the point really. Lol 

[StreetSonic2022]

Hello everyone, I'm new here but been lurking into the SSMB forums for quite some time.

I want to get right to it with Sonic Shuffle.

Playing this game for many years, I can see why many people, fans and non-fans alike, avoid it and rather play Mario Party. Particularly because of the loading times (which makes the Dreamcast creating lots of noises), however, the load times are not bad compared to other games (i.e., Sonic 06 and Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex PS2 version).

Another thing is the AI. Players get frustrated playing against the CPU during Story Mode, myself included, even on easy difficulty. HOWEVER, the AI is NOT flawless as it seems because during the runs, I had seen the AI making mistakes that give the players some advantages (taking the Eggman card and falling into one of the traps, for example). Also, no one does look at this but when stopping, as in pausing and  go back into the Title Screen and Continue, the AI doesn't do the same thing twice (they will either go into a different route, pick different cards, and even messed up in the Battle spaces). Hell, add in the Force Jewels, the AI likes to use the Speedemeralds alot, unless they had the other ones (Blockite and the ones that increase/decrease the "wheel meter"). 

Also, I would like to point out, you CANNOT get 100% of getting all Precious Stones because most of the boards (exclude Fire Bird) are not in a fixed set, except the 1st and last Precious Stones. The other 5 tend to go into random Precious Stone spots. It highly impossible but you can tell the CPU that in last place can prepare him/herself for the next Precious Stone by sacrificing rings for the 1 ton. Then, you have to gamble with the Void spaces. Either focusing on the nearest Precious Stones or sacrificing rings to get the other Precious Stones the CPUs may possess, or not. If succeeded, you'll be send off to a random space on the board. It is a reason why there are other ways to win: completing the quest, win the last mini-game, and get the most rings.

Now, I do agree it is best to play with humans. However, there is a con because I saw this when my brother played the game with his friends and it took them almost 5 hours to complete the Nature Zone board because of the traps, mini-games, mini-events and those damned exclusive DUELS, which is, IMO, useless and pointless. Thank God that wasn't in Story because that would make things 10x worse. 

Now, despite the flaws, I liked the game, especially some of the mini-games (Over the Rainbow, the Tag games, Gargantua!, the trampolines and Battle tanks), though there are others that are BAD (The Egg and the Chicken, the red light/green light on ice) and a few are stupidly easy (The Great Escape, you can easily win that!) 

Do I want a sequel with the current cast (Shadow, Cream, Rouge, Silver, etc.)? Yes. But it need to be better with the antics on the boards, lessen the AI codes, some better mini-games, lessen mini-events, more mini-quests and for multiplayer, GET RID of those Duels!. Hopefully, it can create competition with the Mario Party series.

[itskidchameleon]

Yeah, I'm not convinced Shuffle was even worth playing at the time, never mind now. On paper I think it does work as a semi-decent Mario Party clone, but mechanically it just doesn't hold up. If some kind of hack was released that improved the A.I I could see it being playable, but even then there are far better options available.

Honestly if you're looking for a Party game with Sonic characters I think Sonic and the Secret Rings did a far more competent job with it's Party Mode (and also included Shadow, Cream, Blaze and Silver as playable characters, once unlocked). Definitely more worthwhile booting that one up if you have the option.