Sonic Shuffle has a bit of a bad reputation, I think. For one, it's difficult to play in the first place considering you not only need a Dreamcast and four controllers, but also four of the Dreamcast's rather avant garde memory card, the VMU. You could emulate it, but then you'd be missing out on one of the game's most unique features: hiding your hand of cards on your personal VMU screen. And you could play with computers, but they cheat to a notorious degree even on their lowest difficulty and straight up ignore that signature card-hiding mechanic. And then once you do actually get a game going, the rules and boards are noticably more complicated, and unforgiving, than most any Mario Party. With such mechanics as losing half your rings (coins) for being the player furthest from a claimed Precioustone (star), special spaces that offer you a 50% chance of being able to proceed versus being turned back the way you came, the Boo equivalent making you spin a roulette to see who you steal from and warping you to a random space if you're successful (no refunds if you steal from an empty-handed player, of course), and no cap on the number of rings that can be stolen from you in minigames, it's easy for people to come away from a game feeling weary.
All that said, I do like this game! I just finished the story mode for the first time in the uh, 24 years I've owned this game and came away from it feeling much more engaged than after the average round of Mario Party, and I really like Mario Party, too! As I sort of explained before, Sonic Shuffle utilizes cards instead of dice. Each player is dealt a hand of seven cards, six with random values between 1 and 6 and one special card, either the valuable S wildcard or the Eggman card, which is basically a Bowser space in your pocket. The card you play determines your movement, and then once every player's hand has been emptied they all get reshuffled. This more deterministic movement makes basic board movement much more strategic, especially since you can play cards from other people's hands at will. You can't see what anyone else has, but you can see the discard pile and draw your own conclusions about how risky a given theft might be. When hands are low, you can also deliberately play a certain card to force another player into an unfavorable move, especially if you say, use a item that forcibly discards every card with a given number. Highlighting this greater focus on board movement, minigames now only occur when someone lands on a minigame space rather than at the end of each turn, so the pace of game can flow pretty quick. Not that the minigames themselves are lacking, there are some real gems. My particular favorite is Sonicola, a completely random game where you're simply trying to avoid picking the can of soda Eggman shook up. Landing on a minigame space may also result in you playing a solo "minievent," charming little tangents styled like classic adventure games where you make a choice and enjoy (or suffer) the outcome.
There's a lot to like about Sonic Shuffle, I think. The boards have a fantastical air to them, with the last being a real visual treat. The story is surprisingly contemplative despite its somewhat shoddy translation. Also I feel like I have to mention, this game has a screensaver?? I remember it was somewhat common for games of the period to automatically dim the screen if no input was detected for a while, as a means of combatting burn-in, but I don't think I've ever seen another game toss its own title around the screen like a regular PC screensaver. Anyway, despite sharing a development team with the original Mario Party titles, I appreciate that Sonic Shuffle is not merely a palette swap of the preeminent board game video game. I do dearly wish it could've received a sequel, these mechanics have a lot of potential and just need a little refinement. And, could you imagine, Shadow and Rouge playable in Sonic Shuffle 2...?
Game Number: 142
Year Played: 2024
Platform: Dreamcast