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Sega Dreamcast Reviews Sonic Shuffle *stands up, dusts off pants, and hangs head* Hello. My name's John and I'm a disappointed gamer. When told that I would be reviewing Sonic Shuffle a few weeks ago, I was overcome with joy. Being the Mario Party fan that I am, I had been anticipating the game's release since it was first announced. The MP series had always been there for me as an outlet to any penned up anger I may have. Its simplistic minigames, all focusing on either robbing, beating with blunt objects, or ruining another's reputation, allowed me to escape from the complex frustrations of more epic titles. Yet with the advent of Dreamcast came the hope that this tradition of party games live would on as it had in the PSX and N64. Upon hearing of Sonic Shuffle's production, the former seemed to be true, and the countdown began. I wasn't going to be disappointed. Who knew my high expectations and love for the genre would result in such heartbreak… I have learned there to be three steps to acceptance from disappointment: 1. Anger/Frustration- Commonly Spoken Phrases: "Why is my controller all screwed up? I'm pressing all the right buttons!" "Of all people, I got stuck with a defective copy. Figures." 2. Denial- Commonly Spoken Phrases: "Hmm.. I must be doing something wrong.. I'm sure if I play it more it'll get much better." 3. Acceptance- Commonly Spoken Phrases: "Wow… this game sucks." "What a waste of money." So please, before rushing out and buying Sonic Shuffle, read my review and avoid having to attend Disappointed Gamers Anonymous meetings. Booting up the game, you will be witness to a beautiful opening movie detailing the game's plot (some Care Bear-esque storyline about restoring the dreams of the world by collecting Precioustones, yadda yadda yadda) at which point you'll be brought to the title screen, followed by the mode select. The modes include: Story Mode, which is just your regular board game/mini-game gameplay with scattered fragments of a plot along the way. Versus Mode, just like the Story Mode without the story and with the ability to choose what board you'd like to play on (5 in all). And then a mode where you can play all of your collected mini-games. It sounds fun, but it all pretty much goes downhill after this mode-select screen. The first thing you'll notice is the ridiculous number of loading times you'll have to encounter simply to start a game. It isn't quite the length of loading times that is so frustrating but rather their frequency-every small task within the game is always accompanied by a short loading time. Even selecting the number of players is chaperoned by a quick 4 second loading time; it gives the game a sloppy, incomplete feel (finding a friend with the patience to play SS with you will be exceedingly hard as well). Absolutely nothing in this game is preloaded, and it boggles the mind how a game of such complexities as Shenmue can load less frequently [and faster, for that matter], than just some mockery of a past 64-bit title. I swear to god-if I have to read one more explanation of a force gem (which is the literature of choice for Sonic Shuffle's loading times), I will become angry… and you won't like me when I'm angry. The game includes four characters you can choose to play as from the start: (others are unlockable if you have the patience) Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Like Mario Party, each character has their own strengths and weaknesses-Sonic can do "double-moves" (which I will explain more thoroughly later), while Tails, Knuckles, and Amy all have allocated areas across the board that only they can access. The depth is appreciated, but I'm sure all of us would have been content with character traits based solely on whether they are "the fat guy," "the skinny guy," or the ever-popular "well-rounded guy." Now, a short pop-quiz for the readers: o The best part of the Mario Party series is: A) The mini-games B) Watching the computer walk around the board C) Not playing mini-games Alright, alright, you caught me asking an obnoxious rhetorical question. But seriously, aren't the mini-games what the party genre is all about; the time spent eagerly awaiting the fourth person to roll the die so that the mini-game may commence? The folks behind Sonic Shuffle certainly don't think so. Rather than incorporating a system of "a mini-game every four turns," Sonic Shuffle forces the player to land on a specific space on the board in order to play a mini-game [which are few and far between, might I add.] Here's a wacky statistic for you: In a 1 and a half hour session with Sonic Shuffle, I encountered only 4 mini-games-two of which were the same! And if you do focus your game entirely on trying to land on mini-game spaces, you won't have a chance of winning-as the actual object of the game is to retrieve the "Precioustones" (aka Mario's stars.) The majority of your time will be spent choosing a card (Sonic Shuffle's equivalent of die in Mario Party) from either your stack or another players, and landing upon a "+3 coins" or "-3 coins" space on the board. And on every third roll or so you might even be fortunate enough to land on a "battle" or "mini-event" space [read: Sarcasm.] Both are COMPLETELY unnecessary, and should have been left on the cutting room floor immediately after conception. "Battle Events" are incidents where you are pitted against some sort of foe who is assigned a number value (like HP) which you must either match or exceed by choosing a card from your stash and stopping on the correct number, one-armed bandit style. Succeed and you will be "handsomely rewarded" with one of 40 different gems (each of which has the ability to change the dynamics of the game in one way or another, be it stealing coins or switching places on the board). Fail and you will be raped of your coins. In other words, it sucks. Badly. The "mini-events" are even more laughable, as they are just a picture with a caption saying if you've just received/lost a certain number of coins or jewels. *Yawn* Both are absolutely undesirable and superfluous additions created for the sole purpose of allowing the creators of the game to shout in defense of Sonic Shuffle, "See! We're not the same as Mario Party! We gots battles and mini events!" On the rare occasion that you do land on a mini-game space (which is indicated by an exclamation point), the game will never cease to disappoint. Nearly all the games are blatant rip-offs of the Mario Party series…. Without the fun or intensity. Some minigames are terribly complex as well: One comes to mind where a player is in control of a frying pan while the others are in the cooking apparatus. Players in the pan must avoid temporary shocks of heat while making sure that they don't spend too much time on the actual surface of the pan. Meanwhile, the chef mustn't abuse his ability to the shocks of heat or else he will lose coins…. Don't ask. Yet I do have one question: What ever happened to rolling on balls and bumping people off islands? The lovable simplicities of Mario Party have been replaced by the cruel complexities of Sonic Shuffle; and it ain't no fun. Other quirks have been added to Sonic Shuffle to create more depth [read: frustration] including duels between two players on the same space, being allowed to stay on specific spaces of the board for only a limited amount of time (like underwater spaces due to oxygen constraints), along with a slew of others that simply aren't fun in any way, shape, or form. Nevertheless, Sonic Shuffle is a nice looking game (incorporating the now standard cel shading technique), making bashing the game all the more difficult. Some more time could have been spent on character models, however, as it is obvious they are nothing but Sonic Adventure models with a thick black line painted along their border. The enemies in battle mode are rather impressive, however, moreso than the famous Sega mascots themselves. Textures, as expected in any Sonic game, are also great, although backgrounds could have been touched up a bit and look rather rushed, yet nothing noticeable. The sound-once again, nothing to complain about. Music, although rather repetitive, can be enjoyable (I swear I hear Mr. Hankey's cry of "Hoooooooowdy Hooooooo" during the "Duel" theme song) and the familiar "cha-ching" sound of coins is crisper than ever. The tunes are a mix of techno and what I call "fluffy wuffy," adding to the friendly feel of the game. Even the voice-overs are still exceptionally well done (although awkward at times-Knuckles sounds like a 45 year old). Bravo to whoever made this game, I suppose (it doesn't say on the startup screen…) Still, looks and sound can be EXTREMELY deceiving, and Sonic Shuffle is, as put at the beginning of the review, painfully disappointing. Yes, it's hard to believe-a game sporting Sega's lovable hedgehog sucks… badly. The game is clearly rushed, and too many dumb features have been added to differentiate itself from Mario Party. My suggestions for a sequel: Let Yuji Naka take control, don't be afraid to completely mimic MP, and four player netplay is an absolute necessity. And yes, I would rather endure the pain of 100 Mario Party blisters than play another round of Sonic Shuffle. Graphics: 8.5/10 Sound: 8.3/10 Gameplay: 5.1/10 Replay: 4.8/10 Overall: 6.7/10 John Cochran |
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