Sonic Shuffle

n/a

<div style="transform:scale(1,1); transform-origin:0% 0%; width:px !important;">Expression error: Unexpected / operator.px
Sonic Shuffle
System(s): Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Hudson
Genre: 3D Board Game/Mini Game

</div>

Sonic Shuffle 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 Maginary World. A villain named Void has shattered the Precioustone into many pieces and Lumina Flowlight and the rest of Maginary world 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 dissapeared when the Precioustone was shattered. The game features around 50 mini games and around 30 mini events.

Despite Hudsons success with the Mario Party series, this game failed to meet expectations. It was critisized due to the confusing rules in some mini-games, excessive load times, poor music, and the AI, which would at times cheat and steal the best cards. The games manual and in-game tutorial system wasn't as descriptive as they could have been either.

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 featured 8 playable characters, each with their own unique abilities, and 4 of which needed to be unlocked. The available characters were: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Super Sonic, Big the Cat, Gamma, and Chao.

The game featured 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 favorte 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 - Purely a game of chance, each player selects one of five cans of soda from a vending machine. One of the five cans was freshly shaken and will spray soda into the face of the unfortunate player who picks it. Of course, since there are five cans of soda, there is a chance that not one will lose and the whole thing ends up in a tie.
• Stop and Go - A game of Red Light, Green Light, on Ice. Each player must walk very softly to the Forcejewel which Eggman is guarding. If any player is caught moving when Eggman change the light from green to red, he or she will be frozen and lose.
• Over the Bridge - A simple race over a windy bridge for a Forcejewel.
• Sonic Gun Slinger - This Western style mini game lets players to shoot at outlaw targets. Players who shoot at the lady targets will lose rings. Player who shoot at an Eggman Target will receive bonus rings.
• Sonic Live - When a spotlight is on for a player, the player must play a tune using the buttons of the controller. If the spotlight is not on a player, he or she will lose rings.
• Psychic Sonic - Players must guess (or see) the revealing card.
• Sonic Tag - This is a normal game of tag, only difference being that the "IT" player cannot grab rings. Being "IT" after a minute of play results in losing the game.
• Shadow Tag - In no way affiliated with the Sonic character of the same name, Shadow Tag is played similarly to Sonic Tag, except that players can also make another player "IT" by touching his/her shadow.
• Frosty Rumble - Players must battle by throwing ice rocks and boulders at each other.
• Great Escape - In a maze that is about to explode for 30 seconds, each player must find a route that will lead to an escape pod.
• Egg & the Chicken - This mini game test the players of who will stand under the hoop with bombs waiting to drop the longest.
• Sonic Tank - A simple shooting tank battle.
• Fun Fun Sonic - A trampoline contest that players must finish by jumping every single trampoline and change the color to the last color, red and pop the trampoline to receive rings.
• Jump the Snake - Players must play jump rope with snakes as the rope. If a player touch the snake, he or she will be knock out of the game.
• Zero G Snap Shot - Players must be in a picture, posing while floating in the air.
• Thor's Hammer - Players must stay in the arena by avoiding Eggman's electrical attack and grab rings when the attack hit the arena.
• Over the Rainbow - The players must press a button on their controllers when prompted to do so. Pressing the wrong button or taking too long to react will cause a player to lose.
• Twister - Players who are caught in a tornado must dodge various objects that are trapped in the tornado.
• Number Jump - Players must jump numerical order from two towers in order to reach Eggman.
• Egg in Space - Players must find the button to launch the trapped Eggman into space.
• Tractor Beam Tag - Somewhat of a 1 VS 3 game, three players are "IT" at the same time and are required to remain side-by-side while trying to catch the other player. Upon catching this player, one player (randomly selected) becomes the free player. The winner is the free player after a minute of play.

2 VS 2

• Sonic the Thief - Two teams of two players racing each other by cracking safes: one must find the numbers and the other will unlock the safe when his or her partner has the correct numbers to crack the safes.
• Shoddy Work - Two teams must create a 'perfect' piece of architecture with various blocks. A team will lose if the project is sloppy when Eggman checks the progress.
• Bucket-O-Rings - Two teams of two players line up between a ring pile and a mine cart. One player scoops up rings in a bucket and then dumps them into his/her partner's bucket, who places them in the mine cart. After 30 seconds, the team with more rings in the cart gets to keep the rings.
• Bomb Relay - Two teams of two partners race each other while passing the bombs to their partner before the bombs explodes.

1 VS 3

• Wrong Way Climb - One player will send objects down the escalator while the other players must reach the top by dodging the objects.
• Bungee Jump - One player bungee jumps from a high platform as the others stand below holding items. Both teams can pick up rings during the game, but the main goal is for the bungee jumper to grab an item from a player below.
• Manic Maze - One player moves the board around to send the other players into the vortex in the middle. The team will win if they survive in the board game for 30 seconds.
• Sonicooking - One player must fry the other players in a pan for cooking them for 30 seconds.
• Gargantua - Eggman powers up a player (?!?) and causes him/her to become about four times bigger than normal. The remaining players shoot the giant with shotguns, trying to drain his/her HP gauge while avoiding getting stepped on. The giant is restricted to taking baby steps and must watch out for land mines that sap a large amount of HP from the gauge. The giant wins if he/she is not killed within one minute.
• Eggbot's Attack! - While the four players run down a city street, one player is placed in a giant walker left in the middle of the road. The player in the walker tries to crush the players on the ground as they race down the street. The team wins if anyone is not crushed after 30 seconds.
• Sonic DJ - One player is the DJ and he /she must scratch the other players on the disc before it reaches to overdrive.

Accidents (VS 4)

• Sonic Parasol (Emerald Coast Only) - Players must avoid the Eggman sunrays which will send the players back to the shack by getting the parasol.
• Ring Tide (Emerald Coast Only) - Players must avoid the tides, crabs, and various objects that are hitting the shore. If a player is caught by a tide, he/she must rapidly press in order to get back to the shore.
• Rapid Climb (Fire Bird Only) - Players stand on a wing of the Fire Bird stage and must dodge debris while picking up rings. The player is constantly blown back by the wind, made harder as the wing tilts in angle. A player loses if they are knocked off the wing. Bumping into others causes you to trip up.
• Sky Bridge (Fire Bird Only) - The players stand on the Fire Bird stage as it passes under low bridges. They can jump to get rings, but they risk slamming headlong into an oncoming bridge and falling off the stage.
• Croc-Attack (Nature Zone Only) - Players must very quickly press before being getting eaten by the crocodiles.
• Ring of Fire (Nature Zone Only) - Players must grab rings while jump through the fire rings.
• Thru the Tunnel (Riot Train Only) - The players race across the Riot Train stage, trying to be the first to reach the lead car.
• Ring Lasso (Riot Train Only) - Players must use the controller to grab the treasures from remote carts.
• Final Frontier

Stage Clear

• Sonic Surfing - Players must race each other by surfing a tidal wave. The player who is the fastest wins an emblem.
• Sky Diving - The players jump off of the Fire Bird stage and collect rings as they fall. The player who falls the fastest wins an emblem.
• Earth Quake - Players must run and avoid trees and rocks in order to leave the jungle. The player who is the fastest wins an emblem.
• Stop the Train - Players must follow the signals by pressing and in order to stop the train from crashing.
• 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

Did you know?

• Ryan Drummond not only voiced Sonic (and counterpart Super Sonic) but also voiced Knuckles. The role was later given to Scott Drier for Sonic Adventure 2.
• This was Corey Bringas' second game as Miles "Tails" Prower, who also voiced Tails for a third time in the following game, Sonic Adventure 2, though he wasn't cast as Tails in the follow up to that game, Sonic Heroes, because of his growing age, and becoming a teenager. The role was thus given to William Corkery from then on.

Manuals

• Sonic Shuffle US Manual
• Sonic Shuffle EU Manual
• Sonic Shuffle JP Manual

Voice actors

Voice Actor	Role
Ryan Drummond	Sonic the Hedgehog / Super Sonic / Knuckles the Echidna
Corey Bringas	Miles "Tails" Prower
Jennifer Douillard	Amy Rose
Jon St. John	Big the Cat
Deem Bristow	Dr. Eggman / E-102 Gamma
Elara Distler	Lumina Flowlight / Illumina / NiGHTS
Lani Minella	Void

Production Credits

Producer: Shuji Utsumi
Supervisors: Akinori Nishiyama, Yuji Uekawa
Production Manager: Masato Shibata
Project Leader: Bill Ritch
Lead Game Designer: Hidenori Oikawa
Game Designers: Koichi Takeshita, Daisuke Takeuchi
Lead Programmer: Yasuhiro Kosaka
System Programmers: Masatoshi Sugibayashi, Hideki Nishimoto, Shoichi Takata, Tetsuharu Takashima, Takuya *Suzuki, Yoshitaka Shibata, Yoko Miyabashi
Lead Artist: Hisashi Kubo
System Artists: Toshiro Okamoto, Taiichi Matsuda, Norihiro Kanie, Masahide Inaba, Hideki Soma, Motoshi *Kuwahara Mini-event Artist: Akihiro Shibata
Lead Character Artist: Manabu Yanagisawa
Character Artists: Yasuhiro Fuji, Yuji Yano, Chiaki Nishiki, Masahiro Kamohara, Megumi Okazaki, Akemi Ihara Cinematic Director: Shoji Mizuno
Cinematic Assisstant Directors: Toshifumi Sekijima, Naoto Yoshimi
Cinematic Producer: Nobuya Okabe
Cinematic Assisstant Producer: Satoshi Nagaoka
Cinematic Animation Director: Masayuki Goto
Cinematic Artists: Naoto Onuki, Takayuki Hayama, Shin Katada, Masanori Kubota, Tomoya Ohata, Ryoko Suzuki, *Kazuyo Yoshida, Fumihito Saito
Cinematic Engineers: Jin Kamohara, Zenjiro Motono
Mini-game Design Leads: Issei Takahashi, Hop, Jinichi Fuyuki, Katsuhiko Sugiyama, Tomosuke Kashiwabara, Hiro Yokoyama, Hisanori Fukuoka, Hiroyuki Yagi, Tetsuya Ishikawa, Koichiro Genda, Kouji Inokuchi, Kazunori Sato
Mini-game Programmers: Juiiyoung Kang, Tomokazu Ninomiya, Junsoo Bae, Sangyoun Lee, Donghyun Ban, Dandy Arai, Tetsuma Yoshida, Norihisa Takabatake, Naoki Hirasawa, Donpei Morita, Yoshinori Koiwa, Nobuyuki Kimura, Tsuyoshi Tsuchimoto, Nisanori Fukuoka, Takahiro Murakami, Kazunori Sato, Shin Fukumoto, Hirotaka Iwayama, Keisuke Hino
Mini-game Artists: Tomoyoshi Miyashita, Takeshi Murata, Hideto Ishikawa, Haeyoung Park, Misun Yang, Huichung Lee, Hyungjin Kim, Akira Katagi, Akiyoshi Otsuka, Minoru Sato, Kazuhiro Hayashida, Yoshikazu Aoki, Kouji Kato, Hironobu Hatta, Koichi Sakuma, Hiroyuki Kikkawa, Toshinori Tabata, Gengo Ito, Hideyuki Katsuyama, Hideaki Honjo, Noriaki Kawakami
Sound Production Managers: Keisuke Mitsui, Kenichi Funayama, Hidenobu Otsuki
Music Director: Akihiro Saton
Sound Effect Director: Osamu Narita
Sound Effect Engineer: Hirouki Tsuboguchi
Opening Movie Music: Kazuhiko Sawaguchi
Opening Movie Music Engineer: Hironao Yamamoto
Music Composition Arrangement & Programming: Hidenobu Otsuki, Ryo Fukuda, Takeo Suzuki, Toshitaka Hirota, Kazumi Mitome
Japanese Character Voices: Jun'ichi Kanemaru, Atsuki Murata, Nobutoshi Kanna, Taeko Kawata, Emi Motoi, Syun Yashiro, Jyoji Nakata, Chikao Otsuka, Ikue Ohtani, Hisako Takayama, Yuko Minaguchi
English Character Voices: Ryan Drummond, Conner Bringas, Jennifer Douillard, Jon St. John, Steve Broadie, Deem Bristow, Lani Minella, Elara Distler
Quality Assurance Managers: Hiroyuki Ohta, Shota Takahashi, Tetsuya Komatsu
Localization Producer: Osamu Shibamiya
Assisting Producer: Jason Kuo
Test Lead: Rick Ribble Jr.
Product Manager: Rich Briggs
Marketing Director: John Golden
Creative Services: Bob Schonfisch, Angela Santos, Laura Beizer, Simon Mcilroy
Public Relations: Heather Hawkins, Gwen Marker
Voice Recording Engineer: Rick Bowman
Voice Acting Supervisors: Jun Senoue(Sonic Team USA), Keith Palmer(Sonic Team USA)
Special Thanks: Takayuki Kawagoe(Smilebit), Voichi Shimosato(Smilebit), Jin Shimazaki, Hiroshi Igahi, Tetsuo Inoue, Jun Kanda, HP Team

Scans

• 

  US cover (front)

• 

  US cover (back)

• 

  US disc

• 

  US "Not for Resale" disc

• 

  EU cover

• 

  EU pre-production disc

• 

  JP cover (front)

• 

  JP cover (back)

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems
	1998  Sonic Adventure     1999  Sonic Adventure International     2000  Sonic Shuffle     2001  Sonic Adventure 2 | Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack | Sega Smash Pack Volume 1      Demos  Sonic Adventure Taikenban | Sonic Adventure 2: The Trial  Prototypes  Sonic Adventure | Sonic Shuffle | Sonic Adventure 2