Sonic Shuffle
From Sonic Retro
| Sonic Shuffle |
|---|
| System(s): Sega Dreamcast |
| Publisher: Sega |
| Developer: Hudson/Sonic Team (Co-Developer) |
| Genre: 3D Board Game/Mini Game |
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.
Contents
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 (four of which need to be unlocked), each with their own unique abilities. The available characters are Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. The unlockable characters are 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 favorite 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. | |
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Stop and Go - A game of Red Light, Green Light, on ice. Everyone is on ice and Eggman is at the other end holding a Forcejewel. Players can only move when he isn't looking. If Eggman catches someone moving, they are frozen. If a player grabs the jewel before time is up, then it is won as well as 30 rings. If it is not, whoever is closest gets 20 followed by 10 and 5. The analog stick must be used carefully; quickly move it forward and slowly move it back to the center. Eggman has a tendency to turn around every two seconds whether or not he actually does it. |
| 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. | |
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Psychic Sonic - A card appears in the center of the screen and a letter starts to appear on the card. Press the button corresponding to the letter when you can identify the card. A player wins 5 rings if correct with an additional 5 for each consecutive correct guess. Lose five rings for incorrect guesses. The one with the most rings at the end wins. The computer can do this very well. There is a way to beating this game without being psychic. Since there are only four cards to choose from, there are only four different patterns the mystery card makes before revealing itself. The best way of spotting it is when the card pops up, wait exactly a second. The card that is most clear one second later will be the card. |
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Sonic Tag - This game of tag is a four way split screen arena with a pyramid in the center. One player is marked IT and can't collect rings. Tagging another player will make that person IT. At two corners there are springs. Hitting the spring will bounce you to the top of the pyramid, where a gong that dispenses rings can be hit. Whoever is IT at the end of 60 seconds doesn't win 20 rings. The player that is IT can use the arrow above their character's head to find the nearest victim. |
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Shadow Tag - This game is similar to Sonic Tag, but takes place in a circular beach arena. The player that is IT loses rings while IT tags another person by stepping on the person's shadow. Eggman shines light on people that are not the IT player to make longer shadows. Near the end of the round, the sun sets and the shadows naturally get longer. Whoever is not IT at the end wins 20 rings. Because the beach is hard to run on, jumping can be quicker. |
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Frosty Rumble - This minigame has an icy arena with ice blocks everywhere. Pick up a block and throw it to open it up. Rings {and sometimes a Forcejewel) appear inside. Larger
blocks take longer to lift but have more rings inside. A player loses rings if they are hit by a block. It's easier to move a character when it is not carrying a block. There is a bonus of 20 rings for who gets the most rings in the game, with bonus of 10 for second and 5 for third. |
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Great Escape - This game features a dimly lit maze with everyone in the center. Try to get to one of the corners to leave the maze. No one can leave the maze the same way as another player. Jump over holes or else you start at beginning. There are light switches that will light the room briefly as well as other items, such as paralyzing you opponents for a few seconds or adding 5 seconds to the clock. Win 20 rings by getting out first, followed by 10 for second and 5 for third but lose 10 if you don't. Some of the black squares aren't holes so take that into consideration. |
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Egg & the Chicken - Everyone is handed a bomb and is thrown in a basketball hoop. The one who stays longest under the hoop without getting hit wins. Press  to wuss out anytime. Sometimes the ball will roll very fast down the hoop but then go back up. Eggman also hits the wall to disrupt to bomb's pattern. When the music stops, the bomb will drop so listen closely. This can take as little as five seconds or more than thirty. How intense! 30 rings go to the winner and ones who got hit lose 10. Ties are possible, so there could be more than one winner.
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Sonic Tank - Everyone is riding a tank in a square arena with two columns. Move around with the analog stick and press to shoot. Use the triggers to slide left and right, but this disables the ability to shoot. Eggman will come by and drop bonus items, such as a laser blast or shield, as well as bombs, which should be avoided. Each person has a life meter. A player receives ten rings for each fellow player destroyed. When time is up, whoever has the most life (or who is left standing) wins 10 rings. Second gets 5, third loses 5 and fourth loses 10. If more than one player is destroyed, places are judged on when the person was removed.
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| 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. | |
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Jump the Snake - Everyone stands on a platform and a snake comes out of a random hole to play jump rope. Press to jump over the snake. The snake can go back into the hole and come out a different one. Eventually the platform starts to rotate, making it even harder. Hitting the snake will result in falling off the platform. Last one standing wins 30 rings. The snake usually speeds up as the game progresses, but sometimes is tricky and goes slow, so watch out!
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| 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. | |
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Over the Rainbow - The object of this minigame is to jump from one lily pad to another. One of the four buttons is displayed at the top of the screen (,  ,  , or  .) Press that button to jump to the next lily pad before the timer surrounding the button turns all blue. Pressing the wrong button or not pressing it in time will make you fall. As the game
progresses the button pops up quicker and there is less time to press it. Last one standing wins 30 rings. |
| 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. | |
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Egg in Space - Thirty switches are displayed; press in front of one to see if it has the button to launch Eggman into space. Finding the button wins 30 rings. It's mostly luck to find the right switch; simply try to remember what switches others pulled. It is very unlikely for time to run out before a player finds it.
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| 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
| Screenshot | Description |
|---|---|
| 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. | |
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Shoddy Work - Two teams must create a 'perfect' piece of architecture with various blocks. The person on top presses to pick a block, uses the analog to rotate it and can either press to drop the block or press to reject it. The bottom person is holding an outline of the shape. They can move the shape left and right to place the shape. Jumping will result in the last piece to fly up for repositioning. A shape can be rejected by either moving all the way to one side or jumping twice. The object is to fill the outline with the falling blocks. The outline doesn't need to be filled completely—just the trim. However, filling it in will make placing the blocks for the top area easier. When time is up, Eggman will come by to judge the creation. He will destroy the one that is less similar to the original shape. The winners receive 20 rings each. The outlines range from simple squares to difficult angled patterns. Available shapes for the pattern are a yellow square, a large red rectangle, a blue triangle, a small green rectangle, and a smaller green rectangle.
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| 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. | |
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Bomb Relay - Each team is running with a bomb. While one teammate is carrying the bomb, the other has "HEY!" over his head. The word gets larger until at one point it is huge and then gets smaller. The player carrying the bomb has to press to toss the bomb when "HEY!" is at its largest. The closer you toss it to the time when "HEY!" is big, the faster both people go. The tossing goes back and forth until one team reaches the lake. Winners receive 20 rings each.
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1 VS 3
| Screenshot | Description |
|---|---|
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Wrong Way Climb - Three people have to repeatedly press to run up a down escalator while moving left to right to dodge balls thrown by the person at the top. The one person presses all the way to the left or right to grab a ball, selects a lane to throw it down and presses to throw it. Metal balls roll down one lane, but tennis balls bounce from one lane to another. Red balls stay in one lane but explode if a person hits it. Runners lose rings if hit and fall down the stairs slightly. If no one reaches the top by the end of the time, the thrower gets 30 rings. If someone makes it to the top, that person gets 30 rings while the other two get 10.
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| 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. | |
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Manic Maze - Three players get put into a marble maze with a large marble and a hole in the center. The remaining player moves the maze around to get characters to fall down the hole in the center. The three can move around to try and avoid falling in the center. Rings get sprinkled into the maze but it's not worth dying for. If a person gets hit by the marble or switches direction too quickly, the person falls down and can easily be moved by the one person. If the one person can get all three in the center hole before time is up, he wins 30 rings while the three lose 10 rings each. If there is at least one survivor when time is up, the three win 10 rings each with a bonus 10 to any survivors. Usually the one person has the advantage but sometimes the design of the maze will make it more difficult to get anyone in the center. |
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Sonicooking - Three players are put into a large frying pan while the remaining one moves the frying pan in a similar way as the maze. If the one holds down and quickly presses up, he
can do a stir fry flip. As for the other three, they hop around the hot pan and can move around with the analog stick. Holding |
| 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. | |
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Sonic DJ - One player controls the record that everyone else is on. Press up and down to scratch it, which causes everything to move to the edge and press , , , or to shock a side. Anyone on the edge of the side you shock will lose rings. Rings will get sprinkled onto the record. Scratching the record will cause the rings to fall off the edge. Any rings that fall off go to the DJ. If scratched too much, the system overheats and the DJ loses 10 rings. For the three people, they can move and jump around the record. Avoid the edge of the record as well as the needle to prevent losing rings.
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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
Interesting Facts
- Unlike in Sonic Adventure, Ryan Drummond not only voices Sonic (and counterpart Super Sonic), but also Knuckles. Following Sonic Shuffle, the role was given to Scott Drier in Sonic Adventure 2.
- This was Corey Bringas' second game as Miles "Tails" Prower, who also voiced Tails for a third and final time in the following game, Sonic Adventure 2.
Manuals
Voice actors
Production Credits
Producer: Shuji Utsumi
Director: Hidenori Oikawa
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
Resources
Physical 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)
JP disc
Artwork
- Lumina.png
- Void.png
Wallpaper
Official wallpaper found on the Sonic Shuffle disc:
| Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems | |
|---|---|
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1998 Sonic Adventure 1999 Sonic Adventure International 2000 Sonic Shuffle 2001 Sonic Adventure 2 | Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack | Sega Smash Pack Volume 1 |