Frustration comes in many forms: too much
traffic on the motorway, that blonde in the nightclub who fancies your mate
instead and now, Sonic Shuffle.
The idea behind the game is that Illumina, the Guardian Angel, needs the help
of you and your fellow Sonic-related friends, Tails, Amy and Knuckles to name
but three, in recovering "Precioustones",
powerful crystals made from the hopes and dreams of people from every dimension.
If you can do this, you'll all help save the land of Maginary Whirl.
What this actually means is that you take it in turns to move around one of five
playing boards, choosing cards to select the number of moves to make instead of rolling
a dice, then heading for the stones and fighting bad guys when you get there
in a turn-based system. Kill the baddie and you get the stone. Don't kill him
and he'll whack you into oblivion causing you to lose all your rings.
Mini Games appear from time to time, with 49 in total, such as "Great Escape", in which you must
all proceed to an exit, in the dark, along a
Chu Chu Rocket-style
board, before Eggman's bomb blows up the building.
The graphics do look damn good and colourful when the board's in play, but
they're not particularly stretching the Dreamcast's capabilities. One thing that
aides them is the black outlines drawn around each character a la
Jet Set Radio,
but on the whole it feels like a futuristic Ludo board.
A plinky plonky soundtrack carries on along in the background, accompanied
by all manner of cartoon-like sound FX, plus mixed reactions from yourself
and your cohorts when they either succeed or fail.
It's easy enough to move around the board, but was Sonic Shuffle the
kind of game your Dreamcast was invented for? It's not so much a 'board game'
as a 'bored game', as you'll find out after playing it for any longer than
half-an-hour as your interest begins to wane because it's too bizarre
to make any sense and isn't half as much fun to play as a regular Sonic
the Hedgehog game.
Overall, this is Sonic-lite. When the developers created this it must have
been something that was more of an afterthought tied onto an existing franchise
as opposed to something that demanded a full-priced game release.
Try before you buy, is the phrase here. If you enjoy it, it'd be worth
£20, but not twice that by anyone's stretch of the imagination.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Frustration comes in many forms: too much
traffic on the motorway, that blonde in the nightclub who fancies your mate
instead and now, Sonic Shuffle.
The graphics do look damn good and colourful when the board's in play, but
they're not particularly stretching the Dreamcast's capabilities. One thing that
aides them is the black outlines drawn around each character a la
Overall, this is Sonic-lite. When the developers created this it must have
been something that was more of an afterthought tied onto an existing franchise
as opposed to something that demanded a full-priced game release.
