Overview
Samba de Amigo! is a motion-based rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and released by Sega for arcades (using their Dreamcast-based NAOMI hardware) in Japan on December 1999.
The game was ported to the Sega Dreamcast the next year, making its way to the United States. The Dreamcast version came bundled with two maraca controllers, where the goal was matching a series of patterns on screen.
Gameplay
Samba de Amigo was played by shaking the pair of maraca controllers to the beat of the music by shaking them high, middle, or low heights and occasionally, striking a pose. On screen, along with the notes, players see Amigo, the monkey protagonist of the game. If the player played well, more people would appear on screen as the audience. However, if the player played badly, the people would slowly disappear leaving Amigo all alone.
Each player has six spots arranged in a circle on the screen. Two red spots means shake high. Two yellow spots means shake middle. And two green spots means shake low. Blue spots would move toward these red, yellow and green spots and when the blue spot met other spots the player must then shake high/middle/low to get a "Amigo" bonus. Also, a long line of notes occasionally appear with the word "Shake!", the player then must shake the maracas rapidly in that spot. Finally, players would occasionally have to copy the pose of another character that would sometimes appear on the screen, named Pose.
The original arcade version simply featured three stages with three songs to pick from in each stage. If the player does well, a Special Stage would appear with three more songs. The Dreamcast version maintained that game mode while also adding Original Mode, which is the same as the Arcade mode but the player is able to choose any song they want. Another new mode in the Dreamcast version was Party Mode, which is a series of minigames. Party Mode featured Guacamole (whack-a-mole), Strike a Pose ( a long sequence of poses) and 1-2 Samba! (where spots would have be hit in sequence). Party Mode also featured Battle and Couples games. Battle would have players trying to score more points than the other player in order to eliminate him and win the stage. Couples was the opposite of this with players playing the stage cooperatively in order to score the most points. Finally, there was Challenge Mode where the players were given a goal other than just completing the song. The mode featured 25 challenges.
Track List
Stage 1
Arcade & English DC
Japanese DC
- "El Ritmo Tropical" - Dixie's Gang
- "Samba de Janeiro" - Bellini
- "Tubthumping" - Chambawamba
Stage 2
Arcade & Japanese DC
English DC
- "El Ritmo Tropical" - Dixie's Gang
- "Al Compás del Mambo" - Perez Prado
- "Macarena" - Los del Río, The Bayside Boys
Stage 3
In the Dreamcast version, these songs are unlocked for Original Mode by playing through them in Arcade Mode.
Arcade & English DC
Japanese DC
- "El Mambo" - Solemar
- "Take on Me" - Reel Big Fish
- "La Bamba" - Ritchie Valens
Special Stage
In the Dreamcast version, these songs are unlocked for Original Mode either by playing through them in Arcade Mode, through Challenge Mode, or through timed DLC.
Other Songs
- The arcade version includes a bonus song that is only available when using the All Music cheat. Known as "The Theme of Inoki", it is the theme song for famed professional wrestler Antonio Inoki. It was renamed to "Ali Bombaye" in the English Dreamcast version, named after the song it is based on (from the 1977 film The Greatest). It is unlockable in the Dreamcast version through Challenge Mode or timed DLC.
- The Dreamcast version includes a bonus song that is unlockable through Challenge Mode or timed DLC. Known as "Samba de Amigo", it is a remix of Samba de Janiero.
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