Overview
Sonic Shuffle is a multiplayer party game, similar to the Mario Party style of games on Nintendo consoles, which was released on the Dreamcast. Sonic Shuffle is a bright colorful game that uses a cel-shaded style for the characters and animations.
Story
One day, Sonic and his friends came across the magical world of Maginary which is in big trouble! An evil villain named Void had destroyed the Master Precious Stone whilst trying to steal it, the stone which held everyone's dreams. Parts of the Master Precious Stone were scattered across the five worlds of Maginary which will need to be restored in order to bring peace back to the land. A fairy named Lumina Flowlight asked for Sonic's aid in restoring the Master Precious Stone and bringing back the creator of Maginary, Illumina, who had mysteriously disappeared when the Master Precious Stone was destroyed.. Find all the pieces of the Precious Stone and help save Maginary from chaos!
Gameplay
Sonic Shuffle's title screen.Sonic Shuffle is played out on a board between four characters, which can be either player or computer controlled. Player's must work their way around the game board in order to earn emblems, which are automatically awarded for finding the Precious Stones, completing events, collecting the most rings and other tasks. The player at the end of the game with the most emblem's wins. However, the main focus of the game is to be the player that finds the five Precious Stones that are randomly placed around the board in turn for the player to find.
Each player is given a stack of numbered cards which are hidden from the view of other players, and are used to move around the board. Two other cards are also hidden in a player's deck, including the S card, which grants the player extra options such as stealing the cards off other players, and the Eggman card, which when accidentally picked will summon a roulette that will randomly pick punishments as devised by Dr Eggman, such as making ring spaces smaller, or dropping an anvil on a player so that they lose rings, and so on.
Spread across the board are different spaces which activate different events and bonuses. These are ring spaces, which earn you rings, minus-ring spaces, which cause you to lose rings, Event spaces which will trigger and event or mini-game where certain tasks are given to each player, Shop spaces where player's can trade their rings for useful items, and Battle spaces, where players use their cards to battle an enemy by selecting a card that is equal to, or higher than the enemy's card number. When landing on a Precious Stone space, the enemy guarding the Precious Stone must be defeated in this way in order to acquire the Precious Stone.
There are a wide variety of mini-games and events, which are not only triggered by landing on an Event space, but each stage also has their own stage mini-game which is randomly triggered during the stage, known as 'Accidents' and is played at the end of each stage in order to earn an extra emblem. Multiplayer events that are triggered by other player's or computer controlled character's are played out by everyone and usually give the player an opportunity to earn extra rings.
Sonic Shuffle also has a section called 'Sonic's Room' which is used to access bonuses such as artwork and music, and can be used as a record of completed events. Rings that are collected at the end of each stage are totalled and used to buy extras and artwork within Sonic's Room, and is thus used to unlock extra characters.
Characters
Initially, there are four characters that can be played within the single player and multiplayer modes. Four extra characters can be unlocked by purchasing artwork within Sonic's Room. The playable characters are:
The star of the Sonic series. He has the ability of performing a spindash and travelling double the amount of cards used when using two cards of the same number.
Sonic's best buddy. There are special spaces across each game board that allow Tail's to use his ability of flight to reach new areas.
Sonic's old rival. There are special spaces across each game board that allow Knuckles to climb up and reach new areas.
Sonic's biggest fan. There are special spaces across each game board that allow Amy to reach new areas by using her hammer as a jump board.
The following characters are unlockable:
A big cat looking for his pal, Froggy. When Big uses a number 6 card on the game board, he is able to stop anywhere within those six spaces.
Gamma
A robot that was created by Dr Eggman. If Gamma uses a card between the numbers 4 and 6, he will not lose his rings if he land on a minus-ring space.
Chao
The cute virtual life within the Sonic series.
Super Sonic
When Sonic collects all of the seven Chaos Emeralds, he transforms into Super Sonic. If Super Sonic goes the same number of spaces twice, he will double the spaces he travels.
Stages
There are five board stages within Sonic Shuffle, each with their own theme, quirks and Events. These are:
Emerald Coast
Emerald Coast BoardA beautiful marine-style stage that is beside the beach with underwater sections where a character can drown if left too long. Within this stage, there are three special board spaces. A dolphin space, which will summon a dolphin to transport you to another section of the board, a turtle space, where a turtle will rise and fall within the water, either preventing you from reaching an area or creating a short cut, and a air bubble space which allows you to stay underwater for longer.
Fire Bird
A futuristic metallic fortress with a giant engine that breaks down during your visit and a trapped phoenix inside. Within this stage, there is a special board space, the forklift space, which will summon a forklift to carry you to a random space on the board.
Nature Zone
A lush green environment with ruins that sometimes block your path. Within this stage, there are two special board spaces. The trolley space will summon a trolley that knocks you into a random space, and the alligator space which is similar to the turtle space of Emerald Coast, and will rise up and down, either helping or hindering your route across the board.
Riot Train
A long train which acts as the entire board for this stage. Within this stage, there are three special board spaces. The arrow space, where you will need to time your movements in order to pass, a helicopter space, which will take you further along the stage, and the steam space which will blow you into the air and land you onto a carriage in order to progress further.
Fourth Dimension Space
A scary dimension set in space and surrounded by falling stars. Within this stage, there is a special board space, the transporter space, which will teleport you to a random space across the board.
Credits
- Producer - Shuji Utsumi
- Supervisor - Akinori Nishiyama
- Supervisor - Yuji Uekawa
- Production Manager - Masato Shibata
- Project Leader - Bill Ritch
- Lead Game Designer - Hidenori Oikawa
- Game Designer - Koichi Takeshita
- Game Designer - Daisuke Takeuchi
- Lead Programmer - Yasuhiro Kosaka
- System Programmer - Masatoshi Sugibayashi
- System Programmer - Hideki Nishimoto
- System Programmer - Shoichi Takata
- System Programmer - Tetsuharu Takashima
- System Programmer - Takuya Suzuki
- System Programmer - Yoshitaka Shibata
- System Programmer - Yoko Miyabashi
- Lead Artist - Hisashi Kubo
- System Artist - Toshiro Okamoto
- System Artist - Taiichi Matsuda
- System Artist - Norihiro Kanie
- System Artist - Masahide Inaba
- System Artist - Hideki Soma
- System Artist - Motoshi Kuwahara
- Mini-event Artist - Akihiro Shibata
- Lead Character Artist - Manabu Yanagisawa
- Character Artist - Yasuhiro Fuji
- Character Artist - Yuji Yano
- Character Artist - Chiaki Nishiki
- Character Artist - Masahiro Kamohara
- Character Artist - Megumi Okazaki
- Character Artist - Akemi Ihara
- Cinematic Director - Shoji Mizuno
- Voice of Void - Lani Minella
- Voice of Sonic - Ryan Drummond
- Voice of Knuckles - Ryan Drummond
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