FoxMaskedMan

My biased rating of this game would be 10/10 since I grew up with it, but I'm going to realistically give it an 8/10. The AI cheat by stealing the right cards every time and never messing up in battles on normal/hard difficulties. The minigames are also not very descriptive that even after playing this game for over 20 years, I STILL do not understand how some of them work. However, the game has a lot more depth than people give it credit for. I love the card system and being able to steal other players cards to either mess them up or try to grab a card you need but don't have. It can lead to both terrible plays and Yu-Gi-Oh "heart of the cards" moments. The character abilities/shortcuts also allow for a lot of strategy for how you plan to navigate around the board. The forcejewels add a neat element of unpredictability and can be the turning point of the game if you've got the right ones. Though, there are almost no limits when using them that you can spam several on a single turn as opposed to Mario Party's one item per turn rules. One of my favorite elements the game adds is the Mini Events which are basically little visual novel moments that add some fun RNG to earn rings or other effects. I've never seen a party game do something like that before or since so to me that's something I feel is worthy of praise. The game includes a cool collector's area called "Sonic's Room" which allows you to fill it up with little character dolls, aquarium fish, plants, a stereo and photo album pictures. The main downside is it's almost all unlocked from the story mode so you can't earn much in the battle mode. I think the game utilizes a nice graphical style and captures that late 90s feel to it with some of the mini game scenery which is nostalgic. The boards are overall fun, though I wish all of them had randomized precious stone spawn areas. Certain boards have pre-determined spawn points so you always know where they're going to show up. The final event mini-game can be critical for winning the match since it gives you an emblem but ultimately multiple ones involved you just being in the front which can be very difficult against the CPUs when not on easy. To this day, this game is still my favorite party game and I come back to it all the time. It's fun if you have someone to play with that knows how the game works so I understand if people like it less going in solo. If you take the time to learn the game, I would definitely recommend it.