Samba De Amigo

The Good
The game has monkeys. By default, that's allow any game truly needs, but I'll expand further on the concept.

The fact that it's a Sonic Team game instantly pushes it into a level of greatness, but it's such a brilliantly designed and fun game. The graphics were bright and colorful, with filled with crazy characters moving to the beats. Everything was so animated and vibrant with lots of action going on.

This game also excelled in the two areas it needed to: Music and control. The maracas were extremely responsive to the on-screen commands, leaving not much room for hardware error. And it was just cool shaking maracas... in an embarrassing, dorky kind of way that would have your friends laugh at you, but they would soon forget when you finally convinced them to try the game.

The music was equally as catchy. There were a lot of different and popular beats, and during the Dreamcast's hey day, there were even more songs to be downloaded from the "Samba" website. Songs from their other classic games.

The Bad
The sheer amount of physical pain your wrists get after playing for far too long a session. It was near the level of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Regardless of how many songs you could download from online (a feature sadly no longer available), there was just never enough music. It's one of those kinds of games that you don't want to end... and it did when the Dreamcast did. And this was the only game that used those expensive $70 maracas controller.

The sequel never made it to the United States. I would have loved to have seen this game go the way of Dance Dance Revolution and have multiple expansion packs. But alas, no go. Definitely a game that deserved a series, but was cut short in its prime.

The Bottom Line
As goofy as the concept sounds, music/rhythm gaming enthusiasts owe it to themselves to try try out this fun and addictive title. Sure, it's a silly concept, and most likely, you'll look like a fool playing it. But is it fun? Oh, definitely yes.

This was one of the games that really showed off how innovative Sega was trying to be with the Dreamcast. And like most of those games, it succeeded. I'll keep the musings of what things would have been like had Dreamcast survived, but if you are ever able to find a copy of this game and the maracas (don't waste time trying to play it with a controller. There's no point), do yourself the favor and check this out. It's more fun with monkeys than should be legally allowed.