Sunshine Shuffle

finally learned how to play poker

Absolutely lovely little game. Absolutely love how serious the story is compared to how cheery the music sounds and how chibi the characters look also I'm convinced that cat is cheating

The real poker was the friends we didn't feed to the fishes along the way.

I'll be so real, I bought this game without even reading the description. So imagine my shock as I listened to these goofy lil guys tell their harrowing story over a game of texas hold em, a la Poker Night At The Inventory. Please, get the game and listen to their tale.

It's not a high intensity poker simulator by any means, but really nicely emulates that "casually shooting the ♥♥♥♥ with the old timers around the table" vibes. My real criticism is that the ship is called the S.S Sunshine, but it is very clearly a Paddle Ship, not a Screw Ship. Why aren't we talking about the real controversy here?

reads like a creative writing assignment, not interested in reading about these quirky characters

You can tell this is by the same author of Screw You Bear Dad. The linear visual novel format and the poker individually might not have held my interest for three hours, but together it was a delightful combination, my attention flitting between trying to win the hands and take the poker tournaments and following the unfolding story being told. I recommend it.

voice acting would make this a lot more fun. VN plus poker just isnt really a viable format. also doesnt follow the rules of TH (original raiser can reraise if it's called around back to them), cant adjust bet sizing either, so a lot of hands play strangely most of the time.

i am thankful this is a relatively short game, because it fails at the two things it sets out to do: -the visual novel aspect is, for the most part, uninteresting. the characters are layered, but the text speed (even on fast) and the way the information is doled out to you (the actual _pacing_ of the story) drain it of any intrigue. it ends up just distracting from the poker. which you think this game would need, because... -the poker element in this game sucks. i love me some texas hold 'em, i have for a long time, so this game is absolutely teeth-gnashing in how bad it is. no way to customize your raises, no going all-in to push your opponents. and the AI... as other reviews have said, it's awful. it's best to just turtle, and if you have something, just push hard until everyone either folds despite sinking half their stacks into a pot. once you realize the AI is kind of a crapshoot instead of actually playing good poker, you can start winning tournaments with no challenge at all. the character designs are cute, the setting is neat, and Billy is my dude (he seems like the only competent poker AI at the table). but for the most part, this game doesn't succeed at what it sets out to do. and that's unfortunate, because it's a great idea with some adorable Animal Crossing ersatzes. it REALLY could have used better pacing and better poker knowledge.

This game is really cute, on the surface but the plot is surprisingly un cute for the games aesthetics. Also it should be noted that this is not a poker game, this is a visual novel the pokers there to pass the time, and to distract you. And let me tell you my attention deficit ass was not paying attention. I was to busy reading and would occasionally glance at my cards and just think it'll be fine, and it was usually. The poker isn't that in depth, or at least it doesn't feel to in depth and you can kinda bully the ais out of most hands, especially in a 1v1. But theyre funny to watch talk amongst each other, and with you. Most of which is a part of an actual story which is what really elevates this game above things like the telltale poker games. Though the post game seems kinda uninteresting after you get through the main story y'know. Feel like there might be some people who complain about it being to short or something but I still had fun so I didn't mind. And poker is fun :p