Learn the details of the greatest bank robbery crew ever, over a game of cards.

PSA: I'm still kind of a poker beginner, so any high level players will probably have a much easier time with the game's AI. I barely knew how to play properly before starting this, so keep that in mind.

Honestly this was a really pleasant experience. Other people seem to be talking about the game falling flat, or the execution being poor, or the dialogue being annoying..but I for one enjoyed the whole game. I think the story and characters were charming, I enjoyed the cheery aesthetic and unique visuals, and the few tunes in the game were nice. It's a pretty short game though, and the story doesn't feel like it comes to any huge conclusion by the end. The narrative itself finishes in about 3 or 4 hours, and you could probably unlock all the unlockables in under 10, but you can keep playing poker with the characters indefinitely. They all have distinct personalities and tend to play in certain ways, which makes it more interesting and similar to..well.. actual poker with real people. Honestly I'll probably play a lot more of this to get more familiar with poker in real life.

There isn't much else to say about the game, really. I will add though, if you're only here for poker and don't care for the rest of the experience, just go play actual poker. Get some friends. Or go buy Balatro if you want a unique spin on poker itself, with no real story to it. It's a great game loved by a great many people, and it literally just came out. If you're at all interested in Sunshine Shuffle though, give it a chance. It made me happy, at least, and that's all that matters to me.

If you like poker, and want to witness a nice little story in visual novel format, pick it up. Costs as much as a pretty decent deck of cards, and gives you the same experience of shooting the shit with some friends over a card game.

This is a though one to judge. I really like the vibe and concept but its gameplay is nothing more than a glorified visual novel. There really is nothing to the card game or the AI for that matter. I suppose its ok for a 10 Dollar game but I fell like been cheated out of an actual ending. The characters are interesting and it feelt like it was building to some kind of conclusin but then it just ends. Like no resolution, nothing. There is a post credit endless mode with additional story bits. The Problem is that the main showcase are the characters and with nowhere for them go in a game where there are no deeper gameplay systems there really isnt any reason to keep playing. I recommend Sunshine Shuffle if you see it on sale and have an afternoon to kill but really temper your expectation, beacuse theres not much here.

While charming, this game falls flat on its execution. This Texas-hold em' visual novel should have been up my alley with my love for story telling and an itch for reckless gambling, but fails to present either in a cohesive or interesting way.

The poker mechanics are very basic, it's classic two hand. There's not much going on with no tells from the characters or much challenge from their AI. Once it comes to a one on one showdown, spamming the raise button is the easiest and surefire way to win the tournament. Pacing is an issue with how fast the game goes through all of the poker screens. There's no tension on the flops or hand reveals, it's all instantly shown with little fan fare outside of the win tune or one of the characters giving their two cents about the win. It's not very interesting beyond that, and yet it takes up a lot more of the game play than I think it should.

The VN aspect of this game is straightforward. While you're gambling on winning with a pair of 2s, the creatures on the Sunshine are telling you their story about their life of crime. However, it's difficult focusing on both the dialogue and the game of 2 hand going on at the same time. The dialogue is told to you from a speech bubble that you constantly have to click to advance, taking your attention away from the poker game around it. Clicking also advances the "flop" screen which conflicts with advancing the dialogue, which fucks with the already quick pace of the poker game. An auto dialogue advance would have helped a lot with these issues. Story dialogue also just takes a bit too long to happen sometimes too, with long stretches of nothing going on, then suddenly someone at the table mentions some crazy shit out of left field. I think the poker quips sometimes break the story sequences too. There were moments where they were talking about their gang shit and suddenly the captain is like "Ooh!!! Nice call" and the room goes silent.

I've read other reviews mentioning voice actors would have improved this a lot. While I agree, I feel that a much higher focus on making this more of a VN would help a lot more. Something like having the dialogue advancing between every poker action and pausing on bigger poker events (the flop, all-in's, final hand reveals.) The poker game itself could pause on major story reveals to emphasize the shit that's going down. This is outside of the scope of the review though, if you want something like this go play Pbouxhkiir Night on the Primox Alpha.

The only reason to play this is probably the story. I won't go to into it since I honestly missed out on some important story beats from the fragile dialogue system. It's good enough to keep my attention, but the tone of the story and the tone of the rest of the game DON'T MATCH AT ALL. They're talking about how they killed people and the music is wayyy too upbeat about it. The character designs do not represent how roughed up they should be from the shit they used to do. The whale outside of the boat is so blissfully unaware of the horrors these creatures have seen. I'm not asking for a gritty dark artstyle, but maybe it should at least show that the guys you're playing with have been through a lot. But hey, you can have an arcade cabinet of space warlord organ trading simulator on the ship, so that's nice.

The pitch is fantastic, but it didn't fully work for me in the details. The character writing is solid and there's some good gags but it's too simple overall and wraps up too neatly. The low budget gets in the way too - the ska soundtrack is an inspired choice and executed well (shout-outs to Jer!) but the way it just loops throughout the game without stopping or switching to something else makes dramatic moments fall flat, and the (repetitive) barks frequently get in the way of the storytelling unless you completely stop playing the game to let the sequence play out. Also this isn't really Strange Scaffold's fault, but the nature of a single-player poker videogame is that there's no way to mind-game your opponents which takes away the fun of it - I think characters do have some semblance of individual AI that drives how willing they are to risk playing out a bad hand, but not advanced enough to feel like playing against real people.

Anyways, it's pretty chill and I had a good enough time.