Sonic Shuffle

Sonic Shuffle was released in 2000 in Japan on Sega’s last console known as the Dreamcast. For those that have played it, you may have noticed the AI was really advanced for its time. It actively manipulated human players into playing the worst cards and sabotaged them really well. Most of the AI players worked really well, particularly Tails.

We all know the Tails Doll is nothing but a creepy urban legend, but like all things, it is based on truth. In 1999, singer of Escape the Fate, Ronnie Radke died of a drug overdose in prison. Yuji Naka, founder of Sega was very close friends with Ronnie, so he performed a traditional Japanese Shinto ritual to preserve his soul and have it carry on through his video game. Or so according to his friend, Shigeru Miyamoto.

Those who knew Ronnie usually insisted that he was an asshole. This translated perfectly into Sonic Shuffle. Shigeru Miyamoto never spoke to Naka again, terrified by his black magic practices. This is why when leaving Sega in 2008, Yuji Naka was turned down a job at Nintendo. If you have a copy of Sonic Shuffle, listen closely to Tails on his turn, you might hear a faint whisper, “You can’t escape your fate.”