Samba De Amigo

Samba De Amigo is a maracas simulator. The game tells you exactly how, where, and when to shake your maracas, and provided you shake on beat and in the right location, your score rises appropriately...You are told how to manipulate your maracas by a simple onscreen display, which consists of six circles three on the left, three on the right. The circles are also broken up into low, medium, and high. Blue and red balls shoot out from the middle of your playfield, each destined for one of the six circles. When the ball reaches the circle, you shake one or both, for extra points of the maracas on the appropriate side and at the appropriate height. Red balls come out in long strings and command you to shake the maracas as fast as you can in the proper circle. Finally, the game also asks you to strike a pose from time to time by showing you a stick figure with the maracas in two specific locations. You are given a brief period to match the stick figure for extra points. Provided you keep your end of the song on beat, you continue through two songs, and, if you e really good, a special third song.The music in the game is quite amazing. Most of it has a real Latin flair, though some other songs, like Tub-thumping and Reel Big Fish's cover of "Take On Me", give the game a multi-genre touch. The Japanese version of the game was released before Sega could fully acquire the rights to the two Ricky Martin songs, but the US release has both songs "Cup of Life" and "Livin' La Vida Loca" intact. While they sound close enough to the real thing, it should be noted that neither song is actually performed by Martin. The graphics back up the audio perfectly, and the result is the best-looking music rhythm game ever released. Behind your circles and balls lies a small world filled with tons of colorful characters, including Amigo, the maracasshaking, pantswearing monkey. The scenery changes depending on how well you e doing, and if you lose, the monkey cries. You don want to make Amigo cry, do you?

This was one of the two arcade games designed by the famed Sonic Team -- the other one being Sonic The Hedgehog Arcade.