Samba de Amigo

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For the Wii game, see Samba de Amigo (Wii).

n/a

  • NAOMI
  • Sega Dreamcast
    NTSC-U
  • Sega Dreamcast
    NTSC-J
  • Sega Dreamcast
    PAL

SambadeAmigo title.png

Samba de Amigo DC, Title Screen US.png

SambadeAmigo DC JP Title.png

Notavailable.svg

Samba de Amigo
SambaDeAmigo vmu.png
System(s): Sega NAOMI, Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Peripherals supported:
Sega Dreamcast
Dreamcast Modem, Samba de Amigo Maracas, Visual Memory Unit, Dreamcast VGA Box
Genre: Rhythm Action (リズムアクション)[1][2], Table[3]

















Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code
Arcade (NAOMI)
JP		 ¥? ?
Arcade (NAOMI)
US		 $? ?






















Sega Dreamcast
JP 		¥5,800 (6,090)5,800e[2] HDR-0063
Sega Rating: All Ages
Sega Dreamcast
JP
(With Maracas) 		¥7,8007,800[5] HKT-9700
Sega Dreamcast
US 		$39.9939.99[8][9] 51092
ESRB: Everyone
Sega Dreamcast
EU 		MK-51092-50
ELSPA: 3+ OK
Sega Dreamcast
DE 		MK-51092-50
USK: 0
Sega Dreamcast
ES 		MK-51092-50
ELSPA: 3+ OK
Sega Dreamcast
FR 		MK-51092-50
SELL: Tous Publics
Sega Dreamcast
UK 		£99.9999.99[14][13] MK-51092-50
ELSPA: 3+ OK

Samba de Amigo (サンバ DE アミーゴ) is a video game developed by Sonic Team. It was originally released in 1999 by Sega for the Sega NAOMI arcade platform, before seeing a port to the Sega Dreamcast a year later. The Dreamcast version was designed to be used with the Samba de Amigo Maracas.

Gameplay

A rhythm video game similar in theme to Dance Dance Revolution, Samba de Amigo is played with a pair of maracas. As a song plays, the player (guided by on-screen graphics) must shake the maracas at high, middle, or low heights with the beat of the music, or occasionally must strike poses with the maracas held in various positions. The player is represented on-screen by a grinning monkey with a square head and a sombrero, Samba. If the player does well, the scene around Samba (usually a concert or a dance) will attract more people and become more vividly animated; if the player does poorly, characters leave and eventually all that's left is the monkey alone, looking sad.

In the primary game mode, each player has six spots arranged in a circle on the screen: two red meaning 'shake high,' two yellow meaning 'shake middle,' and two green meaning 'shake low.' Blue dots will appear in the center of this circle and move towards the spots; as soon as the blue dot touches a spot, the player must shake a maraca at that location. For example, if a blue dot touches the upper left spot, the player must shake either maraca above his left shoulder. Occasionally a long line of dots will flow into a spot and the word 'Shake' appears, telling the player to continue shaking his maraca rapidly there. Sometimes a stick-figure (named "Pose-kun") appears on the screen holding its maracas in a certain position; the player has a second or two to match the figure's pose for points.

Music

Licensed

Track name Artist Original release date Comments
"Ali Bombaye"/"The Theme of Inoki" Michael Masser 19xx
"Al Compás Del Mambo"/"Mambo Beat" Perez Prado 1950
"The Cup of Life" Ricky Martin 1998-03-09
"El Ritmo Tropical" a.k.a. "El Bimbo" Dixies Gang 1999
"El Mambo" Solemar 1998
"La Bamba" Ritchie Valens 1958 This is the cover by Ritchie Valens from 1958. The earliest confirmed recording dates back to 1939, but as a Mexican folk song it is likely much older.
"Livin' la Vida Loca" Ricky Martin 1999-03-23
"Macarena" Los del Río, Bayside Boys 1995-08-15 This is the more widely known English language version from 1995. The original Spanish version dates back to 1993.
"Mas que Nada" Jorge Ben 1963-01-10
"Samba de Janeiro" Bellini 1997-05-05
"Soul Bossa Nova" Quincy Jones 1962-09-07
"Take on Me" Reel Big Fish 1998 This is a ska cover of A-ha's 1984 hit.
"Tequila" The Champs 1958-01-15
"Tubthumping" Chumbawamba 1997-08

Original

Track name Comments
"Love Lease"
"Samba de Amigo"

From other Sega games

The Dreamcast version of Samba de Amigo allowed users to connect to the internet and "download" songs from other Sega games. These are thought to already exist on the disc - it was more of a means of getting people to go online.

Track name Game Comments
"After Burner" After Burner
"Burning Hearts" Burning Rangers
"Can You Become Rent A Hero For Mankind's Sake?" Rent A Hero No.1 Samba de Amigo debuted on the Dreamcast about a month before Rent A Hero No.1, meaning this track could be heard by the public before the game could be played.
"Dreams Dreams" NiGHTS into Dreams
"Magical Sound Shower" OutRun
"Opa-Opa!" Fantasy Zone
"Open Your Heart" Sonic Adventure
"Sonic - You Can Do Anything" Sonic the Hedgehog CD
"Super Sonic Racing" Sonic R

History

Development

The game began development as a soccer game envisioned by director Shun Nakamura. It gradually into a game themed around Brazil before settling on a samba them.[16] The game was titled Samba de Amigo early into development, and only coincidentally resembles the song "Samba de Janeiro".[16]

Tomohiko Aita, a new recruit who previously worked with director Nakamura on ChuChu Rocket!, was chosen to design the game as he had become known as the "Amazing Samba Guy" from his Sega job interview.[16].

The game officially started development in July 1999[16]. The working prototypes of the arcade's maraca controllers, developed by Sega Mechatro, were completed in August 1999.[16] The game was first demo's at the Amusement Machine Show 1999 2 weeks later, which made for a quick turnaround to integrate the controllers into the game, and licensing for several songs was only cleared a night before the show.[16] This was followed by various location tests, which were incredibly successful compared to what other people at Sega expected, incentivising and increase in the game's marketing budget.[16] Despite how tight development had seemed at first, the software was completed before the maraca controllers were, resulting in the developers at Sonic Team taking an Autumn break, after which they returned to work out bugs and finalise licensing agreements with musicians.[16]

Release

Despite being built around the idea of using maracas, 30,000 copies of the Dreamcast game were initially shipped to North America, but only 10,000 maraca controllers[17]. Only 3,000 copies were set to be produced for the UK[12].

Legacy

Samba de Amigo has not seen any direct "sequels", but has had a number of updates over the years. The first being Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000, also on Sega NAOMI hardware and the Sega Dreamcast.

A Wii version was released in 2008. Sega Logistics Service announced it would end service on Samba de Amigo arcade machines on March 31, 2017.[18][19]

Awards

Samba de Amigo was named Best Puzzle Game of 2000 by GameSpot. It also was nominated for the Excellence in Audio award and for a Game Spotlight Award in the 1st annual Game Developers Choice Awards.

Versions

Dreamcast version adds a "party mode," with minigames such as Guacamole (pronounced and played much the same as "whack-a-mole"), Strike A Pose (consisting of a long sequence of poses to make), and 1-2-Samba! (where spots must be hit in sequence - the Japanese version's name for this minigame, "Ichi Ni San-ba," is a pun on counting to three in Japanese). The home version also has features which can be unlocked, such as sound effects and hidden songs. Hidden songs include themes from other Sega games such as Sonic Adventure and OutRun.

For Dreamcast version, the Sega maracas controllers are red, and the rattle part can be unscrewed from the top of each for quieter play. Each maraca has a cord which is plugged into to a bar that lays in front of the player's feet. The bar is slightly more than two feet in length and has a sensor at each end, and each maraca has an infrared transmitter mounted on its cord; presumably this allows the system to triangulate the position of each maraca as the player holds it. The game can also be played with the standard Dreamcast controller, but this makes the game trivial to play.

Production credits

Main article: Samba de Amigo/Production credits.

Magazine articles

Main article: Samba de Amigo/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Neo Plus (PL) #30: "Marzec 2001" (2001-xx-xx)
also published in:
Logo-pdf.svg

Artwork

  • DreamcastPremiere SambadeAmigo SOESAMBA.png
  • Amigo chara 01.svg
  • Amigo chara 02.svg
  • Amigo chara 03.svg
  • Amigo chara 04.svg
  • Amigo chara 05.svg
  • Amigo chara 06.svg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA2.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA3.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA4.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA5.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA7.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA11.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA6.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA8.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA10.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA9.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBA12.jpg
  • SegaPRFTP SambadeAmigo SAMBADEA.jpg
  • DreamcastPremiere SambadeAmigo PACKSHOT.png

(colour errors from EPS -> SVG conversion)

Physical scans

NAOMI version

NAOMI, World

Dreamcast version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
90 [25]
Sega Dreamcast
 90
Based on
1 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
576 Konzol (HU)
90
[26]
Alaab Alcomputtar (SA)
89
[27]
Click! (PL)
60
[28]
Consoles Max (FR) PAL
69
[29]
Consoles + (FR) PAL
96
[30]
Computer & Video Games (UK)
100
[31]
Computer & Video Games (UK) PAL
100
[32]
DC-UK (UK) NTSC-J
90
[33]
Dreamcast Magazine (UK)
92
[13]
Dorimaga (JP) NTSC-J
89
[34]
Edge (UK) NTSC-J
70
[35]
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U
90
[36]
Entsiklopediya igr dlya Dreamcast (RU)
91
[37]
Fun Generation (DE) NTSC-J
92
[38]
GameFan (US)
87
[39]
GameFan (US) NTSC-U
90
[40]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
65
[9]
Game Informer (US) NTSC-U
50
[41]
Gamers' Republic (US) NTSC-U
91
[42]
MAN!AC (DE) PAL
85
[43]
Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-J
82
[44]
Next Generation (US) NTSC-J
100
[45]
Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) PAL
80
[46]
Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) NTSC-U
90
[47]
Sega Magazin (DE) NTSC-J
87
[48]
Strana Igr (RU)
90
[49]
Video Games (DE) PAL
85
[50]
Sega Dreamcast
 85
Based on
27 reviews

Samba de Amigo

Dreamcast, JP
Samba dc jp back cover.jpgSamba dc jp front cover.jpg
Cover
Samba DC JP Spine.jpg
Spinecard
Samba DC JP Disc.jpg
Disc
Samba De Amigo Dreamcast JP Manual.pdf
Manual
Samba DC JP Inlay.jpg
Inlay
Dreamcast, US
Samba dc us back cover.jpgSamba-us-box.jpg
Cover
Samba dc us disc.jpg
Disc
Samba De Amigo Dreamcast US Manual.pdf
Manual
SambaDeAmigoDCUSInlay.jpg
Inlay
Dreamcast, EU
Samba dc eu back cover.jpgSamba dc eu front cover.jpg
Cover
Samba dc eu disc.jpg
Disc
Samba de Amigo Dreamcast EU Caution Pages.pdf
Caution Pages

Technical information

Main article: Samba de Amigo/Technical information.

External links

References

  1. ↑ File:Samba dc jp back cover.jpg
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://sega.jp/dc/000401/ (Wayback Machine: 2014-08-05 19:24)
  3. ↑ https://sega.jp/history/hard/dreamcast/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-11-07 20:31)
  4. ↑ Sega Arcade History, Enterbrain, page 170
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/dreamcast/devices.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-02-10 03:52)
  6. ↑ http://www.sega.com:80/games/dreamcast/post_dreamcastgame.jhtml?PRODID=193 (Wayback Machine: 2003-12-11 12:55)
  7. ↑ http://www.ebworld.com/ebx/categories/newReleases/morenr-DC.asp (Wayback Machine: 2000-11-09 20:26)
  8. ↑ Press release: 2000-10-17: Sega Delivers a Fiesta of Fun to Dreamcast Players With Samba de Amigo
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 GamePro, "January 2001" (US; 200x-xx-xx), page 107
  10. ↑ http://www.chipsworld.co.uk/detProd.asp?ProductCode=3126 (Wayback Machine: 2001-04-15 18:54)
  11. ↑ http://www.amazon.co.uk:80/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/300723/ (Wayback Machine: 2002-09-17 15:38)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 DC-UK, "January 2001" (UK; 2000-12-14), page 31
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 16" (UK; 2000-11-30), page 48
  14. ↑ Official Dreamcast Magazine, "January 2001" (UK; 2000-11-30), page 71
  15. ↑ http://www.centromail.es/top/ficha.asp?codmail=15884&codprov= (Wayback Machine: 2001-09-17 04:35)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 http://www.wave-master.com/samba/ (Wayback Machine: 2002-08-08 18:11)
  17. ↑ Edge, "October 2000" (UK; 2000-09-11), page 18
  18. ↑ File:SegaProductsTerminationAnnouncement 2016-11 JP.pdf
  19. ↑ File:SegaProductsTerminationAnnouncement 2016-12.pdf
  20. ↑ Neo Plus, "Kwiecień 2001" (PL; 2001-xx-xx), page 100
  21. ↑ Neo Plus, "Maj 2001" (PL; 2001-xx-xx), page 100
  22. ↑ Neo Plus, "Czerwiec 2001" (PL; 2001-xx-xx), page 100
  23. ↑ Neo Plus, "Lipiec-Sierpień 2001" (PL; 2001-xx-xx), page 84
  24. ↑ Neo Plus, "Wrzesień 2001" (PL; 2001-xx-xx), page 84
  25. ↑ GamesMaster, "September 2000" (UK; 2000-08-08), page 80
  26. ↑ 576 Konzol, "Április 2001" (HU; 2001-xx-xx), page 42
  27. ↑ Alaab Alcomputtar, "" (SA; 2001-xx-xx), page 31
  28. ↑ Click!, "4/2001" (PL; 2001-02-15), page 49
  29. ↑ Consoles Max, "Janvier 2001" (FR; 200x-xx-xx), page 96
  30. ↑ Consoles +, "Janvier 2001" (FR; 200x-xx-xx), page 72
  31. ↑ Computer & Video Games, "August 2000" (UK; 2000-07-12), page 126
  32. ↑ Computer & Video Games, "February 2001" (UK; 2001-01-17), page 108
  33. ↑ DC-UK, "August 2000" (UK; 2000-07-06), page 84
  34. ↑ Dorimaga, "2002-18 (2002-10-11)" (JP; 2002-09-27), page 33
  35. ↑ Edge, "July 2000" (UK; 2000-06-21), page 94
  36. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "January 2001" (US; 2000-12-05), page 195
  37. ↑ Entsiklopediya igr dlya Dreamcast, "Izdaniye chetvertoye, dopolnennoye" (RU; 2002-xx-xx), page 193
  38. ↑ Fun Generation, "07/2000" (DE; 2000-06-21), page 92
  39. ↑ GameFan, "Volume 8, Issue 7: July 2000" (US; 2000-xx-xx), page 18
  40. ↑ GameFan, "Volume 8, Issue 12: December 2000" (US; 2000-1x-xx), page 25
  41. ↑ Game Informer, "December 2000" (US; 2000-1x-xx), page 126
  42. ↑ Gamers' Republic, "December 2000" (US; 2000-xx-xx), page 92
  43. ↑ MAN!AC, "01/2000" (DE; 2000-12-06), page 78
  44. ↑ Mega Fun, "09/2000" (DE; 2000-08-02), page 62
  45. ↑ Next Generation, "August 2000" (US; 2000-07-18), page 90
  46. ↑ Official Dreamcast Magazine, "January 2001" (UK; 2000-11-30), page 68
  47. ↑ Official Dreamcast Magazine, "Holiday 2000" (US; 2000-11-28), page 94
  48. ↑ Sega Magazin, "September 2000" (DE; 2000-07-31), page 20
  49. ↑ Strana Igr, "Sentyabr 2000 2/2" (RU; 2000-xx-xx), page 20
  50. ↑ Video Games, "01/2001" (DE; 2000-12-06), page 64


Samba de Amigo

SambadeAmigo title.png

Main page | Comparisons | Credits | Development | Magazine articles | Reception | Technical information | Bootlegs


Books: Samba de Amigo The Greatest Guidebook (2000)
Music: Samba de Amigo Presents Samba de Janeiro Non-Stop Best of Bellini (2000) | Samba de Amigo (2001)

Sega Dreamcast
Prototypes: 2000-03-23 | 04-05 | 09-07 | 09-19



Games in the Samba de Amigo Series
Sega Dreamcast
 Samba de Amigo (1999) | Samba de Amigo Ver.2000 (2000)
i-mode 503i
 Samba de Amigo (2001) | Samba de Amigo (2002) | Amigo-kun no Doki Doki Aishou Check (2002)
Nintendo Wii
 Samba de Amigo (2008)
Nintendo Switch
 Samba de Amigo: Party Central (2023)
iOS
 Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go (2023)
Samba de Amigo related media
Music
 Samba de Amigo Presents Samba de Janeiro Non-Stop Best of Bellini (2000) | Samba de Amigo (2001) | Samba de Amigo Original Songs Collection ~Party! Party! Party!~ (2023)
Book
 Samba de Amigo The Greatest Guidebook (2000)
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