Sunshine Shuffle
Review

Sunshine Shuffle (2023) is a narrative game where you play poker with talking animals who each have a criminal past. It's based around the group's regular Texas Hold 'Em poker game. It stands out for the endearing Robin Hood story and the unusual blend of story and poker - well, perhaps not all that unusual.

You play cards with the remaining members of the Morning Shift, a group of working-class animals who took on the Fishie Mob to redistribute its unfairly won wealth. As you play a series of games of poker you discover the story of how they managed to rob the largest bank on the Eastern Seaboard.

As you progress, and win hands, you can decorate the ship with lights, chairs, card decks, tables, plastic skeletons, fish bowls and dice-themed carpets. As well as winning you work to unlock conversations to find out about their lives before and after the infamous heist.

The result is a game that fuses poker and storytelling. It may look like Animal Crossing, but the narrative here is a noir tale told with the pain of hindsight.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Sunshine Shuffle 6 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 5 months ago.