Samba de Amigo[b] is a rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega.

Samba de Amigo draws on Latin American culture and its gameplay involves the player using controllers shaped like maracas to match a series of patterns displayed on-screen.

A sequel, Samba de Amigo: Party Central, which is focused more on popular music genres in general, was released on the Nintendo Switch and Apple Arcade as Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go on August 29, 2023, and on the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3 as Samba de Amigo: Virtual Party on October 12, 2023.

Also included in Party mode is the Battle game, where two players compete to score high combos and knock out their opponent, and the Couples game (known as "Love Love" in Japan), where two players play through a song to test their "compatibility".

Finally, a Challenge mode has been added, where the player is given specific goals in order to proceed through stages.

The original arcade game used red maraca controllers modeled after their in-game design.

[4] In the Dreamcast version, each maraca has a cord which is plugged into a bar that lies in front of the player's feet.

[5] Included in the box is a plastic mat with two brown footprints, which helps players properly position themselves in relation to the sensor bar.

2000 sequel, the maracas were never officially used for any other games, though they can be used with Namco's Mr. Driller for approximate control of the player's character.

The game received positive reception every time it was presented by the team, which would lead it to being ported to the Dreamcast.

All the songs in the game, including the ones previously found in the first version, have both Original and Hustle Mode patterns.

In mid-2007, veteran developers Gearbox Software came up with the idea to port the game to the Wii console, and upon Sega's approval, began working on the new version with Sonic Team as consultants.

[11] Unlike the maraca controls of the Dreamcast version, which could detect the height at which they were shaken, the Wii sensor bar is not capable of this.

Instead, the angle at which the Wii Remote is being shaken determines if high, mid or low notes are hit.

The game supports Miis and displays them next to the player's score, as well as showing two random ones in-game during stages, with their expressions changing based on performance (Bad, Medium or Good).

Online leaderboards and friends lists let players post their best scores and compare them, but only when an original, player-created Mii is used.

[17] Blake Fischer reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it five stars out of five, and stated: "It's different, it's wacky, and it's insanely fun.

"[14] The Dreamcast version of Samba de Amigo was met with nearly universal positive reviews, garnering an 89% average at Metacritic.

[21] Blake Fischer reviewed the Dreamcast version of Samba de Amigo 2000 for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated: "The impact of the first game may have worn off, but it's still a blast to break out the maraca controllers and jam to Sonic Team's latest foray.

Eurogamer gave the Wii version 6/10, citing "the imprecise nature of the controls", while admitting that "There's still a decent amount of daft fun to be had out of this joyous little game".

[30] Other reviews disagreed, with WorthPlaying, saying: "the controls are spot-on 95 percent of the time" and rating the game an 8.5/10.

It was very much the same game as Samba de Amigo, except played with a tambourine controller, and featuring popular J-pop music.

A pair of Samba de Amigo themed levels appeared in the 2012 Nintendo 3DS game, Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure, which are played using buttons and the system's gyroscope.

The song "Vamos a Carnival" is featured in the MMO Phantasy Star Online 2 as the game's lobby music every April as part of a yearly Easter event, which would later be re-instated as the BGM of the Easter lobby which appears every second half of April, as well as the Screenshot Studio.

[33][34] On June 1, 2023, a virtual reality version based on Party Central was announced during the 2023 Meta Quest Gaming Showcase.