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. For example, if a blue dot touches the upper left spot, the player must shake either maraca above his left shoulder. 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. 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. The player is represented on-screen by a grinning monkey with a square head and a sombrero, Samba. 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. A rhythm video game similar in theme to Dance Dance Revolution, Samba de Amigo is played with a pair of maracas.

Samba de amigo