Console: Mega Drive / Genesis
Cost: 800 Wii Points
Dr. Robotnik (that's the name I grew up with and I'm sticking with it!) has built himself a new fortress and stolen some Chaos Emeralds to power it. But for some bizarre and inexplicable reason, he has built the fortress in the form of a giant pinball machine. Obviously, Sonic takes the place of a pinball, and it's up to him to infiltrate the fortress, stop Robotnik again and retrieve the emeralds.
Just like old rival Mario, Sega would stick their mascot Sonic the Hedgehog into almost every genre they could imagine. For their first spin-off, they decided to release a pinball game. Although that may seem a bit odd for those who haven't played the games, Sonic Spinball is actually not such the strange idea for a spin-off it might seem at first. The Sonic series has included many sections of levels based on pinball and pachinko machines (in particular the Casino Night Zone from Sonic 2 and the original game's Spring Yard Zone), which is probably what inspired this game's creation. There are four pinball tables to complete, with a small bonus game between each of them. On each table Sonic must collect all of the Chaos Emeralds and defeat the boss, who is found at the top of the table. Complicating matters are Robotnik's robots, which are guarding the emeralds.
For most of the game the player takes control of the flippers, and must use them to guide Sonic around. Unlike a normal pinball, the player can exert some control over Sonic while he is in motion by pressing left or right. There are also brief platforming sections where Sonic is on foot. As you'd expect from pinball, there's things like bumpers, switches and flashing lights scattered around. But what you wouldn't expect from pinball is things like mine carts, steam exhausts, and animal prisons. At first they may seem like a novelty, but they are really bad additions to the concept that disrupt the flow of play, and the game would have been better off without them. The ball physics are not bad, but can be sloppy, and in some areas getting around takes more luck than skill. Worse yet are the small areas where Sonic can walk on the ground, it's here the physics are absolutely atrocious. It feels like walking on ice, as Sonic refuses to turn for what seems like hours after you press the opposite direction.
The visuals in Sonic Spinball don't keep in the style of previous Sonic games. The tables are nicely detailed, yet they seem somewhat bland and uninteresting, and there's not much to see in the bonus levels. As for the music, it's not up to the series' standard. Whereas the 16-bit Sonic platformers had some of the most memorable soundtracks in the history of video games, here the music is just dull and gets tedious rather quickly. The sound effects can get very annoying too, especially after hearing them dozens of times.
Sonic Spinball is not completely terrible, and it can occasionally be enjoyable, but it does suffer from awful sound and some clumsy physics. The game is also a little bit too short- although the tables are quite large, there are only four of them, and once you've finished the game there's little incentive to go back. There's a multiplayer mode, but it merely consists of players taking it in turns to play (given how long the levels take, they might get bored of waiting if the player before them doesn't lose a life). This was the first slip-up from the Sonic series, and unfortunately not the last.
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 3/10
Gameplay: 4/10
Lifespan: 4/10
Rating: 4/10
