Sonic Spinball

"Sonic and Pinball? Say what?"

As you may know, Sonic Spinball is a pinball based game, whose main character happens to be Sonic. The basic concept of a Sonic-Pinball game would have worked, but they really screwed up on the game itself. In fact, its not even really pinball, but more of an adventure game where you use various objects to reach different parts of the level and roll around in a ball...

Gameplay - 5/10

This is the downfall of the game. In pinball, you might think of traditional pinball machines with launch chutes and flippers to guide the ball into an area to score points. Instead, this game features flippers that are used to get you to a higher part of the level, thus allowing you to access more areas and collect coins and emerald pieces. After you have painstakingly found all of the emerald pieces, you can access the area where the boss roams and defeat him to continue to the next level. Finding the emeralds and beating up bosses can actually be quite fun, but it is extremely tedious. Often it will take several tries just to get something right, because the flippers aren't always exactly on. The game features 4 individual stages with some fun mini games between the levels. The game however is very challenging, especially the last area.

Graphics - 7/10

The graphics are probably what you would expect. Standard Sega-Genesis style visualizations and a Sonic flair give a unique feel to the game. I guess you could say the animations look ok. Unfortunately, you can't turn into Super-Sonic...and we all know Super-Sonic looks really cool compared to normal Sonic.

Music/Sound - 3/10

Ugh. I honestly can't recall any music from the game, but the sound effects sound pretty bad and are often extremely annoying. It's best to put on a CD and mute the television set while playing this game.

Overall - 5/10

Yep, the game gets a solid 5. Some might find it fun, especially die-hard Sonic fans. But for the average gamer, you might want to try elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, this game is fun to some extent, but one time is all you need and you should be done with it.

Buy/Rent? - Rent

Unless you are a Sonic fan like me and collect Sonic games, you can definitely rent this game. It should take you only some odd hours to beat it. On a different level, I wouldn't personally recommend this game to anyone.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/02, Updated 09/19/02