Sonic Spinball

"Pitiful Attempt"

Sonic Spinball is a reproduction of many of the other pinball games that came out in the 1990's. For a while, there were many pinball games that came out, each with different themes. This game is just another warmed over version. Sonic Spinball is not the game that I was hoping for. I remember being very excited when I heard about his one. When I popped it into the Genesis, I found out just how much of a disappointment this game really is.

Let's talk about the stages. They take painstakingly long periods to complete. There are meaningless tasks to complete and frankly the tasks got on my nerves. I did not think of this game as a pleasure to sit down and play. I thought of it more as a chore. I do not think that Sega put enough time into this. I think Sonic Spinball had lots of potential; however, the way in which it was presented was very poor.

I do, however, like the post-boss bonus stages, where you get to actually hit a ball and play an almost traditional game of pinball. Sonic Spinball itself actually tried to stray too far from the pinball game, trying to mix pinball with some kind of action-adventure game. The results were just disastrous.

Characters -- none! You could only be Sonic in the game. The game would be 10x better if you could choose Tails, Knuckles, or Amy, or anyone else in addition to Sonic. A wider variety of characters would really pick this game up and increase its replay value -- which is non-existent. I could hardly stand to play through the first time.

The music was mediocre. I do not think that the composers put enough time into the songs. The songs were much more carefully constructed in Sonic 1, 2, and 3, than they were in Sonic Spinball. The music in Sonic Spinball was grainy, and almost reminded me of a chainsaw in my ear. The sound effects as well were sub par.

The graphics in this game are not bad, but I know Sonic games are capable of so much more graphically. This game looked like it was drawn in a very rushed matter and that the designers just wanted to release it and make money off of it. I know this game lacked the care that the others did, and I could tell. Sonic is very poorly designed. Sonic Spinball has the worst Sonic design of any Sonic game I have played.

Is there even a story in this game? I cannot even fathom what it might be. While the other Sonic games at least had somewhat of a story (not much of one, might I add), this game had absolutely none. It made absolutely no sense. Why would Sonic jump from a plane to land in a pinball funhouse, coincidentally run by Dr. Robotnik? What were the writers thinking? I think that I could come up with something better than this, and I'm a college student!

Thank God, I'm almost done with this review, so bear with me here. I cannot finish writing a Sonic Spinball review without commenting on that annoying status bar on top of the screen. The status bar is the most annoying thing I have ever seen, and I have played lots of games. The non-stop flashing and comments at the top of the screen do not add anything -- they subtract. I could see how they were going for an authentic pinball menu here, but they really went off the mark on this one.

Well, there we have it, kids. Did I like Sonic Spinball? Eh, not really. It wasn't the best game I have ever played, but it wasn't the worst. I do think it was the worst Sonic game ever released (the best being Sonic III). Play it for yourself. I could always be wrong.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/09/04