Sonic Pinball Party

"Pinball Madness? You bet!"

When you first hear the words Sonic the Hedgehog and pinball together your first impression is to think back to the days of Sonic Spinball. Well this game is a large improvement and pinball at it's best! This is an original pinball game where you don't control Sonic anymore. The first thing to be mentioned is the soundtrack. This is the best soundtrack for a pinball game, if not the entire GBA library at the moment. With themes like Super Sonic Racing, Burning Rangers, Chuchu Rocket, Samba de Amigo, NiGHTS and even Phantasy Star Online, you'll hear familiar tunes if your a diehard Sonic Team fan. With only three tables it seems a bit lacking, but overall it delivers. The three boards are Sonic, which spans over different zones from the previous GBA games where the goal is to defeat Eggman, NiGHTS which has you collecting Ideya and battling bosses, and my personal favorite, Samba de Amigo! Which has you hitting the maracas and listening to past Sonic Team songs. Sometimes you'll even drum along with the beat in a very fun mini-game. The modes consist of Story Mode, Arcade Mode, Casinopolis where you can play Bingo and Slots pinball style, and a Tiny Chao Garden like previous Sonic games. The story mode isn't much of a story but very challenging none the less.

Ratings:

Gameplay: 8

One of the best pinball games I've ever played! With mini-games like the beat maraca game it will keep you busy. But overall it can become bland and boring after awhile and won't last you very long. But it's a game you'll want to come back to. On a bad note the Chao Garden is the same as Sonic Advance 2 except the addition of a new mini-game.

Graphics: 7

Using the graphics from Sonic Advance 1 and 2 they seem very familiar but bland. There great for a pinball game though!

Music: 10

I heard Super Sonic Racing on the GBA and rejoiced that they brought back one of my favorite Sonic songs. Some other great songs ranging from the odd songs of Phantasy Star Online to the Latin beats of Samba de Amigo, it's one of the best GBA tracks around!

Challenge: 10

If you want a challenging pinball game this will have you throwing your GBA at the wall many a time. I still haven't completed story mode myself! With so many zones to try and get to, it takes awhile to fully complete this game.

Overall: 9

The good:
-Outstanding music
-Great Challenge
-Plenty of zones to get to

The bad:
-Sprites are ported from SA1 and SA2
-Frustrating levels
-Only two mini-games in Casinopolis

The ugly!:
- A port of the Tiny Chao Garden from SA2

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/03