Sonic Spinball Review

Intro

Sonic Spinball was launched in 1993. It was developed by Sega Technical Institute located in California. The core of the game is pinball. A very simple design that makes a lot of sense to put the blue blur on. The game has just four levels but the main goal here is point and play against others players to see who can get the highest score.

Story

Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) builds a tower on top of a volcano to use the energy of it and to stabilize the factory he uses the Chaos Emeralds.
Sonic flies with Tails to that island but on the way there they are hit and Sonic falls into the ocean. But he is near the island and he gets access to it by the sewer. Where the first stage begins

Presentation

The first scene where you fly with Tails is very well-made. The movement is very smooth and rotation seems very natural. The problem is when the game starts. The frame rate and the controls are not your friends here. The game looks decent almost like the previous Sonic games. But it gets slower many times for no reason at all. The colors look nice and vibrant you don’t get confused to where to go or what to do because of it.

Music

The music is the best part of the experience. Each one of the stages has its own theme and for me the best one is on the first stage, it’s the one who resonate more with me. The Bonus stages have their own themes as well and the winning theme is catchy as hell. Some say that at the time Michael Jackson was involved in some way with the development of Sonic 3, so maybe it has something here as well. I know it as longshot but the music in this game is the high ground.

Gameplay

Unfortunately the gameplay is sluggish as hell. The controls don’t seem to be responsive but it just makes the job. When you are in pinball mode the flippers almost never make sense where to hit the ball you have to calibrate that and take some time getting used to it but when you get it it’s easier than the game makes it seem. When in normal mode you can walk, jump and use the spin dash the problem is they are so stiff and slow you have to take your time too. The jumps are kind difficult to perform because of it and every time you hit a wall you lose momentum.

Ending thoughts

Although it has many problems Sonic Spinball is a good game. The presentation is beautiful with nice colors, visual and and cutscenes very well-done. And the music is catchy. SS can be played against your friends and is not very difficult to play.