Sonic Spinball, also known as Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, is a 1993 pinball video game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. It is a spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, who must stop Doctor Robotnik from enslaving the population in a giant pinball-like mechanism. The game is set in a series of pinball machine-like environments with Sonic acting as the pinball.

It was developed by the American staff of Sega Technical Institute, as the Japanese staff was occupied with developing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. When Sega management realized that Sonic 3 would not be completed in time for the 1993 holiday shopping season, they commissioned another Sonic game. After a hasty nine-month development, Sonic Spinball was released for the Sega Genesis in November 1993, with ports for the Game Gear and Master System releasing in 1994.

Sonic Spinball received mixed reviews, with critics praising the novelty and graphics but criticizing the controls. A second pinball game, Sonic Pinball Party, was released in 2003, and a Sonic Spinball spinning rollercoaster opened in Alton Towers theme park, in 2010. Spinball has been ported to various consoles and included in Sega compilations.

Gameplay

thumb|left|At the top, the interface displays the player's number of [[life (video games)|lives and total score. In the game, Sonic the Hedgehog acts as a pinball.|alt=A screenshot of gameplay. The game's levels clearly represent a pinball machine with flippers to either side. Sonic the Hedgehog, who is acting as a pinball, is being propelled upwards in the centre of the screen after being hit by one of the flippers. The game's interface is shown at the top of the screen, showing the player's number of lives and total score.]]

Sonic Spinball is a pinball game in which the player controls Sonic the Hedgehog, who acts as the pinball. The majority of the game takes place within the "Pinball Defense System", which resembles a series of large pinball machines. The game comprises four levels, each containing numerous flippers that can be used to aim Sonic's trajectory and launch him through the level. Sonic can be maneuvered while airborne with input from the directional pad, which can be used for better positioning following an impact with a bumper or target or when Sonic is descending toward the drain, bumpers or flippers.

The goal of each level is to collect all the Chaos Emeralds and subsequently defeat the newly accessible boss located at the top of the level. Some Chaos Emeralds are blocked off by obstacles that require Sonic to hit certain switches or bumpers in order to create a clear path. Morawiec said the choice caused frame rate and optimization problems, but greatly accelerated development. A large part of the game's development happened in June and August 1993, the project evolved from a roughly playable build to a completed game.

Immediately before the game was due to ship, the team was informed that Sega did not own the rights to the Sonic the Hedgehog theme tune. Morawiec recalled uproar among the team after Hirokazu Yasuhara, the lead designer on Sonic Team, explained that the tune was owned by the Japanese band Dreams Come True, whose member Masato Nakamura composed the soundtrack for the first two Sonic games. Morawiec tasked lead composer Howard Drossin to write a new theme within two hours.

Release

thumb|left|280px|The game was originally released for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1993.

Morawiec believe the game would face "acceptance challenges" from both fans and the gaming media, as it strayed away from the traditional platforming genre. After returning to the United States from Europe, Morawiec was surprised to find that the game had sold well, and was pleased that it benefited from the franchise's popularity. Nonetheless, he regretted that the team had lacked time to "polish" the game.

After the Game Gear game Sonic Drift received poor reviews in Japan, Sega released an 8-bit port of Sonic Spinball for the Game Gear in its place worldwide in late 1994. It was also released for the Master System in Brazil and Europe in January 1995.

Sonic Spinball has been rereleased on 11 different platforms. The Genesis version of the game has been rereleased on the Sonic Mega Collection compilation for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and multiple iterations of the Sega Smash Pack series of compilations, including a port to Game Boy Advance. The Game Gear version appears as an unlockable game in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube and Windows, as well as Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. The game was intended to be included in the Sonic Classic Collection for the Nintendo DS, but was cut for unknown reasons. The Genesis version was released on the Wii's Virtual Console on March 12, 2007, in North America and April 5, 2007, in Europe. An emulated form of the game was also made available for iOS devices via Apple's App Store in 2010, but was later removed along with other Sega games in 2015. It was released on Steam in 2010 and on the Nintendo Classics service in 2022.

Reception

The Genesis version received generally positive reviews upon release. Laurie Yates of Electronic Games gave it a highly positive review, with scores of 90% for graphics and sound, and 95% for playability and replayability.

The visuals were generally well received. <small>iOS</small>

| GR = 61% (6 reviews)

| EuroG = 4/10 (Virtual Console)

| IGN = 7.5/10 (Virtual Console)

| NLife = 4/10 (Virtual Console)

Retrospectively, Sonic Spinball received mixed reviews, holding a score of 61% at the video game review aggregator GameRankings. A reviewer from Jeuxvideo.com thought the graphics were "generally good", but indicated that there were other visually superior games for the Genesis. Eurogamer Dan Whitehead criticized the game's sluggish frame rate and slowdown that occurred when "things threaten to get hectic" in-game, noting that it suffered from "the old Mega Drive problem".

In 2010, a spinning rollercoaster, Sonic Spinball, opened in the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire. Although the rollercoaster was not originally designed with a Sonic the Hedgehog theme, the ride became part of a sponsorship deal between Sega and Alton Towers. A Sonic the Hedgehog-themed hotel room was later made available at Alton Towers Hotel, which featured various playable Sonic the Hedgehog games, as well as wallpaper based on Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I.

Notes

References

Citations

Publications

Sonic Spinball can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive