Here's the thing. I like pinball, who doesn’t, it’s probably one of the most fundamental games since the ball, depending on how the machines are made. Video games on pinball have been around for years, some have been technical achievements and some awful, but then there are pinball games that actually make sense but shouldn’t have bothered with the idea. Take Sonic The Hedgehog who can spin into a ball, what if he was to be smacked by flippers while still being curled up; you get Sonic Spinball.
1) Story
Dr. Robotnik has taken control of Mt. Mobius and turned it into a mechanical base called the Veg-O-Fortress (Yeah I know it’s a stupid name) Sonic arrives with Tails on the Tornado, but get shot down and Sonic falls in the ocean and ends up inside. Dr. Robotnik, to secure the Chaos Emeralds, made a defense system…A PINBALL DEFENSE SYSTEM, so if people try to take it, they get hit by flippers, Sonic CAN curl into a ball and…ok whatever Robotnik has done, is complete genius...for an idiot. Seriously, does Robotnik really have an IQ of 300?!
2) Gameplay
So the gameplay is practically pinball, you can control Sonic as normal when he isn’t in ball form, but in ball form you don’t entirely control him at all. With the help of the flippers, you must guide Sonic through different levels trying to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds (and they're all Blue for some reason). You do have the ability to control Sonic, slightly moving him from left or right, but it doesn’t work properly because the physics of this pinball game are bad.
The level design is an eyesore at times, it can have a dark tone at first which isn’t bad, but get to other parts of the level and it’s a bit too much color for my liking, why didn’t they take note from the original sonic series, oh right they had to incorporate things from The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog and SatAM series, this all makes sense now.
There are parts of the levels where you hit enemies to activate a switch that opens the way to the Chaos Emeralds. There are many tubes to go into to progress through the game, but that might be the problem, trying to progress, to this day I cannot pass the first level because of the objectives you have to do and you try to do this, then you fall and you have to get to that area all over again, and probably by the time you do, you fall into either water or toxic waste, screwing your chances of progressing. The boss fights are still pinball, but at least it’s better than the pinball boss from Sonic CD.
This…is good, but also questionable. I might not be the best at it, but for Sonic fans or any other gamer who are not the pinball type of person this is going to be frustrating, even people who don’t mind objectives in their pinball.
Trying to do the objectives can be a headache since you’re fighting with the levels and your focus due to far too colorful graphics more than the enemies. The controls are great though, but then again it's because I mainly play this on the Sonic Mega Collection.
3) Overall
It was a good idea but they could have done better, this was a waste of time and I don’t even know if this is or should even be canon to the main Sonic universe. It’s still a reminder of an average Sonic game.
Rating: 3/5
