A Sonic pinball game, on paper, makes sense. Casino Night Zone is often cited by fans as one of the most memorable levels in Sonic 2 and that had plenty of flippers and bumpers that were a joy to navigate. Surely Sonic Spinball will be just as laid back and fun as Casino Night Zone, right? Well....not quite. Sonic Spinball is like a less friendly, gloves-off approach to the pinball genre that is punishingly hard, easily the hardest Sonic game I've played.
What I admire about the game is it's ambition. The level's are designed to be more interesting than your run-of-the-mill licensed pinball game, sprawling in scope with visuals more akin to a platformer game than a flashy pinball game. The first level, Toxic Caves, is really fun and satisfying to vertically scale...but the difficulty starts getting ridiculous in Lava Powerhouse with some very finickity jumps and some brutal bottomless pits. I've never completed the game without the help of modern save and rewind features, the final level always defeated me as a kid.
More than anything else though I have a soft spot for Sonic Spinball because of it's design is informed by an American perspective and it's the only game in the series to incorporate elements of the SatAM cartoon series (Princess Sally and co make cameo appearances) which is pretty rad. Honestly, the soundtrack slaps hard as well. That distinctly grimy, industrial sound the Mega Drive sound chip was known for works perfectly work and compliments the slightly grittier style of the game's graphics.
What I admire about the game is it's ambition. The level's are designed to be more interesting than your run-of-the-mill licensed pinball game, sprawling in scope with visuals more akin to a platformer game than a flashy pinball game. The first level, Toxic Caves, is really fun and satisfying to vertically scale...but the difficulty starts getting ridiculous in Lava Powerhouse with some very finickity jumps and some brutal bottomless pits. I've never completed the game without the help of modern save and rewind features, the final level always defeated me as a kid.
More than anything else though I have a soft spot for Sonic Spinball because of it's design is informed by an American perspective and it's the only game in the series to incorporate elements of the SatAM cartoon series (Princess Sally and co make cameo appearances) which is pretty rad. Honestly, the soundtrack slaps hard as well. That distinctly grimy, industrial sound the Mega Drive sound chip was known for works perfectly work and compliments the slightly grittier style of the game's graphics.