Quite an oddball Sonic entry here. Definitely my preferred of the Sonic spin-offs for the Genesis, and honestly quite the perfect idea for a spin-off for this guy, especially coming off of the Casino Night stages from Sonic 2. "Since Sonic has this whole thing about curling into a ball, why don't we make a whole pinball oriented game with him?" Big props to whatever employee over at Sega had that stroke of genius. How the Sonic pinball game plays however is more divisive from what I've seen. I generally found it to be pretty cool but I can understand where some people come from with how the overall pinball format can make general progression pretty annoying at times. Plus, its hard. Like, really fucking hard. Quite easily the hardest Sonic game on the system, and possibly the hardest game on the system I've played so far even. With how much of a struggle progression can be it's fairly easy to get yourself killed in the many kinds of death traps, especially so on the game's final stage, The Showdown. Thankfully the collection I played this on has a rewind feature and savestates so I'd recommend using them if you're playing on one that lets you do so. (Ah, the joys of modern accessibility options) Also, I really wanna mention just how completely unhinged this game's style is. All of the setpieces and entities in Robotnik's volcano base feel really alien-like for the series, and that soundtrack is just crispy as all hell. And honestly... I kinda dig it? (Let's be honest, you'd all agree that the options menu theme is a banger if those damn tesla coils didn't feel the need to assert their dominance) It definitely likes to show off with how it's the black sheep of the Sonic entries on the Genesis.

"SMELL MY SOCKS !!"