(This review refers to the 8-bit version, which I would have given a 1 star rating but since the vastly different 16-bit & 8-bit versions are filed under the same game, I cannot do that.)
The development meeting for this one:
“Hey guys, you know how we usually put a little bit of effort into our 8-bit ports so they have some new and different stuff in them and aren’t just the exact same game but worse in every measurable way?”
“Yeah?”
“What if we didn’t do that this time?”
“Heck yeah! Sounds great. Can we make some of the bosses way less cool, though?”
“Yeah, for sure! Make sure we keep the nightmare fuel boiler with the floating Robotnik heads, though!”
“Obviously!”
The thing that’s even more frustrating here is that the fact that the 16-bit version of Sonic Spinball is good (and it is, eat me haters) is actually kind of a miracle??? Lilke, the game is the result of Sega realizing way too late that they weren’t going to have Sonic 3 in time for the holiday season and then frantically looking around like, “Uhhhh, what do we got?” And someone nervously offering, “Uhhhh, people liked that pinball stuff in Sonic 2?” and Sega saying “Perfect!! Let’s build a whole game out of that in a very short amount of time with most of our resources still (correctly) committed to Sonic 3!!” and that somehow resulted in a great game? (Again, eat me haters.) Improbable, to say the least.
I’m just not even gonna talk about how I looked in my one appearance in the opening cutscene. (This port doesn’t show me saving Sonic, so what happens to him when he falls back to Mobius from space? Shrug!) Or the fact that they just couldn’t even be bothered to have BOSS MUSIC? A feature that checks notes literally every single other game in this series (that has bosses) has???
Just play the Genesis/Mega Drive version. There is NO REASON to play this version unless you’re a completionist or just very morbidly curious. It’s BAD.
Anyway let’s rank some stuff and get the heck out of here.
Zones
1. The Machine (D-Rank)
2. Toxic Pools (D-Rank)
3. Final Showdown (D-Rank)
4. Lava Powerhouse (D-Rank)
Bosses
1. Veg-O-Machine (B-Rank)
2. Final Showdown Boss (D-Rank)
3. Toxic Pools Boss (D-Rank)
4. Roboboiler (D-Rank)
Soundtrack
1. Final Showdown (B-Rank)
2. The Machine (C-Rank)
3. Bonus Level (C-Rank)
4. Toxic Pools (C-Rank)
5. Lava Powerhouse (C-Rank)
The development meeting for this one:
“Hey guys, you know how we usually put a little bit of effort into our 8-bit ports so they have some new and different stuff in them and aren’t just the exact same game but worse in every measurable way?”
“Yeah?”
“What if we didn’t do that this time?”
“Heck yeah! Sounds great. Can we make some of the bosses way less cool, though?”
“Yeah, for sure! Make sure we keep the nightmare fuel boiler with the floating Robotnik heads, though!”
“Obviously!”
The thing that’s even more frustrating here is that the fact that the 16-bit version of Sonic Spinball is good (and it is, eat me haters) is actually kind of a miracle??? Lilke, the game is the result of Sega realizing way too late that they weren’t going to have Sonic 3 in time for the holiday season and then frantically looking around like, “Uhhhh, what do we got?” And someone nervously offering, “Uhhhh, people liked that pinball stuff in Sonic 2?” and Sega saying “Perfect!! Let’s build a whole game out of that in a very short amount of time with most of our resources still (correctly) committed to Sonic 3!!” and that somehow resulted in a great game? (Again, eat me haters.) Improbable, to say the least.
I’m just not even gonna talk about how I looked in my one appearance in the opening cutscene. (This port doesn’t show me saving Sonic, so what happens to him when he falls back to Mobius from space? Shrug!) Or the fact that they just couldn’t even be bothered to have BOSS MUSIC? A feature that checks notes literally every single other game in this series (that has bosses) has???
Just play the Genesis/Mega Drive version. There is NO REASON to play this version unless you’re a completionist or just very morbidly curious. It’s BAD.
Anyway let’s rank some stuff and get the heck out of here.
Zones
1. The Machine (D-Rank)
2. Toxic Pools (D-Rank)
3. Final Showdown (D-Rank)
4. Lava Powerhouse (D-Rank)
Bosses
1. Veg-O-Machine (B-Rank)
2. Final Showdown Boss (D-Rank)
3. Toxic Pools Boss (D-Rank)
4. Roboboiler (D-Rank)
Soundtrack
1. Final Showdown (B-Rank)
2. The Machine (C-Rank)
3. Bonus Level (C-Rank)
4. Toxic Pools (C-Rank)
5. Lava Powerhouse (C-Rank)