Sonic Spinball is a Sonic the Hedgehog video game released in 1993 on the Mega Drive and later ported to the Game Gear and Master System in 1995. The game was a major departure for the series, with platforming largely replaced by pinball action.
Story
Doctor Robotnik has taken control of the enormous Mount Mobius and turned it into a new mechanical base. Using the lava in the volcano below as an energy source, Robotnik's new Veg-O-Fortress serves as the perfect Badnik Processing Plant, churning out new Badniks at an alarming rate. Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower arrive by bi-plane for an aerial assault, but are shot down with Sonic plummeting into the sea. Fortunately, he is able to access the base through the sewers and so must take down Robotnik's operation from the inside. Unfortunately, with the power of the Chaos Emeralds required to keep the fortress working, Robotnik has constructed an elaborate pinball system to keep the hedgehog at bay and the Emeralds safe.
Gameplay
Borrowing elements from the Spring Yard Zone and Casino Night Zone, Sonic Spinball almost exclusively takes place on four massive pinball tables. The aim is to use the flippers to propel Sonic higher through the level, collecting Chaos Emeralds on the way (three each on the first two levels, five in the final two). Sonic begins in the relatively danger free sewers, before heading into the volcano proper. His next step is to free his animal friends from the prisons and destroy the machine converting them into Badniks. As the mountain collapses, a fiendish final level called "The Showdown" forces players to collect five Emeralds and fight a boss that will snap many controllers.
Zones
The entirity of the game takes place on or above Mount Mobius, a new location to the games. As such, none of the four locations below are ever visited again:
- Toxic Caves (or Toxic Pools in some versions)
- Lava Powerhouse
- The Machine
- Showdown
Characters
Although Sonic is the only playable character and he only meets Robotnik in the final level, there are many characters in the game that don't appear in any other title. These heroes are exclusive to SatAM, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Archie Comics. Although a few have their own versions in Sonic the Comic (such as Sally Acorn and Joe Sushi), others including Bunnie Rabbot and Muttski are completely foreign. Even a platoon of Scratch Badniks patrol an Egg Capsule before being destroyed by Sonic.
STC adaptation
Sonic Spinball was very briefly mentioned in the pages of Sonic the Comic. When captured in The Sonic Terminator, the Freedom Fighters are told by Trusk that they will be taken to the Veg-O-Fortress on Mount Mobius, which Porker Lewis reveals is Robotnik's Badnik Processing Plant (suggesting at that point that there is only one). A more literal example is much later in Spinball Wizard, where Tails accidentally stumbles into the Spinball Murder Machine, which Sonic is forced to play in to rescue Tails.
Reception
In Issue 13, an unknown reviewer posted a full-page article in the Review Zone, awarding the game 80%. The Game Guru states that the game is very playable and great in two-player mode (of an alternating turns variety) but is marked down for being a different kind of Sonic game.
The title has received 75% based on two reviews at Game Rankings and has been rereleased on several compilations such as Sonic Mega Collection, Sonic Adventure DX and on the Virtual Console, among others.