Sonic Spinball
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Item Condition
Game only: the cartridge in a protective holder, no box or manual. Look over the photos for condition, packaging and details. Every cartridge's shell, label and board are checked for authenticity when it comes into the store, and it's tested before it's listed. It ships in a collector's bag or a hard plastic case.
Item Description
Sega had a problem in 1993. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was not going to be ready for the holidays, and the company still needed a new Sonic game on store shelves. The answer came from Sega Technical Institute, whose largely American team took one of Sonic 2's most popular ideas, the pinball chaos of Casino Night Zone, and built an entire game around it. Designer Peter Morawiec drew inspiration from the Amiga favorite Pinball Dreams, and the result was Sonic Spinball, a spin-off unlike anything else in the Genesis Sonic lineup.
Dr. Robotnik is turning the animals of Mobius into robots inside his Veg-O-Fortress, and Sonic spends most of his time curled into a ball, launched by flippers through bumpers, ramps and chutes. The twist is that he is never just a pinball. You can steer him in midair, and when he lands he can walk, spin dash and grab onto platforms, so each table doubles as a level to explore. Every stage hides Chaos Emeralds, and you have to collect them all to open the way to Robotnik. Along the way you free trapped animals, chase rings and keep an eye on a message board at the top of the screen that offers hints and reacts to your play.
The four stages escalate nicely, from the sludge of the Toxic Caves through the Lava Powerhouse and The Machine to the final Showdown. Beating a boss earns a bonus pinball round with three balls and a table tilt, including one where you knock the teeth out of a giant Robotnik head before sinking a shot into its mouth. Up to four players can join in by passing the controller between turns, which made it a natural living-room competition. Howard Drossin's score gives the fortress a heavy, mechanical groove, and the game even has its own Sonic theme, written in a couple of hours once the team learned Sega did not own the rights to the original.
Critics at the time were split, praising the novelty and visuals while grumbling about how heavy Sonic felt on the flippers, and that weight is part of its personality. Written in C rather than assembly to speed up development, it is a fascinating snapshot of an American Sega studio improvising under deadline, and its grimy industrial look stands apart from the bright zones of the main series. It plays best as exactly what it is: a challenging, slightly strange pinball game with a hedgehog for a ball and a mad scientist worth toppling.
Fast factsgame data via IGDB
- Released
- 1993
- Publisher
- Tec Toy
- Developer
- Sega Technical Institute
- Genre
- Platformer, Puzzle, Pinball
- Players
- Single player, Multiplayer
About the game
Dr. Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik) is once again turning the animals of Mobius into robots using his monstrous contraption, the Veg-O-Fortress. Only Sonic can penetrate the Pinball Defense System to free the animals, retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, and put a stop to Dr. Eggman’s fiendish plans!
Summary from the IGDB community database — the condition and contents of this listing are described above and in the photos.Watch gameplaySonic Spinball on Genesis
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Genesis
Sonic Spinball
$8.99
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Genesis
Sonic Spinball
$8.99
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