Sonic Spinball, also known as Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, is a pinball video game developed by the Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega. It was originally released for the Mega Drive/Genesis in North America and Europe in November 1993 and in Japan the following month. It was later ported to the Game Gear and Master System in 1994 and 1995 respectively. The game has been re-released on a total of eleven different consoles since, with many of them being Genesis-related compilations. The game's plot revolves around series antagonist Doctor Robotnik's desire to enslave the population of planet Mobius via a machine powered by pinball-like mechanisms.
The game is set in a series of pinball machine-like environments in which the player controls Sonic the Hedgehog, who acts as a pinball for the majority of the game. Sonic Spinball was commissioned by Sega when it became clear that a new Sonic the Hedgehog game could not be completed in time for the 1993 holiday season, as the majority of their staff were occupied with developing Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The game was hastily developed, with most of the work taking place over two months. It received mixed reviews upon release, with most critics praising the game's novelty and graphics, although its control scheme was considered a negative factor. A second pinball game, Sonic Pinball Party, was released in 2003, and a spinning rollercoaster of the same name opened in Alton Towers theme park in 2010.
Plot
The evil scientist Doctor Robotnik has built a large fortress on top of a volcano for the purpose of transforming the animals of planet Mobius into robot slaves. The magma within the volcano fuels both the fortress and the pinball machine-like defense systems that act as fortifications. The volcano is kept in stable condition by a series of Chaos Emeralds.
[5] In response, Sonic the Hedgehog and his friend Tails mount an aerial assault on the fortress only to be ambushed by the fortress's cannons. Sonic is knocked into the deep waters that surround the volcano, but manages to avoid drowning and surfaces in the caves below the fortress. From there, Sonic infiltrates the fortress's defenses, absconds with the Chaos Emeralds, and frees the animals of Mobius. In the absence of the Chaos Emeralds, a massive eruption begins to destroy the fortress. While Robtonik makes an escape attempt on a massive airship, Sonic pursues him and manages to destroy the aircraft, resulting in the pair plummeting to the volcano below. Tails manages to rescue Sonic just in time, while Robotnik falls into the volcano, which sinks into the ocean and explodes.
Gameplay
A screenshot of gameplay. The game's levels clearly represent a pinball machine with flippers to either side. Sonic the Hedgehog, who is acting like a pinball, is being propelled upwards in the center of the screen after being hit by one of the flippers. The game's interface is shown at the top of the screen, showing the player's number of lives and total score.
At the top, the interface displays player's number of lives and total score. In the game, Sonic the Hedgehog acts as a pinball.
Sonic Spinball is a pinball game in which the player controls Sonic the Hedgehog, who acts like the pinball.
[8] The majority of the game takes place within the "Pinball Defence System", which resembles a series of large pinball machines.
[9] The game is split up into four levels[5][10] each containing numerous sets of flippers that can be used to aim Sonic's trajectory and launch him upward through the level. Sonic can be maneuvered while airborne with input from the directional pad, which can be used for better positioning following an impact with a bumper or target or when Sonic is descending toward the drain, bumpers or flippers.
[11]The goal of each level is to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds and subsequently defeat the newly accessible boss located at the top of the level. Some Chaos Emeralds are blocked off by obstacles that require Sonic to hit certain switches or bumpers in order to create a clear path.
[12] The boss at the top of each level requires a specific strategy to defeat. A "status strip" at the top of the screen provides hints for defeating bosses as well as encouraging messages when the player makes progress. The strip also tells the player how many Chaos Emeralds are left to collect in a level.
[13] Following the defeat of a boss enemy, a bonus round is initiated.
[14] These rounds are shown as Sonic playing a regular pinball machine. The player is given three balls to shoot around the board, the object being to accumulate points by hitting as many bumpers and targets as possible. At any point in the bonus round, the player may trigger a tilt shake that rattles the table and affects the ball's trajectory. If the tilt shake is used too often, however, all flippers will lock out, leaving the ball to fall down the drain. When the goal of the bonus round is fulfilled, or if all three balls fall through the flippers, the bonus round will end, and the next level will commence.
[15] When all of the game's Chaos Emeralds are collected and all four boss enemies are defeated, the player wins.
[16]Sonic starts the game with three lives. A life is lost when Sonic falls through a drain. An extra life can be earned by accumulating 20,000,000 points,
[17] which can be accumulated by hitting bumpers, navigating through loops, collecting rings and destroying enemy characters.
[18]Development
The marketing/research folks indicated that Sonic's casino levels were among the favorites, birthing the idea of the overall direction. I honestly don't know who came up with that, but it sounded fun and doable, so STI [Sega Technical Institute] jumped on it.
“”
Peter Morawiec in a retrospective interview with Retro Gamer.
[19]The game was developed by mostly American staff from the Sega Technical Institute, while the Japanese side of the studio were producing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (then conceptualized as a single game).
[20] Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was credited with boosting sales of the Sega Genesis in the 1992 holiday season. Sega of America's management realized that the next Sonic the Hedgehog title would not be ready until next year and thus decided to commission another game that could be completed quickly in time for a release during the 1993 holiday season.
[19] Sega's research team suggested that the "Casino Night Zone" of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was among the most popular levels in the game. This provided Peter Morawiec, the game's designer, with a general direction of the upcoming game. With an idea established, the developers envisioned a way of extracting the enjoyable aspects of this single level and expanding on them broadly enough to form a concept around which an entire game could be based. Morawiec drew inspiration from Pinball Dreams, a game released for the Amiga in 1992, to combine pinball mechanics with the gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog. Collaborating with three colleagues, Morawiec designed basic animations depicting Sonic as a pinball. The animations were demonstrated to Sega's senior management, who approved the project.
[19]The development team knew that the game would have to be completed in under a year to be ready in time for the 1993 holiday season—a schedule Morawiec considered "tight" for a game which needed to capitalize on the series' new-found popularity in North America.
[21] In order to speed up production, Sega sent veteran staff from Japan to assist in development, including regular Sonic the Hedgeghog artist Katsuhiko Sato. Despite the transfer of these staff, the game was still not predicted to be complete in time. As a result, Sega Technical Institute staff decided to change the game's programming language from assembly to C—an unusual choice for Genesis games at the time.
[21] In retrospect, Morawiec admitted that the choice to move away from traditional assembly language caused frame rate and optimization issues, but greatly accelerated the development process. In the space of 61 days between mid-June and August 1993, the project evolved from being a roughly playable build with no collision detection systems or character animations, to a fully completed game.
[21]Immediately before the game was due to ship, the team was informed that Sega did not own the rights of the Sonic the Hedgehog theme tune. Morawiec recalled that there was an uproar among the team after Hirokazu Yasuhara, the lead designer on Sonic Team, explained that the theme tune was owned by Japanese band Dreams Come True. As a result, Morawiec tasked the team's composer, Howard Drossin, to create a new theme within approximately two hours'.
[22]Release
The game was originally released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
Upon release, Morawiec believed that the game would face "acceptance challenges" from both fans and the gaming media as Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball strayed away from the traditional platforming genre. After returning home to the United States from Europe, Morawiec was surprised to find that the game had sold well, and was pleased that it benefited from the franchise's popularity. Nonetheless, he regretted that the team had lacked time to "polish" the game properly.[23]
The game has been re-released on eleven different platforms.[23] The Genesis version of the game has been re-released on the Sonic Mega Collection compilation for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PCs,[24] Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3,[25] and multiple iterations of the Sega Smash Pack series of compilations.[26] The Game Gear version appears as an unlockable game in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube and PC,[27] as well as Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2.[28] The game was intended to be included in the Sonic Classic Collection for the Nintendo DS, but was cut for unspecified reasons.[29] The Genesis version was released on the Wii's Virtual Console on 12 March 2007 in North America and 5 April 2007 in Europe.[30] An emulated form of the game was also made available for iOS devices via Apple's App Store in 2010,[14][31] but was later removed along with other Sega titles in 2015.[32] On 13 September 2010, it was released on Steam.[33]
Reception
Aggregator Score
GameRankings 61%[34]
Review scores
Publication Score
EGM 7/10[35]
Eurogamer 4/10[36]
GamePro 7/10[37]
IGN 7.5/10[12]
Nintendo Life 4/10[38]
Jeuxvideo.com 15/20[39]
Entertainment Weekly C[40]
Mean Machines 81%[41]
Sonic Spinball received mixed reviews upon release. It holds an average score of 61% at GameRankings, based on an aggregate score of six reviews.[34]
Page source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Spinball
