DAY 128 / GAME 128
Sonic Spinball
After the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, I was pretty much good for anything Sega would release with Sonic in the title after that. Before Sonic 3 was out in 1994, Sega decided to take a side-step in the series and come out with a very unique title; Sonic Spinball.
My brother and I jumped on this one as soon as it was released. As soon as we turned it on it felt completely different. In my head it felt more 'American', though, to this date I can't find out if that was actually the case or not. Everything from the art to the content and characters weren't just reused or sampled from earlier Sonic games and if anything seemed to be closer to the artwork in the comics and cartoons that the older Sonic 1, 2 and Sonic CD content.
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Sonic Spinball was a crazy mix of a side-scrolling platformer and an electronic pinball game. Sonic himself acts as the ball in this game, as you run through sections until you come across areas that resemble pinball machine. You control both Sonic and the machine's flippers as you make your way through the level. Usually as it goes, you need to unlock access to the next area by hitting certain switched or portals using the flippers. You also have to avoid Robotnik's roboticized animals and other dangers until you've made it far enough to unlock access to each level's final boss. A final boss which was always a very creepy and almost frightening rendition of Dr. Robotnik. It the first level, instead of the usual Doctor piloting one of his ships with various attachments in order to attack Sonic, he has actually become a creepy scorpion like robotic creature. In a later level, his creepy face appears in a molten lead pit; it continues from there.
I never beat this game. I'm not sure I remember even passing the second level. Mind you, there were only 4 different levels, but the pacing was much slower than your typical Sonic game. In fact, that's another thing that was a little odd with this particular game. Sonic games are typically fast paced with a focus on speed, whereas this game requires you spend a ton of time in one area trying to hit that one dang button, just like with real pinball. It also contained a really neat pinball mini-game within this pinball game. In between levels you have the opportunity to play a simple pinball machine from the viewpoint of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic Spinball was a successful little departure from the rest of the series. Although I'd still like to find out one day just why it's so different from the rest of the series which is typically very in-line with each other, or at least change slowly as they evolved from one another. I never was very good at pinball, I'm not sure if anyone really can be, it feels pretty random. So in the end, I never got to experience the whole game, but I sure enjoyed what I did see. In fact, I would have liked to have seen them either make a sequel to this, or have had whichever studio or team created this one taken the art direction into another side-scrolling game or similarly unique idea as this one.
Sonic Spinball
After the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, I was pretty much good for anything Sega would release with Sonic in the title after that. Before Sonic 3 was out in 1994, Sega decided to take a side-step in the series and come out with a very unique title; Sonic Spinball. My brother and I jumped on this one as soon as it was released. As soon as we turned it on it felt completely different. In my head it felt more 'American', though, to this date I can't find out if that was actually the case or not. Everything from the art to the content and characters weren't just reused or sampled from earlier Sonic games and if anything seemed to be closer to the artwork in the comics and cartoons that the older Sonic 1, 2 and Sonic CD content.
Sonic Spinball was a crazy mix of a side-scrolling platformer and an electronic pinball game. Sonic himself acts as the ball in this game, as you run through sections until you come across areas that resemble pinball machine. You control both Sonic and the machine's flippers as you make your way through the level. Usually as it goes, you need to unlock access to the next area by hitting certain switched or portals using the flippers. You also have to avoid Robotnik's roboticized animals and other dangers until you've made it far enough to unlock access to each level's final boss. A final boss which was always a very creepy and almost frightening rendition of Dr. Robotnik. It the first level, instead of the usual Doctor piloting one of his ships with various attachments in order to attack Sonic, he has actually become a creepy scorpion like robotic creature. In a later level, his creepy face appears in a molten lead pit; it continues from there. I never beat this game. I'm not sure I remember even passing the second level. Mind you, there were only 4 different levels, but the pacing was much slower than your typical Sonic game. In fact, that's another thing that was a little odd with this particular game. Sonic games are typically fast paced with a focus on speed, whereas this game requires you spend a ton of time in one area trying to hit that one dang button, just like with real pinball. It also contained a really neat pinball mini-game within this pinball game. In between levels you have the opportunity to play a simple pinball machine from the viewpoint of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic Spinball was a successful little departure from the rest of the series. Although I'd still like to find out one day just why it's so different from the rest of the series which is typically very in-line with each other, or at least change slowly as they evolved from one another. I never was very good at pinball, I'm not sure if anyone really can be, it feels pretty random. So in the end, I never got to experience the whole game, but I sure enjoyed what I did see. In fact, I would have liked to have seen them either make a sequel to this, or have had whichever studio or team created this one taken the art direction into another side-scrolling game or similarly unique idea as this one.
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