Sonic Spinball

THE BAD:
Can be frustrating and hard work

SUMMARY:
I first played this game in a computer shop many years ago. It was on display so I decided to have a quick go at it. Upon playing it I immediately liked it and asked if I could have it as a present for my upcoming birthday and I got it. This game is basically pinball using Sonic as the ball. Pressing one button would activate the left flipper, another one the right and the other would activate both flippers at once. In the air you could guide Sonic gently left or right to help him get to where you wanted. There are a few parts in the game where you land on a flat surface and you have to run along it, but other than that Sonic is generally curled up into a ball and being thrown around the level.

There are 4 levels in all in this game, which doesn’t sound like much but the first one is pretty big and the subsequent levels get bigger and more complex. So don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a short game, because it isn’t. The aim of each level is to collect Chaos Emeralds. There are 3 each in the first two levels and 5 each in the last two. Generally you need to do something in the section you are in to advance to the next one. This usually involves hitting some switches or a door to bust it open. There are several pairs of flippers in each level, usually one per major section. So generally if there is a pair of flippers in a part of the level then you need to do something important there. Finding some Chaos Emeralds is easy but finding some of the others can take a very long time if you don’t know where to look, get lost or have a stroke of luck. The third level in particular is very complex and finding one of the Emeralds is very tough not only to find, but to actually get there. I accidentally stumbled across it when I was playing.

As far as lives go you get 3 to start off with I think. You generally lose a life when you fall between the bottom pair of flippers. Coming into contact with acid, lava, machinery and falling down bottomless pits will also cause you to lose a life. The first level is easy in that there’s only one place you can really lose a life. Most of the others in this level have rescue mechanisms if you fall between the flippers. But in all the other levels you need to make sure you avoid falling through.

Each level has a boss at the end of it in the form of a machine. Before you can get to it you need to have collected all of the Chaos Emeralds from the level. If you try to get into the boss area before getting all the Emeralds you will be turned away and told how many more you need to get. All of the bosses have several parts you need to destroy before the whole boss is beaten overall. Generally once you break the first part of the boss machine then generally it gets easier afterwards as one of the distractions is usually gone. It is possible to fall out of the boss area and if this happens you can be taken from anywhere from just below the boss to all the way to the start of the level, so trying to stay in the boss area is vital. Once you’ve beaten the boss of the level you are taken to a bonus pinball level where Sonic is controlling a small pinball machine. You have to break all of the capsules at the top of the machine to release all of Sonic’s friends. There is usually an enemy on the level trying to protect the capsule. I can’t remember what you get for beating the bonus level, I think it was just a lot of points.

As with pretty much any Sonic game there are rings to collect in every level. If you managed to collect all the rings from a level then a big golden ring would appear somewhere on the level. I only ever did this once but I wasn’t able to get into the ring so I don’t actually know what you got if you went through it. Funnily enough it was one the enormous last level that I did it, I could never get all the rings from the first level, which I always found a bit weird.

There is a downside to this game and that is that it can be very frustrating, not only to actually try and hit the thing you are aiming for but also to find out where you are supposed to be going and how to get there. I spent many hours playing the game one time because I just could not get Sonic through the gaps I needed to. It was highly frustrating when one mistake could cost you about 10 minutes of work, especially if you are sent from the boss area. Also some people probably think that putting Sonic in a pinball game was just trying to capitalize on the popularity of Sonic at the time. Even if this was the case, Sega still managed to pull off a pretty good game.