Sonic Spinball

Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, commonly shortened to Sonic Spinball, is a 1993 pinball video game. It was created by Sega Technical Institute, and it was published by Sega. It is a spinoff of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It takes place in the universe of the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, who must stop Doctor Robotnik from enslaving the population in a big pinball-like machine.

Sonic Spinball was created by the American staff of Sega Technical Institute. This was because the Japanese staff was busy with making Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. When Sega management realized that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 would not be finished in time for the 1993 holiday shopping season, they created another Sonic game. The game was quickly designed. It had short time constraints. Most of the work happened in two months. Sonic Spinball was released for the Sega Genesis in November 1993 and for the Game Gear and Master System in 1994.

A second pinball game, Sonic Pinball Party, was created in 2003. A Sonic Spinball spinning rollercoaster was built in Alton Towers, a British theme park, in 2010.
Release
The game has been rereleased on 11 different consoles. The Genesis version of the game has been rereleased on the Sonic Mega Collection compilation for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PCs, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and multiple iterations of the Sega Smash Pack series of compilations. The Game Gear version is an unlockable game in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube and PC, as well as Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Reception

Sonic Spinball got mixed reviews; critics liked the idea and graphics but didn't like the controls.

References

Category:1993 video games
Category:Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off games
Category:Game Gear games
Category:Master System games
Category:Sega Genesis games