Beware of this Disastrous game of the beloved Sonic franchise.
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Polygames/SEGA
System: Steam (PC)
Total Score: 50/100
Value Score: 50/10
• Story: 3/10
o No storyline is explained however one can see it is a variation of the usual Sonic the Hedgehog stories where Sonic must defeat Dr. Eggman.
• Characters: 3/10
o Only actual characters that appear are Sonic and Dr. Eggman with a few addition of some robotic enemies but other than that, no Knuckles, no tails and nothing else.
• GamePlay: 6/10
o The game plays like a pinball machine where you shoot sonic into the pinball like level design however you are given free movement unlike a ball as there are places where you can jump and walk across. However the sticky controls wont get you where you want to half of the time as the game is sorely based on luck rather than skill. You have to go through three stages in each zone and at the end of each zone is a boss battle where you must hit parts of Dr. Eggman. At the end of each zone/level you will be thrown into a mini game where it is a variation of pinball where you must knock out Dr. Eggman while collecting points.
• Graphics: 5/10
o Sonic Spinball's graphics took a turn for worst compared to the other games in the series. Where Sega tried to make 3D a must in Sonic 3D Blast, they've made the worst in 2D format. The level designs and the animations within the levels and the gameplay itself are staggering as you can see it looks like they struggled making the animations - you can literally see the lagging edges in the animation which show that this game was rushed and poorly done.
• Sound: 6/10
o Sound effects are recycled from the original Sonic the Hedgehog games, you will hear many familiar tunes however a lot of the things in the game where a sound effect would of been a nice touch were left with silent mystery. The new sound effects however added to the game were horrible and were never heard from again in later games.
• Music: 6/10
o Sonic Spinball's OST is possibly the worst in the entire game series. Pretty much every single level's tune seems to be way off from what you would hear in a typical Sonic game however some tracks are still somewhat enjoyable as you can tell that the composer at least tried to make this game decent. The industrial techno feel to the OST is nice but poorly received to what makes Sonic games amazing with music.
• Length: 5/10
o There are about 5 levels with 3 areas in each and a boss battle at the end. The game should not take you no more than a hour to finish unless you get stuck in a endless loop.
• Replay Value: 3/10
o Sonic Spinball's replay value is close to non-existant however due to the fact that the gameplay is based around pinball gameplay style, one can say that the replay value is there due to the fact that each experience is different in each playthrough.
• Player Value: 3/10
o Sonic Spinball is possibly the worst Sonic spinoff excluding Sonic 3D Blast which tried to stay close to platform roots. Apart from that regardless of the lack of a presentation, visuals and the poor quality of the sound and music - one can easily enjoy this game if they are a vivid fan of Pinball games. That isnt much to say unless you are a hardcore Sonic fan of course.