SONIC SPINBALL

The early 90s were a great time for Sega’s signature mascot…Sonic the Hedgehog became immensely popular and in the span of just a couple years, we had Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles…and a unique title in his history SONIC SPINBALL. Sonic Spinball was unique in that it was how the title sounds…a Sonic pinball game. Unlike the previous entries, this isn’t a side scroller where you hop n bop on enemies across different lands. You have a handful of levels and control Sonic like you normally would, he still has his spindash, but with the use of levers, other enemies, and stage mechanics (such as air blowing out of the wall to reach heights), you bounce around to try and reach a few chaos emeralds in each stage. Then after, you face Robotnik in some clever contraption he’s devised and of course have to determine ways to ‘bounce’ destroy him. Though it sounds mundane, this is far from it. Each level has multiple rooms, areas, etc so you aren’t strictly just bouncing in mid-air for the whole thing. Some of it requires walking/spindashing against enemies too so there is some variety. Complex levels, great music, and a challenge all wait within. Drawback is you will have to take a few licks to get used to the controls. The game does get hard as you move along but if you have a Raspberry Pi, perhaps you can use save states to save your progress. A very fun game, just have to get used to the controls and starting over a few times. Give it a spin.

GAMING SCORE: 8/10