Sonic Spinball appreciation thread

[Waterfaller]

I loved it too! I've always been a bit of a pinball fan. Got this and Kirby's Pinball Land when they both came out

I think the lack of a password system kept this game from being greater though.

[QuickSciFi]

I hated it for a long time because I approached it as a Sonic game, which it really isn't. When I changed my mindset and looked at it as more of a pinball/random chance game with a Sonic theme I really grew to appreciate it. It's the music that kept me coming back to it. IMO some of the best Genesis music out there, and definitely Howard Drossin's best compositions.

I just wish the game had saving or some sort of password system. Completing it just takes too long for a single sitting unless you get super lucky.

I find it very frustrating but it can be enjoyable.

I wish it had a password option because it's a short doses kind of game.

I loved it too! I've always been a bit of a pinball fan. Got this and Kirby's Pinball Land when they both came out

I think the lack of a password system kept this game from being greater though.

Level Select

First, Access the Options from the title screen. On the Options Menu, take controller one and press these buttons in this order: A, DOWN, B, DOWN, C, DOWN, A, B, UP, A, C, UP, B, C, UP. If you did it correctly, you will hear a special sound. Go back to the title screen and hold button A and press START for Level 2, B and press START for Level 3, and C and press START to begin on level 4.


You're welcome.

[Diablo Griffin]

Not the worst Sonic game I've ever played or even a bad game at all, but it's still my least favorite Sonic on the Mega Drive. I wonder if anyone owns one of the extremely early copies of this game with the Sonic 1/2 title screen music. If it was even released with it, that is.

[midnightrider]

^Below 3D Blast? (which I still don't hate, but still)

[Diablo Griffin]

^Below 3D Blast? (which I still don't hate, but still)

Correct. 3D Blast has an awesome soundtrack and decent level design IMO. Its definitely one of the most underrated Sonic titles but I understand the hatred of it.

[QuickSciFi]

Not the worst Sonic game I've ever played or even a bad game at all, but it's still my least favorite Sonic on the Mega Drive. I wonder if anyone owns one of the extremely early copies of this game with the Sonic 1/2 title screen music. If it was even released with it, that is.

Please, provide evidence.

[midnightrider]

Here, the earlier rom even says "alt music", instead of 00 or something.

[old man]

I wanted to like it, but couldn't ever get into it. The pinball physics always felt broken to me, especially when compared to other video pinball games like Devil's Crush or NES Pinball.

[The Coop]

A part of me always wanted to enjoy this game. I like pinball games, I liked Sonic's other games up to that point, and the premise behind this game seemed interesting. But like a novice chef in the world's best stocked kitchen can prove, having good ingredients doesn't mean squat when you don't cook it right. Bad hit detection, ridiculous amounts of slowdown, no passwords, off physics, and less than stellar board designs left me with nothing but disappointment. Some of the music's good, but there are far better pinball and Sonic games on the Genesis, and this is easily the worst of the main Sonic games on the Genesis IMO.

So yeah, little in the way of appreciation from me, outside of a few tunes.

[NeoVamp]

Please, provide evidence.

They actually mentioned that in an interview somewhere (might be here on Sega-16) the guy who made Spinball
said that he put the Sonic theme in but the guy who originally composed the Sonic theme and thus owned it did
not agree with that, so it was taken out.

Rep for whoever finds that quote! I'm currently too lazy to search.

[Gogogadget]

An early beta of the game has the Sonic 1 theme I believe.

EDIT: Sonic Retro says a version with music composed by Dreams Come True exists, good luck finding it.

[midnightrider]

So, what do any of you know about the 8-bit version?

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

I remember playing it on display (in target I think) when It was first coming out and enjoying it quite a bit. I loved when they had the displays with the multiple game selector kiosk thingies, I remember one had like kid chameleon and vector man. More recently I bought one of those multi cart selector thingies, but I haven't hooked it up yet. When I eventually got a copy of spinball years later I still had a good time with it (despite it being somewhat of a turd), but it didn't get the playtime that I put into the other original sonic games. I still find it to be pretty enjoyable though. The sonic 2 pinball levels are fun, but I would say my favorite sonic pinball section is in one of the earlier level boss fights sonic cd. I love that part, they should have included more pinball parts in some of the later levels to spice things up. Like mid level they could have put some little pinball sections in. Blah I'm rambling..

[NeoVamp]

Rep for whoever finds that quote! I'm currently too lazy to search.

http://www.sega-16.com/2007/06/devel...cal-institute/

An interesting note about Spinball is that the theme song that plays when the game is booted up is not the one initially intended by the STI. Shortly after the first Sonic shipped, Masato Nakamura — the man responsible the music for the original game and lead singer of the Japanese band Dreams Come True — became quite famous in his native country. Sega approached Nakamura to do the music for Sonic 2, but the singer had upped his asking price considerably. Since he and his band owned the rights to the music used in the first game, Sega had been forced to look elsewhere for a soundtrack. The Spinball team was unaware of all this and used the original Sonic theme at the start of their game. Development was completed and the bunch held a party to celebrate. Some of the Japanese staff working on Sonic 3 stopped by to chat, and Hirokazu Yasuhara came in and saw the opening sequence. When he asked how they had talked Sega into paying for the rights to the song, he received a roomful of puzzled stares. Everyone had assumed that all the music belonged to Sega, and with the game on its way to manufacture, the song would now have to be changed at the last minute. “Well, no one had told us about this, and we had used the original music.” Remarked former STI level artist Craig Stitt, “Howard, our music guy, quickly ran to his little room and started writing a new piece of music. At about midnight that night we released a NEW gold master version of the game, this time with our own original theme song.” Thus the song was swapped out in time, and Spinball made it out to stores on schedule.

Found it myself, nobody gets rep!!!!!!

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

Level Select

First, Access the Options from the title screen. On the Options Menu, take controller one and press these buttons in this order: A, DOWN, B, DOWN, C, DOWN, A, B, UP, A, C, UP, B, C, UP. If you did it correctly, you will hear a special sound. Go back to the title screen and hold button A and press START for Level 2, B and press START for Level 3, and C and press START to begin on level 4.


You're welcome.

Awesome I'm going to try this in a minute thanks! Ive never had the chops to make it to level 4.