Sonic Spinball

This article is about the video game. For the roller coaster, see Spinball Whizzer.

Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
The game's North American cover art. The artwork shows Sonic the Hedgehog running in the foreground, while series antagonist Doctor Robotnik is angrily chasing him on a floating pod. The background shows the volcanic Mt Mobius erupting. Pinball flippers can be seen at the bottom.
US cover art by Greg Martin
Developer(s)Sega Technical Institute
Sega InterActive (Game Gear/Master System)
Publisher(s)Sega
Producer(s)Yutaka Sugano
Designer(s)
  • Peter Morawiec
  • Hoyt Ng
Artist(s)John Duggan
Composer(s)
SeriesSonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s)Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Master System, Windows, Game Boy Advance
Release
November 23, 1993
  • Sega Genesis
    • WW: November 23, 1993[2]
    • JP: December 10, 1993[1]
    Game Gear
    • EU: August 1994
    • NA: September 1994[3]
    Master System
    Windows
    • WW: February 1999
    Game Boy Advance
    • NA: September 23, 2002
    • EU: August 1, 2003
Genre(s)Action, pinball
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, also known as Sonic Spinball, is a 1993 pinball video game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega. It is a spinoff of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, who must stop Doctor Robotnik from enslaving the population in a giant pinball-like mechanism. The game is set in a series of pinball machine-like environments with Sonic acting as the pinball.

It was developed by the American staff of Sega Technical Institute, as the Japanese staff was occupied with developing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. When Sega management realized that Sonic 3 would not be completed in time for the 1993 holiday shopping season, they commissioned another Sonic game. After a hasty nine-month[4] development, Sonic Spinball was released for the Sega Genesis in November 1993 and for the Game Gear and Master System in 1994.

Sonic Spinball received mixed reviews, with critics praising the novelty and graphics but criticizing the controls. A second pinball game, Sonic Pinball Party, was released in 2003, and a Sonic Spinball spinning rollercoaster opened in Alton Towers theme park, in 2010. Spinball has been ported to various consoles and included in Sega compilations. It is based on the old Sonic the Hedgehog television show on ABC, airing from 1993-1994.

  1. ^ "Mega Doraibu" メガドライブ [Mega Drive]. SEGA Sonikku Channeru SEGA ソニックチャンネル [SEGA Sonic Channel] (in Japanese). Sonic Team. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
  2. ^ "Sega names the day". Evening Post. November 20, 1993. p. 13. Retrieved May 23, 2023. On November 23 Sega will be releasing their trio of Sonic titles. Sonic Three on One Day, as it will now be known sees the worldwide release of Sonic CD (Mega CD), Sonic Spinball (Mega Drive) and Sonic Chaos on Master System and Game Gear.
  3. ^ "Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball for GameGear - overview". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
  4. ^ "Interview: Peter Morawiec (STI Programmer) – Sega-16". www.sega-16.com. Retrieved April 22, 2024.