The Ugly Truth About Sonic Spinball

Sega Technical Institute:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Te...
Interview with Peter Morawiec (STI Programmer):
www.sega-16.com/2007/04/inter...
Interview with Mark Cerny:
segaretro.org/Interview:_Mark...
GEMS Sound Driver:
segaretro.org/GEMS
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:42 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
3:09 Sonic the Hedgehog 3
4:30 Development of Sonic Spinball
6:03 Sonic Spinball Review
9:27 Alternate Music
11:09 Dreams Come True
12:24 Conclusion
Special thanks to the following users from pexels.com for the stock footage:
霍天赐, A frame in motion, Andrew Hanson, Anna Hinckel, Artem Podrez, Caleb Oquendo, Cottonbro, Curtis Adams, David McBee, EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA, Free Videos, George Morina, Glen McBride, Jack Sparrow, Joseph Redfield, Kampus Production, Karolina Grabowska, Kelly, Kindel Media, Ksenia Chernaya, Mikhail Nilov, Miguel Á. Padriñán, Mike B, Monstera, Nicole Michalou, Pavel Danilyuk, Pete Wales, Polina Tankilevitch, Pressmaster, RODNAE Productions, Steve B, Thirdman,Tiger Lily, Tima Miroshnichenko, Tom Fisk, Tony Schnagl, Vlada Karpovich, Yan Krukov, Yaroslav Shuraev
Special thanks to streambeats.com for the music used in this video.
#sonic #sega #roadto10k

[@KatriceMetaluna]

Funny how the American devs thought staying over hours and sleeping at their workstations was crazy back then when that's exactly what they have to do now.

[@vchi_scratch]

NAH TRUE

[@FigbyTheWolf]

I always thought the intro song was such a jam! I'm surprised it was made in such a short amount of time. That guy had crazy skill!

[@pojr]

yeah insane that it was made in only 2 hours. that must have been some extreme pressure. i would have cracked for sure.

[@FarmFamilyGaming]

They shoulda hired him for the sonic cd us soundtrack 😂

[@FigbyTheWolf]

@@FarmFamilyGaming Bwahaha, then maybe we wouldn't have had to all suffer xD

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

@@FigbyTheWolf as much as I prefer the Japan/Europe sound track, the US one isn’t _that_ bad.

[@FigbyTheWolf]

@@TheGuyWhoIsSitting Understandable, I definitely think it's well done! It's just not my style as much. The other is definitely not bad!

[@FeralInferno]

The problems between Sega's US and Japanese offices are ultimately what sunk Sega. No surprise to see them butting heads again here. Great video, and thanks for the shout-out!

[@pojr]

any time! it's weird that one of sega's most successful games was made by a dysfunctional group.

[@Austinator0630]

​@@pojr This also explains why Sonic Xtreme's development was troubled. It all started with Sonic 2's troubled development.

[@mattm7798]

Agree 100% Seeing the repeated debacles of the 32x and Sega Saturn(and now this game) just shows the bad leadership decisions which sunk Sega. The dreamcast was a chance at redemption but Sony's genius move of having the PS2 also be a DVD player sunk it.

[@Austinator0630]

@@mattm7798 Sonic Xtreme's troubled development is rooted in Sonic 2's development.

[@larrylaffer3246]

@AustinMSmall That and Yuji Naki wouldn't let the American Team have access to the Nights Into Dreams Source Code to help aid its development.

[@muffythevampirelayer_]

The soundtrack to this game is far from mediocre. It's one of my favorite Genesis era soundtracks and I own the Vinyl for it. It's so good.

[@the-NightStar]

I know right? Honestly he was just being kind of an asshole about that.

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

@@the-NightStar games composed with GEMS sounded a little rough and a lot of devs who were making multi platform games didn’t take the time to fine tune their genesis/mega drive version. There’s far more offensive tracks from GEMS the system is known for a lot of really low effort music as a result. Some games are just like nails on a chalk board for their music. 😬 Spin ball isn’t the worst offender but I do agree some of the tracks have some characteristics of GEMS like how AI generated imagery has an off feeling to it. You had to be really particular to get good sound out of the Genesis/Mega Drive and most third parties weren’t all that concerned with the effort you need to put in. The Sonic games are an exception for sure. If you play more of the library on the system you really notice when the music sounds really bad.

[@alex.starostin]

The music itself is good but the sound is lacking

[@lordterra1377]

It's nice seeing after the Geico commercials the Caveman found new work and a calling reviewing old games. Props to you my dude.

[@pojr]

😂

[@JamesSturges]

Oh hey, I’m here early. Glad you’re covering Spinball, it’s a super weird case. The big issue with C is not really that it won’t act like how you’d expect (in fact, since there’s less worrying about the minutiae than with assembly, an argument could be made that for most it’ll act MORE like how you’d expect, unless you’re exceptionally good at understanding the hardware), the issue is more that since the code will eventually have to be compiled from C to binary, you cannot reasonably hand-tune your code for performance. Spinball is the only Sonic game on the Genesis I’m aware of that has to run at 30 FPS, which makes the game feel sluggish. Also kinda fun fact, Sonic 3 itself was developed in around the same amount of time, as the original Sonic 3 project was supposed to use the SVP chip but that was scrapped. Evidence of the super rushed development can be seen in the Sonic 3 prototype recently released.

[@ScatterbrainPete]

Technically, Sonic 3 & Knuckles as we know it might have had around 12 months of development (June 1993-June 1994, not counting those earlier 6 months spent on designing the game around the SVP chip). Apparently the plans to use the SVP chip for a isometric/somewhat 3D Sonic game (which go back as far as January 1993) were scrapped sometime around June (at least according to The Cutting Room Floor) which was when the team had to start over by tweaking the Sonic 2 engine and the game itself had to be done and ready to get printed on cartridges in November 1993, so enough copies would be shipped for the Hedgehog Day in 1994, which by the way was the result of a McDonald's sponsorship and the deadline was set by the investors, which is why Sonic 3 couldn't come out for the holiday season of 1993 (and one of the reasons why it had to be split into two cartridges) in the first place.

[@pojr]

imagine if Sonic 3 used the SVP chip. reminds me of yoshi's island. and you're definitely right about C.

[@DJ_POOP_IT_OUT_FEAT_LIL_WiiWii]

I suspect memory was a big issue, perhaps more so than C. The game is only 512kb and it is packing. It has pretty wicked compression scheme going on. There's loading screen and stutter between map sections. Probably lots of ram used for lookup tables.

[@Austinator0630]

​@@ScatterbrainPete The early development of Sonic 3 as an isometric game laid the groundwork for Sonic 3D Blast.

[@Marc_Araujo]

I genuinely enjoyed both Sonic Spinball and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine as a kid. I got both together as a gift from my aunt towards the end of 1994. All in all, they were both neat little games that complimented the main titles really well.

[@LostForestX]

Lollll that poor composer dude. I can't imagine someone telling me "Hey uh, we need you to rewrite a song for us and it's gotta be done in like... 2 hours." You're right though, the physics are ass anytime Sonic has to walk around.

[@DJJunkfoodJay]

Just discovered your channel. It's intelligent, no nonsense and refreshing. Keep up the great work.

[@PilaCiu]

Craig Stitt actually dumped out of his concept games somewhat recently; SEGAPEDE/Astropede pitch demo

[@pojr]

nice. pretty cool looking game, although i can definitely tell that the GEMS sound engine was used lol.

[@PilaCiu]

@@pojr Thankfully the music was done by Howard Drossin who had decent experience with the GEMS driver, so it doesn't sound bad at all.

[@edgardeitz5746]

Astropede should've been made...

[@MTCesquire]

My version of Sonic Spinball had both intro songs, and I'm inclined to believe all copies did because even the ROM I'm currently playing has both. If you don't press start at the title and just let the demo run, sometimes when it loops back to the title, you'll hear the first version of the theme.

[@DELTARYZ]

My roommate has a magazine article scanned about this game’s development. According to this magazine article, the full development cycle lasted about TWO months. Idk if KZbin will allow me to post a link, but I have the scan. EDIT: found it Third page, fourth paragraph. "In two short months, between 15 June and August, the project developed from a roughly playable first build, featuring nothing more than the scrolling and collision systems and 80 percent of the character animations played on a single unfinished level, to a fully completed ready to ship final build. In 61 days it progressed from something not even suitable for a press demo to a fully fleshed-out game."

[@f.k.b.16]

Sometimes it will... Try it. I would like to see the article

[@DELTARYZ]

@@f.k.b.16 floof.zone/files/spinball.jpg

[@DELTARYZ]

keep in mind I don't know exactly where the 'two month' thing is - that is just what my roommate told me. I couldn't locate any such claim with a quick speed-read and i'm too tired to bother combing over it more closely (it's 3am), but what I did see checks out with everything pojr said.

[@f.k.b.16]

@@DELTARYZ Awesome thanks!

[@f.k.b.16]

@@DELTARYZ It does say that in 61 days it went from a ultra simplified demo to a fully finished game. That may have just referred to one part of the project (programming... which is still highly impressive) to a finished game. The 9 months may have included all aspects of story boarding, music, pixel art, etc. I'm just guessing but still a really cool article!

[@mrdonutswildride7808]

I was a preschooler when I compound fractured my femur. Despite the best efforts of my parents to keep me off video games and cartoons up until that juncture, there really was nothing better to do in that so called Eternal September. I fell in childhood adoration with Sonic through six weeks of traction. Elsewhile, my brother and sister were occupied by a Sega Genesis while mom, dad, various uncles and aunts stood vigil through my recovery. I had to miss trick or treats on Halloween, but I got home shortly after. And we played Sonic and watched Sonic and through that struggle we loved Sonic, a family reunited. That Thanksgiving we watched the Sonic balloon get destroyed by a lamp post in the parade, and somehow that was a thing that stuck as a core memory and one of the two worst things to happen in New York on National Television. It was nothing short of a godsend and a proto Jingle All the Way story that Old Saint Nick was able to conjure Sonic Spinball that Christmas morning. Been around the world a couple dozen times by now, but thanks to Sega of America for pulling this thing off, but thinking about getting Sonic Spinball that holiday season...you kinda want to believe again, in a world and time in life when you dont want to believe anymore but you can at least hold on to that moment of happiness. I will be forever greatful for Sega of America for delivering Spinball in such short time (and I dont think the music is that bad either, but thats just memory association) But then I ended up getting Sonic Labyrinth from Santa in 1995, but thats another story for another day.

[@gamevidsnstuff5805]

Binging all your vids. Love them man.

[@pojr]

Appreciate it!

[@Heptad]

that's quite a good title-screen song for being composed in less time than some peoples' commutes take 🤣💀 this channel's quite nice & informative. high production quality. kinda depression-binging this content after a particularly bad misfit/bullying day ~ Mesyn

[@LostForestX]

Btw, that feel when you hear yourself get name dropped 🤗

[@TD-zs2nc]

Kinda surprised there haven't been more sonic pinball spinoffs. GBA had pokemon pinball, mario pinball, metroid pinball... Where was the OG at?

[@RawrX32009]

GBA had Sonic Pinball Party

[@edonslow1456]

I love this game. All that needs changing is better code optimisation to get it running faster, but it's still playable. It looks great, it sounds great, the level designs are creative, interesting and challenging. I think what they achieved in the time frame was amazing.

[@edwin3928ohd]

Veteran Member Status FTW! I have played sonic spinball since buying it in the store. (Well, my parents did bought it). I used to play it alot in the 90s when I was younger, but it was way too hard as a kid. I do play it every 3-4 years now, if that. I think the game was too sluggish and awkward to control to become a great game. Imagine casino night zone in sonic 2 converted to a pinball game - I think that would have been a real winner as a full game. (By chance as I write this I am watching your video and I see you are also talking about casino night). That idea totally would have taken off had they done things right. Edit : For atmosphere, I give the game 10/10, even though there's only 4 stages, each one had a very unique look and very detailed. I think they spent alot of time on that but not as much on the other things the game needed

[@pojr]

i was thinking the same thing. imagine is the japanese crew was more involved with sonic spinball, AND the engine of sonic 2 was used. it would have been a much different, and probably much better, game

[@jackofallgamesTV]

I hope you don't mean FTW in the same sense that Taz (the wrestler, not the Devil) meant it.

[@edwin3928ohd]

@@jackofallgamesTV Nope, but Taz rules! I saw him at AEW in Austin

[@UltimatePerfection]

Fun Fact: Archie Comics actually predicted Sonic Spinball. One of the issues from 1992 or late 1991 deals with Sonic stuck in a pinball machine.

[@garrettjones8448]

Good retrospective. I do wish you had mentioned the SATAM characters included in the minigames between levels.

[@17R3W]

Since you read all of these, nicely done and have a great Wednesday

[@gooeydude574]

This games deserves a remake. (A good one, of course)

[@TERRORSREALM]

this video came up with my youtube autoplay while i was doing housework and as soon as i heard the cosmic carnage music at the end i knew i had to hit that sub button. good stuff man!

[@oneinchbiceps]

Time to test all those copies of Sonic Spinball to see what music on the intro.

[@RawrX32009]

The version on my copy of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3 has the original Sonic Spinball theme

[@f.k.b.16]

7:30 😂 Great video bro! I wondered why it was so different too

[@farmingsim9813]

I know for sure my copy of Spinball has the final revision of the main theme, I'd love to come across an early print copy at some point since they're apparently out there.

[@user-ix6vv8lo5j]

did this guy just say sonic spinball music is mediocre????????? straight to jail right away

[@Razzberri]

The dopamine hit when you get the last emerald

[@MBJ84]

That music bit was great!

[@SylveonTrapito]

Seeing Yuji Naka behind bars in the photo looks funny as hell. And I'm a Sonic fan.

[@thecodemachine]

Thank you!

[@SonicntZane]

hey, what song did you use for the section before the outro? banger came outta nowhere

[@SparkyMK3]

Small correction: Sega DOES own the rights to three tracks from Sonic 1 and 2, as the games sound designer Yukifumi Makino (credited as "Macky") composed the iconic 1-Up, Drowning and Chaos Emerald jingles for those games, not Masato Nakamura.

[@fazares]

The cartoon u were talking about..got a few characters cameos in this game

[@Islandswamp]

Yo I’m new here. Cool videos btw bro 😎

[@sonicmaestro]

First time viewer! Dropping a comment to help the algorithm. Oh, and I always loved playing Sonic Spinball growing up, and always thought the platforming felt a little off. This explains why!

[@pojr]

thank you, welcome to the channel! yeah I agree, i always felt like this game was weird compared to the others, and i had to find out why.

[@TheKyeshow-pt2gt]

I love the music

[@knightshousegames]

I mean, directly comparing it to the mainline Sonic games is like being mad that Mario Paint doesn't play the same as Super Mario World, or that Kirby's Dream Course isn't as good as Kirby's Dreamland. If you look at it in it's context, a spinoff title by the B-Team, that was based on a simple concept and executed on in an extremely short amount of time, it's really not that bad. Considering what they were working with, it is pretty impressive that it even works at all. The stuff that has to work does, and they hid the jank as best as they could And even though it didn't look or sound the same as the main line titles, I honestly wasn't bothered by the change in aesthetic, I thought the little glider plane Sonic and Tails had in this one was kinda cool. And the music is a little grimy, but I'm not bothered by that, I kinda like the options theme, and the boss theme is actually kinda sick. And honestly, given that we have the benefit of hindsight from the present day, it's probably not even in the top 10 of "Worst Sonic Games". It's definitely closer to worst of the best, rather than best of the worst.

[@thehumbleone1983]

Great video Pojr as Sonic SpinBall is one of my favourite Mega Drive / Genesis game even if some people don’t like it

[@spinfox23]

I remember my cousin had the version with the newer theme, he had the Genesis version. The only versions I have are Sonic Mega Collection, Sega Smash Pack on GBA, and the PC version on Steam. Personally, I like the game a lot, it combines Sonic and pinball, two things I like. Even the GBA port was decent, and played well, albeit looping Toxic Caves music since the cart also had Golden Axe and Ecco.

[@kenny9648]

I love that game, the visuals, the sounds and the music. I think that metallic sound fits perfectly. By the way, nice channel. I discovered it yesterday and already watched some videos. 👍

[@manicdrive85]

i like this soundtrack i have a soft spot for this game as it was just one of the games our family got Christmas 93 with a Genesis model 2

[@sanicsanic6890]

I know why. It was a spinoff rushed out the door to have a sonic game for the holidays because sonic 3 was delayed

[@Austinator0630]

Sonic 2's development laid the groundwork for Sonic Xtreme.

[@beeto45]

to me, this was the best sonic game. i remember saying to my siblings: wouldnt be great if they would make a completely casino night zone themed sonic game? and then it came out!. even as an adult i keep coming back to play it and not the others. but you do have a point in that it feels weird compared to the others; and now THANKS to you i know why. hablas espanol, amigo? me he subscrito a tu canal yt.

[@optimistprime2751]

Excellent information. Excellent history. I wish you more subscribers and popularity. There is just one little eensy tiny little thing though. THE MUSIC IS AWESOME. Sega US really got screwed over when making this game. Howard drossin created the toxic caves theme song on his first day as they hired him late in the production process. He was completely unfamiliar with the sound system of the sega genesis/gems but still managed to make one of the most incredible songs ever. So hearing that story of how he made the theme song in less than 2 hours is totally believable yet crazy. They managed to make an amazing fun game with outstanding music. At least the first level/options menu music. As this is the music 90% of the gaming audience would actually hear

[@CaptainGinyu]

we rented this game at release, it had the old theme song

[@pojr]

Really? This is good information.

[@RawrX32009]

​@@pojrI actually had the old theme in a ps3 genesis collection

[@pojr]

@@RawrX32009 Nice. The PS3 collection has the original theme? Didn't realize that.

[@RawrX32009]

@@pojr It does :> I'm pretty sure it's because Sonic 1 and 2 are on there so Sega would have to pay the royalties regardless

[@KimPossibleShockwave]

A fan, Sonic Mania-like remake of this based on one of the open framework engines would be lit. Could also create some new levels based off scrapped ones from other games, like that Prism Stage from Sonic CD, Cyber City Zone from 2, et cetera.

[@prophismusic]

I always thought the first level was fun, then the second was super difficult.

[@taylortomblin]

This is the game that came with my Genesis console when I was a teenager. I always loved the music for this game. The weird physics when not in pinball mode are definitely a thing. I knew it was an American game and that’s why it’s so different. It’s neat to hear the story fleshed out. Thanks for a good video!

[@Innocuils]

I'm digging your channel! Commenting for the algorithim....

[@phorchybug3286]

Spinball is fun. Pinball just isn't the same without Sonic.

[@iwanttocomplain]

Why do I keep watching these videos?

[@supernes235]

I actually loved this game. Another informative clip.

[@sanicsanic6890]

I’m kinda mixed on spinball, on the one hand it’s pretty fun just to bounce around so much you give sonic motion sickness, but actually trying to play the game is very hard (but that’s probably just because I am absolute garbage at pinball)

[@tomasrabelobelchiordemelo3422]

0:20 bro doesn't know what a bad ost is like this BOPS

[@davidcaruso2517]

I liked sonic Spinball. Was a bit off the wall but it was fun!

[@pojr]

Yeah definitely not a bad game, just a little weird compared to the others.

[@beraetuestarz3696]

Worth noting that a rom of the initial variant was leaked on a chinese rom site.

[@VirajKathwadia]

I loved Sonic Spinball, it was a game my father got my for my 8th birthday. I find people that criticize this game often don't know how to play it. And the music was awesome.

[@mattm7798]

Wow I knew i didn't like Sonic Spinball as a kid but could not figure out why. Now i know. This was one of those kid mistakes where I played the game at Target on one of those 6 cart genesis displays and really enjoyed it enough to ask my mom to buy it for me. She eventually did and I'll never forget coming home and within 1 hour realizing "this is not a good game". This video makes me feel a little better as a consumer since Sega basically kinda screwed us with it. Also all the speed and fluidity of sonic is missing, and it feel like the frame rate is very low

[@bpfurtado]

Nice content.

[@vchi_scratch]

i dont have a copy but i have a SEGA Genesis now but before i didnt have one so i played Genesis games on an emulator

[@madzpanda]

Sonic spinball was my first genesis game and it was fairly new when I got it. I was.. 7? 8? My version had the music made in 2 hours. Also I'm suprised you didn't talk more about the satam appearances. It was the only game where they addressed them at all which is crazy to me I loved satam. The canceled stealthy satam game looked cool but sega of Japan hated it.

[@joeyfarris2543]

Fart noises!? It all makes sense now 👍👍

[@RadikAlice]

I'm well aware liking it makes me a weirdo, but I do. It and CD are among my favorite Sonic games But boy, is it ever clear the difficulty was designed to discourage rentals. Even if you reading don't like it, gotta admit it's brilliant. Sonic always stood out because of his physics, so being a pinball is perfect. If I had to correct anything, it's that the infamous options music is actually an incomplete version, another casualty of crunch. As Larry Bundy Jr. recently pointed out, the European release or at least some carts have the proper version that's not an assault on the human ear. Which is a quality sorta shared with another song of a game for the system. The options menu music from Thunder Force IV, funnily enough

[@jarmelatodyssechutminds126]

I myself at first unfortunately got the game gear version of this. I played it and I don't like it. And I never bothered pick it up again. But I later picked up the Genesis version. Right through games compilations called SEGA Genesis classics for PC and switch.

[@jarmelatodyssechutminds126]

I was one of the few millions of people who owns sadx on steam right after playing sadx on the GameCube.

[@MN12BIRD]

IIRC the game also runs at 30fps while all the other main Sonic games on Genesis ran at 60fps. Maybe like you said if the game was written in C instead of assembly that's why as you said the performance would be worse. I always found the game to be strange. Sonic does look weird compared to the other games and the music was certainly a downgrade.

[@pojr]

Absolutely. The frame rate in this game is not great

[@ChristopherFrameOfficial]

Taxi!

[@huldu]

I didn't like the game as a kid but as an adult I appreciated it a LOT more. It's a pretty fun game.

[@jackpenber8959]

I happen to really enjoy the soundtrack 😤

[@AURORAFIELDS]

I really don't like how people keep insisting the bad music in American Mega Drive games has to do with GEMS specifically. GEMS is actually a lot better than what Sega offered to Japanese developers in the early days of the system - The driver is relatively bug-free, it runs well (despite not having the most well optimized code), and actually has a lot better features. The trouble often comes from inexperience of the musicians and developers, either not putting in enough effort to produce high quality music, not having a musician on-hand who could create better music, and having less experience with FM synthesis than their Japanese counterparts. In addition, GEMS provided a standard set of FM voices to use for developers. While it is not really a bad set of voices, some developers used them mostly throughout the soundtrack instead of creating custom voices that fit the song better. This again I would say has a lot to do with inexperience of developers. In addition, the Spinball OST actually sounds worse nowadays because a lot of people use emulators. The real hardware has a great low-pass filtering (on model 1 anyway, unmodded model 2 is kind of bad tbh), so the music sounds better. It is still not amazing, but I think its unfair to call it mediocre. Overall, still a lot of developers went the extra mile and created their own drivers or just utilized the drivers they were given better, and therefore ended up with much better music than your average GEMS game. But let me tell you, no matter what driver, you will find plenty of games with awful music.

[@floridaman0219]

Gems gets way more hate than it deserves. The standard patches are pretty lame but it was a great tool for time-strapped developers. Spinball was one of those games that really deserved some custom patches but I still think the music is funky as hell

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

You are three days out on the release date of sonic 2 it’s actually the 24th of November 1992. It’s even in the cheat code. You also forgot to mention that not only did Masato Nakamura compose the music for the first sonic games. Sega also used their in-house sound driver called SMPS which all of their games used where is gems sounds for Genesis editor for music and sound effects which was designed to make it easier for American dev developers who had little experiments with FM synthesis but it cost a lot of games on the system sounding very mediocre to very bad and sonic Spinball is one of those games.

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

Sonic Spinball is my favourite Sonic spin-off.

[@calebprenger3928]

I really like sonic spinball actually. why are you showing javascript and jquery at 1:51? lol

[@f.k.b.16]

Edited comment lol

[@pojr]

lol, props for noticing that.

[@the-NightStar]

@@f.k.b.16 fuck off, sometimes people need to edit for minor spelling and grammar issues.

[@ProfessorMarveI]

The least known game but interesting and mysterious like Ecco The Dolphin!

[@sheepchemical3024]

I actually really love sonic spinball! but I'm a huge fan of pinball in general, both real tables and video game pinball. I think thats why the stiff awkward platforming never bothered me. The focus here is on the pinball mechanics with the platforming put in as an afterthought, so I thought it was designed like this on purpose to some extent There are good OSTs that use GEMS but its sadly a case of, the composer has to be good with it, so theres more bad soundtracks made with GEMS than good ones... and I sadly think sonic spinball is one of those. Aside from a few songs that go hard (I really love toxic caves), a lot of the songs in spinball just sound overly harsh and discordant to me. But its a matter of taste no doubt

[@dumpsterjerry3577]

I loved that game the most as I didn’t really bang on any Sonics ✌️

[@westinbridges7321]

I might be weird to say this, but I like Sonic Spinball. I might get hate from some in the comments, but I seriously like the concept.

[@thedeadpoolwhochuckles.6852]

this game was pain.

[@Ensign_games]

I think Sonic Spinball is a decent game.

[@MazinGo-1972]

Sorry but I did not like this game and only tolerated it when I fully played it on the Gamecube Collection. This game totally passed me by on its initial release and I was hyped for S3&K, I even got all the Happy Meal toys back then. Sega really should have calmed down on Sonic's release cycle if this game was the result of it.

[@christopherlastname7638]

I got this game as a kid i saved up money and was disappointed in the game!

[@HelloMyNameIsRED]

I am a pinball enthusiast but I never liked this game because of its strange strange physics and confusing levels.

[@MelancoliaI]

Sonic Spinball more like....STUPID STINKBALL!!! I actually beat this thing as a kid through tears and thrown controllers AND I even unlocked the Multiball stage by collecting all the rings in the Toxic Caves. UGH. NEVER AGAIN!!!! 😠

[@jimbox114]

I never did care for this game. Just never was a big fan of Pinball in general.

[@DMantra]

>the music is mediocre stopped watching there.

[@billcook4768]

Sonic Spinball isn’t nearly as bad as it’s reputation. The Classic Sonic 1/2/3 games aren’t as good as their reputation.

[@the-NightStar]

Nope i'm gonna have to COMPLETELY disagree with you about the sprites AND the music. I completely disagree that the sprites look bad in any way. In fact, I actually prefer this sprite design for sonic, and think it looks much better than the first two games, from an aesthetic standpoint. And what's what that stupid earplugs sketch? Again, I LIKE the hard-rock abrasive sound of this game and I think it has a lot of charm and shows the capability of the Genesis's FM audio to showcase a harder edge rock industrial type sound. I honestly just think you're flat out wrong about both, and even maybe to the point of being kind of a judgemental asshole about it, in all honesty. Like, your little comedy sketches to illustrate the music being "bad" was actually really obnoxious to me and not funny at all.