Sonic the Hedgehog: Spinball

The Good
Nice-looking cover.

The Bad
Did you ever own a ZX Spectrum, C64, Amiga, Atari or any other computer on which the Dizzy games were released? These consisted of two sets of games. There were the platform/puzzle games which were great, and then there were the spin-offs. Occasionally the spin-offs produced a really good game (like the ZX Spectrum version of 'Kwik Snax'), but more often than not they were nothing but tat with the name Dizzy tacked on to help them sell. Well, this game is like a Sonic version of the Dizzy spin-offs. Yes, it has Sonic in it, and there are appearances by Dr Robotnik, but basically it's something nobody would give a second glance if Sonic hadn't been put in it. I've never been a fan of the pinball levels in the good Sonic games, so making an entire game out of those kinds of levels didn't seem inspiring somehow. Especially when it's a game in which the collision detection is rubbish, the graphics and music lack the style and detail of other Sonic games, and the whole thing becomes boring and repetitive very quickly.

The Bottom Line
Sonic must collect rings, bounce around pinball-like environments and defeat the occasional boss. Same as most Sonic games, except without the fun.