SONIC SPINBALL
SEGA 1992
MEGA DRIVE/GENESIS
The highly anticipated Sonic 2 has just become massive. It has easily became the biggest selling title for the Mega Drive and best selling 16-Bit title so far. Sonic Spinball follows right behind Sonic 2 but deviates from the now asserted usual Sonic style.
Dr Robotnik has another base, the Veg-O-Fortess. With this he tends to speed up the rate in which he replaces the planets animal inhabitants into robotic slaves.
The Veg-O-Fortress is embedded inside an active volcano and it energy comes from a geothermal reaction from the flowing magma underneath.
Sonic is enroute to destroy this base which is protected by a sophisticated pinball style defence system.
Sonic Spinball is, as the name sounds, a pinball machine based game. But with Sonic in it’s title there are a few other little tweaks thrown in.
Although coming after Sonic 2 the new Tails character is omitted. Sonic is the only
playable character. He moves; left and right on the D-Pad for running, buttons for jump
and the Spin Dash performed by holding down and revving with jump buttons. Buttons
also control some of the objects inside of the maze. The majority of the game will be
performed with Sonic in his curled up self as he ricochets off the objects inside of the
pinball labyrinth.
To succeed at a stage in Sonic Spinball you must locate all of the Chaos Emeralds in each stage. The number of emeralds in each stage is different but there are oddly more than 7 as seen in Sonic 2. Curiously in Spinball they are of the same colour. There are 4 stages. You start at the bottom, make your way upwards with a boss in the top room.
For access to the gems you must open up the path to it. This generally involves destroying specific enemies and hitting certain targets. Once this is done an event specific to the level you are on will occur. For example, toxic sludge will be drained from a container housing an emerald.
When all the emeralds are in your possession the route to an encounter with a boss is opened. Upon defeat a bonus round where you can earn yourself points and continues is played. The bonus rounds are more of a close match to a real pinball style machine than the level you will have just completed. This time Sonic is not the ball. You are given 3 ‘actual’ balls in which to complete a task
Bonus Stage 1 after Toxic Cave
Release the animals by destroying the seven robots. Robotnik must be avoided who is
cruising around in his Egg Mobile.
Bonus Stage 2 after Lava Power House
Take out the 4 teeth on Robotnik’s giant head and the targets to the back.
Bonus Stage 3 after The Machine
Knock the enemies out of the way to be able to destroy the robot machine.
There is another bonus stage that can be played with 3 balls at once. Collecting all of the rings inside a level and then finding a ring of stars sends you off to multiball land. Your goal is to destroy the crab protected by two invincible cluckers.
TOXIC CAVES |
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Basically a sewer at the bottom of the fortress. Beware of standing on the lowest platform between the flippers as Rexxon ( the robotic sea serpent ) will try to eat you. The enemy line-up consists of Cluck, Rexxon, and Magma Worm. |
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LAVA POWERHOUSE |
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This is the power source for the fortress and is obviously extremely hot. Enemies are Cluck and Ferron. |
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THE MACHINE |
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The area where the helpless animals are becoming Badniks - Robotnik’s robotic slaves. Enemies encountered are Vulture and Buster. |
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THE SHOWDOWN |
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As the Veg-O-Fortress crumbles as the volcano erupts Robotnik makes his escape. You will only encounter Krondor. |
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BONUS STAGES |
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Bonus Stages |
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Level Select - European Version
From the Options screen, press A, Down, B, Down, C, Down, A, B, Up, A, C, Up, B, C, Up. To activate, hold A and press Start for level 2, hold B and press Start for level 3, or hold C and press Start for level 4.
Multi-Ball stage
Collect all the rings on a level and use the gate that appears to be a large shining ring.
Unlimited Lives
Locate the barrels in the Toxic Caves stage. Jump in a barrel and move toward the wall opposite the emerald. Jump out of the barrel and intentionally lose a life while returning to that barrel. Sonic will seem to die twice before re-appearing at the start of the level. The phrase "Launching Extra Ball" will appear allowing unlimited lives to be accumulated.
Kill yourself until you have one life remaining. Then, locate the barrels in the Toxic Caves stage. Jump in a barrel and move toward the wall opposite the emerald. Jump out of the barrel and intentionally lose a life while returning to that barrel. Sonic will seem to die twice before re-appearing at the start of the level. :"Game Over" will appear, but you still will be able to play. Also, there will be no number of lives displayed where it normally appears.
