Monday, November 2, 2020

Sonic Pinball Party Review


Summary

Nice little game for Sega fanatics...but nothing too special.


General

Unlike in Sonic Spinball, their is an actual pinball so it can not be controlled. A disadvantage that makes expert flipper-aiming required. I'm also a bit confused as to why the controls are left and B rather than just A and B. The voice "BALL SAVED" is hilarious but the "Boooo" gets annoying after a while. 

Again, like with Spinball boredom is the enemy, as even with the switching locations the gameplay can get tedious or simply too long. Sometimes losing is almost a relief because of the potentially long playtime. 

To encourage the player to keep gaming, there is a "story" but it's fairly generic, just brainwashed characters challenging Sonic. 

On the plus side, the designs of the courses are well thought-out. The Sonic one, for example, has chao than can evolve or even reincarnate after the ball falls into a certain hole. There are other familiar and changing features that fans of Sonic, Nights, and Amigo would find enjoyable. Music is familiar too!

There are also some bonus mini-games that are mildly entertaining, including a Tiny Chao Garden. However nowadays multiplayer or "party" mode is kinda worthless, unless player 2 also has a Gameboy Advance and a copy of the game. 

Final Ranking: D

Pretty relaxed, this game is fairly fun and there's lots of little entertaining details. The reason for the lower rank, though, is that (as a Sonic game) it seems too long. Players would likely become impatient after awhile--or possibly frustrated, and it doesn't have the same personality as similar Sonic Spinball.  

It still makes a nice supplement to other Sonic games, as seen with the various complications ("2 games in 1"). 

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