is a video game released for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

in 2003. It is a celebration of sorts for

Sonic Team is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best known for the long-running ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights int ...

featuring many references to its previous games, mostly prominently '' Sonic the Hedgehog'', '' Nights into Dreams'', and ''

Samba De Amigo is a rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game was released in arcades in December 1999, and for the Dreamcast video game console in 2000. A port for the Wii was also developed by Gearbox Software and Escalation Studio ...

''. There was also a release on a Twin Pack cartridge bundled with '' Sonic Battle'' and ''

Sonic Advance is a 2001 platform game developed by Dimps for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). It was the first ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game released on a Nintendo console with '' Sonic Adventure 2: Battle'' on the GameCube, and was produced in commemoration of ...

'' respectively in 2005.

Plot

The story is set in Casinopolis (in

Station Square Station Square is a indoor and outdoor shopping and entertainment complex located in the South Shore neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States across the Monongahela River from the Golden Triangle of downtown Pittsburgh. Station S ...

), where

Doctor Eggman Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is the main antagonist of Sega's '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Eggman was created and designed by Naoto Ohshima as part of many design choices for Sega's new mascot. After the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog, ...

turns the people gambling into robots, and

brainwashes Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...

Miles "Tails" Prower , better known by his nickname , is a fictional character in Sega's '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' series. Tails also appears in his own spin-off series, comic books, cartoons, and films. He is the second character to consistently appear by Sonic's sid ...

and

Amy Rose The '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game franchise began in 1991 with the game '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' for the Sega Genesis, which pitted a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog named Sonic against a rotund male human villain named Doctor Eggman (or ...

. Sonic must rescue his friends by winning a pinball tournament called the "Egg Cup Tournament."

Gameplay

''Sonic Pinball Party'' is a pinball video game with the objective being to earn as many points as possible. During both the Story and Arcade Modes of the game, the player starts each match with three pinballs, each one shot onto the playfield from the plunger. When the pinball rolls into the hole on the bottom of the table, the player loses a ball and must try again with another. Losing all three pinballs ends the pinball match. The player can control each pinball on the table using the two flippers set on the lower part of the table or the lone flipper placed in the upper right side of the table, and has the ability to shake the pinball table in three directions. With these methods, the player can make the pinball sling and hit one of the pinball tables' targets in order to gain points. Story Mode features five different matches, while the basic goal of Arcade Mode is simply to gain points until the player has run out of balls. The player's best scores from Arcade mode will be listed in the Rankings if they are high enough. Rings/Blue Chips collected in either Story or Arcade Mode can be used to purchase Chao Eggs and similar objects in the Tiny Chao Garden or as wagers in the Casinopolis minigames.

Development and release

''Sonic Pinball Party'' was published by Sega and published by

. The game was first announced in January 2003 by Sega of Japan. The game was released in the United States on May 27, 2003. It was sold exclusively at

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...

stores. The game was later re-released in 2005 in compilation collections for the Game Boy Advance with ''

'', '' Sonic Battle'', and '' Columns Crown''. In Europe, the game was co-published by Sega and

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initi ...

, with the latter holding exclusive distribution rights as well.

Reception

''Sonic Pinball Party'' received generally positive reviews from critics and journalists alike; on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 15 reviews and on GameRankings it has a score of 79.38% based on 16 reviews. '' GamePro'' praised the graphics and the gameplay, stating it to have "enough extras to keep any Sega fan enthralled." Frank Provo of

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

praised the game's overall gameplay and the artistic quality of pinball tables, while also saying that the multiplayer mini-games were "welcome additions to the overall conglomeration that composes ''Sonic Pinball Party'', even if they don't really fit the premise of standard pinball." Craig Harris of ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' praised the game for the "virtual" aspect of the pinball gameplay and offering a huge amount of content, but criticized its lightweight physics which made it difficult to pull off skilled, bulls-eye shots, and the Casino mini-games for not being balanced very well. His overall statement was that ''Sonic Pinball Party'' was "a great game, but not quite a must-have." Christian Nutt of GameSpy was not completely satisfied with the game, stating that it was "serviceable enough pinball romp that's too focused on presenting a pseudo-realistic game without the technical clout to back it up."

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2003 video games Crossover video games Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Advance-only games Pinball video games Sega video games Sonic Team games THQ games Video games produced by Yuji Naka Jupiter (company) games Multiplayer and single-player video games Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off games Video games developed in Japan