Sonic Pinball Party
| Sonic Pinball Party | |
|---|---|
 European boxart | |
| Developer(s) |
Sonic Team Jupiter |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Distributor(s) | THQ (EU) |
| Director(s) | Akinori Nishiyama |
| Producer(s) |
Yuji Naka Hatao Ogata |
| Artist(s) | Yuji Uekawa |
| Composer(s) |
Tatsuyuki Maeda Teruhiko Nakagawa Yutaka Minobe |
| Series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Genre(s) | Action, Pinball |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Sonic Pinball Party (ソニックピンボールパーティー Sonikku Pinbōru Pātī) is a video game released for Game Boy Advance in 2003. It is a celebration of sorts for Sonic Team featuring many references to its previous games, mostly Sonic. There were also releases on two Twin Pack cartridges bundled with Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance respectively in 2005 and another Twin Pack Cartridge bundled with Columns Crown in 2006.
Plot
The story is set in Casinopolis (in Station Square), where Doctor Eggman turns the people gambling into robots, and brainwashes Miles "Tails" Prower and Amy Rose. Sonic must rescue his friends by winning a pinball tournament called the "Egg Cup Tournament."
Gameplay
The game features three pinball tables, based on Sonic Advance, the Sega Saturn game Nights into Dreams..., and the Dreamcast arcade game Samba de Amigo. The player must defeat Eggman to move to the next area in the Sonic board. The player moves to the next area when they collect all the Ideya and defeat the Nightmaren in the NiGHTS board. The Samba De Amigo Board never changes, as there are no real objectives except for getting a high score. In the Sonic board, shooting the ball into a hidden hole three times changes the character shown on the table from Sonic, through Tails, Knuckles, Amy and back to Sonic.
Reception
The response to the game, overall, was positive.
- IGN - 8.3/10
- GameSpot - 8.1/10
- GameSpy - 74 out of 100
- GamePro - 4 out of 5
- Nintendo Power - 4.1 out of 5
- Electronic Gaming Monthly - 7.5/10