Sonic Spinball Added To NSO Expansion, Plus Two More
This week’s addition to Nintendo Switch Online includes the Sonic spinoff Sega quickly threw into the holiday season of 1993 when they realized Sonic 3 wasn’t going to be ready on time. Fortunately, Sonic Spinball is pretty solid (some may disagree, but they’re not writing this piece).
Spinball is a game inspired by the Casino Night section of the original Sonic. As in that zone, you play pinball, with a curled-up Sonic serving as your ball. Sonic can do things the traditional metal ball bearing he’s replacing cannot, like angle himself toward his targets (by pushing the D-pad) or jump off a platform (to avoid falling into the gutter, or be eaten by something). For some reason Eggman built an entire fortress with a pinball theme that is fully functional, which allows Sonic to just simply bounce around and collect all the Chaos Emeralds at his leisure. Robotnik put a few robot bosses in his way, but overall, it wasn’t a well-thought-out plan.
Note: Sonic Spinball is technically already on the Nintendo Switch as part of the Genesis Collection, however that version is terrible.
Two more games have also been added today: the RPG Shining Force II (Shining Force 1 is also playable on NSO) and Space Harrier II. The former is an epic quest to slay demons by a guy named Bowie (no relation, we think), and the latter is a pseudo-3D shooter based on the arcade original. Scaling isn’t as smooth, but it’s playable and has a great soundtrack.