Sonic Pinball Party

Sonic Pinball Party (ソニック ピンボール パーティー) is a pinball-themed video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. Developed by Jupiter and Sonic Team, the game is a spin-off title featuring references to other games developed by Sonic Team. Sonic the Hedgehog, NiGHTS into Dreams and Samba de Amigo are the most prominent franchises featured, along with characters from Burning Rangers, Phantasy Star Online and Chu-Chu Rocket.

Sonic Pinball Party contains three pinball boards along with different multiplayer modes and mini-games. Like many Sonic the Hedgehog titles on the Game Boy Advance, Sonic Pinball Party also contains the Tiny Chao Garden.

Plot
The Story Mode of Sonic Pinball Party is set right after Dr. Eggman previous attempt to take over the world which was foiled by Sonic the Hedgehog. Taking place in Casinopolis, numerous Animals visiting the place are being kidnapped by Dr. Eggman and transformed into his robotic slaves. In addition, the doctor has brainwashed Tails and Amy into serving him. To defeat Eggman's plans, Sonic enters the pinball tournament dubbed the Egg Cup Tournament.

Sonic manages to defeat Knuckles in the first match and restores Tails and Amy to normal after beating them during the second and semifinal matches. He then defeats Metal Sonic in the final match, only for Dr. Eggman to enter and challenge Sonic to an extra match. In the end, Sonic wins after the fifth match, defeats Eggman and rescues all the Animals.

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. Much like in Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, 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. The player can also shake the pinball table in three directions. The player has to use these methods to make the pinball hit the pinball tables' targets in order to rack up points.

The game contains three differently themed-pinball tables, each with slightly different rules, targets and settings. However, only two are available at the outset. Collecting Rings in either Story or Arcade Mode can be used to purchase Chao Eggs and similar objects in the Tiny Chao Garden or as currency to stake in the Casinopolis minigames.

Story Mode matches
In the Story Mode of Sonic Pinball Party, Sonic has to face five different opponents, each with different point requirements to clear their match. Running out of time or losing all balls before reaching the point requirement returns the player to the title screen. The player's progress in the Story Mode will be saved after winning a match. Following matches and tips for clearing them are:

Characters
{|
 * style="vertical-align: top;" |

Sonic the Hedgehog

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Super Sonic
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Metal Sonic
 * Cream the Rabbit & Cheese
 * Tikal (Cameo)
 * Shadow the Hedgehog (Cameo)
 * Chao
 * Chaos Chao
 * Omochao

Animals

 * Deer
 * Elephant
 * Flicky
 * Gorilla
 * Kangaroo
 * Lion
 * Parrot
 * Peacock
 * Penguin
 * Pocky
 * Seal
 * Sea Otter
 * Skunk
 * Swallow

Dr. Eggman's robots

 * Gami-gami
 * Kero-Kero
 * Kiki
 * Oct
 * Pen
 * Pierrot
 * Senbon
 * Slot
 * Stinger
 * Yukimaru
 * style="vertical-align: top;" |

NiGHTS

 * NiGHTS
 * Claris Sinclair
 * Elliot Edwards
 * Nightopians
 * Nightmarens
 * Gillwing
 * Puffy
 * Clawz
 * Gulpo
 * Jackle
 * Reala
 * Wizeman

Samba De Amigo

 * Amigo
 * Amiga (Cameo)
 * Linda (Cameo)
 * Rio (Cameo)
 * Bingo and Bongo (Cameo)
 * Chumba and Wamba (Cameo)
 * Pose

Burning Rangers

 * Tillis (Cameo)
 * Shou Amabane (Cameo)
 * Chris Partn (Cameo)
 * Big Landman (Cameo)

Phantasy Star

 * Sue (Cameo)
 * Ash Canaan (Cameo)
 * Rupika (Cameo)
 * Bernie (Cameo)

Chu-Chu Rocket

 * ChuChus (Cameo)
 * Chuih (Cameo)
 * ChuBei (Cameo)
 * ChuPea (Cameo)
 * Chubach (Cameo)
 * KapuKapus (Cameo)
 * }

Arcade Mode
Arcade Mode features three boards to play on. The basic goal of Arcade Mode is simply to rack up points until the player has run out of pinballs.

Party Mode
Party Mode is the multiplayer component of Sonic Pinball Party for four players in total. The game requires each player to have own Game Boy Advance handheld console along with copy of Sonic Pinball Party. Party Mode consists of three different versus mini-games.

Hot Potato
Hot Potato (titled as Bakudan (爆弾) in the Japanese release) is a one of two versus minigames in Party Mode. Players have to use Flippers to fling rolling bombs off their table and onto opponents' tables. Both player's pinball tables have three holes at the top of them as each gateway corresponds to another player's table.

Players have to avoid bombs getting through flipper drains. Getting more than three bombs dropped ends the player's game, while the remaining players have change to fire harmless bombs to distract their opponents. The last, surviving player wins the match.

Hockey
Hockey is the second versus minigame in Party Mode, where players are connected to a single board. Each player can only see his own flipper basin, as bunch of gold and silver balls can be seen bouncing around the board. Each player begins with 100 points, but they will lose a points each time when balls bounce to each opponent's side of the board. Silver balls take single point from the count, while gold balls take 3 points.

The versus minigame ends, when the time runs out or when any player loses all of his points first. The winner is whoever has the most points remaining.

Ladder Climb
Ladder Climb (titled as Biru no Bori (びる の ぼり) in the Japanese release) is a co-op minigame in the Party Mode. The goal is to sling a single pinball up a vertical passageway by using Flippers on either wall. Each Flipper comes in different color and each color corresponds to a different player.

If the ball happens to fall straight down the middle, each player has to keep pressing left on or  to magnetically attract the pinball. The game ends when the time runs out, and the player's collective score is tallied based on the ball's height.

Casinopolis

 * For the Action Stage with the same name from Sonic Adventure, see Casinopolis.

Casinopolis is an separate mode featured in the game, containing three different minigames. Cream the Rabbit and Cheese are acting as guides in Casinopolis mode. The player uses Rings, that he/she has collected in both Arcade or Story Modes of the game, as gambling stakes to play one of Casinopolis' minigames. In each minigame, the player loses Rings each time, when the pinball manages to drop down to the Flipper drain.

When the player starts off the game for the first time, only Roulette is available, as Slots and Bingo can be unlocked by playing through Story Mode (see the section). The player can exit the minigame by pressing START button.


 * Roulette: The player slings the pinball into one of two targets on top corners of the board. Each time the player get one in, a random number lights up on the roulette wheel. When the player gets the same number more than once, the stakes on that number increases. After two minutes, the table freezes and the roulette starts spinning. If it lands on any lit numbers, the player receive the amount of Rings.
 * Slots: The player has to bounce pinball into the two corner targets to increase chances of scoring a match on the Chu-Chu Rocket-themed Slot Machine in the middle of the board.
 * Bingo: The player has to sling pinball into the two corner targets to light up random squares on the bingo grid. By completing a row either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally grants Rings to the player.

Leason Mode
In Leason Mode, Omochao teaches the player all the basics about the gameplay in Sonic Pinball Party. Instructions are split into ten parts for both the Sonic, NiGHTS and Samba de Amigo pinball tables. Pressing exits the Leason Mode.

Options

 * Button Config: Change the functions of controls for different actions.
 * Language: Change the language of the messages to Japanese, English, German, French, Spanish, or Italian. The language setting is the first option that appears when the player starts off the game for the first time.
 * Sound Test: Listen to the various music tracks and sound effects used in the game.
 * Chao Navi: Turns the on-screen hints during gameplay on or off.

Tiny Chao Garden
Tiny Chao Garden is a simulation minigame where players can raise Chao. While similar to the Chao Garden, this mode comes with several limitations: Chao do not age, can only interact with a finite number of items, and there can never be more than one Chao. Players can link the Tiny Chao Garden to the Chao Gardens in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle to transfer Chao or items from the Tiny Chao Garden and to participate in races.

Tiny Chao Garden in Sonic Pinball Party is unlocked by default. Rings amassed in the game's Story, Arcade and Casinopolis modes can be used to purchase items from the Tiny Chao Garden or in the minigame called Chao Ball, where the basic goal is to remove as many red and green balls on top of the screen as possible, while releasing any Rings above them.

Reception
Sonic Pinball Party received generally positive reviews from critics and journalists alike with Metacritic giving it a score of 77 out of 100 based on 15 reviews and GameRankings giving it 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 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 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."

Release
Sonic Pinball Party was first released on 15 June 2003 in United States, where it was sold exclusively in the Target stores in North America. Because of the marketing, the game went largely unnoticed during its release. Also, because certain countries such as Canada and Mexico did not have separate Target stores, Sega did not make alternate arrangements to release the game to other stores in those countries. The game remained unpublished in Canada and Mexico until the re-release of Sonic Advance &amp; Sonic Pinball Party Combo Pack in 2005, making the game available in other retail stores.

Trivia

 * Sonic Pinball Party is the only Sonic-themed title, that the developer studio Jupiter has worked on. Several years prior the game, the Japanese developer studio also worked on a similar pinball-themed game, Pokémon Pinball, for the Game Boy Color, which led to the sequel Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire for the Game Boy Advance several mouths later later.
 * The Sonic board in this game uses music from the Star Light Zone and the Dr. Robotnik theme from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). It also reuses level themes, sprites of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and some Animals and Badniks from Sonic Advance.
 * This is the second Sonic game to feature a NiGHTS into Dreams pinball table, the first being in Sonic Adventure.
 * Prior the release of Sonic Heroes, this is the first game to have Metal Sonic speak. It also marks Metal Sonic's only appearance on Game Boy Advance title.