Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball/Bugs

Back to: Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball.

General bugs

Ring animation

Ring as it is, one frame not flipped.

Ring as it should be: spinning.

Despite using the same graphics from Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, Rings don't spin in Sonic Spinball. One frame that should be flipped, isn't, so Rings appear to "wobble" instead.

Not fixed in any version.

Eyelid colour

At the very beginning of the game, Sonic's eyelids are shown to be blue.

But wait a few seconds, and they become tan. Most of the animations use tan.

...but they're blue again, front and centre of the screen when collecting an emerald.

Sometimes when Sonic closes his eyes, his eyelids are drawn as blue, but at other times, the artists went for the tan colour seen in earlier games.

Not fixed in any version.

Wall collision

Push animation not working. (NTSC-U)

Push animation working as intended. (PAL)

As with other 2D Sonic games, when Sonic walks into a wall, the push animation should trigger. Much of the time in Spinball, however, Sonic awkwardly clips through the surface and is pushed backwards, giving the impression the wall is not completely solid. This is most prominent in Toxic Caves; the feature works more reliably in The Machine, for example, though the level design means there are very few places in the game where Sonic can push a wall.

This less common in the PAL and Japanese versions of the game as some walls were fixed, but there are cases where this behaviour can be seen in all versions.

Partially fixed in the PAL and NTSC-J versions.

Brake dust error

Correct

Incorrect

When Sonic skids while braking, dust would appear behind his feet much like in the main platformers. This dust is displayed correctly behind Sonic's feet when he is facing right, but is incorrectly shown in front of him if he is facing left.

Not fixed in any version.

Boss theme instrument error

The boss theme contains certain instruments which incorrectly play before the song's loop point.

Fixed in EU version.

Level-specific bugs

Toxic Caves

Loop de Force skip

If the Loop de Force is entered before getting rid of the cork, a Magma Worm will appear to intercept Sonic and send him to the targets that will pop the cork out. If the player holds when hitting the Magma Worm from the left (or if hitting it from the right), Sonic may re-enter the loop and warp to the upper tables, skipping the cork and allowing the player to get the other two Chaos Emeralds earlier than intended.

Not fixed in any version.

256 lives

Jump into the slime facing the barrel...

...and then Sonic will die...

...and then die again.

256 lives for me!

If Sonic has one life left, rides one of the barrels to the furthest edges of the level, and jumps into the slime right next to the barrel as possible while facing it, he will die twice. Though the game registers a Game Over, the second death will set the "Extra Ball" flag and make the game think the player has previously earned an extra life, thus will restart the level with a "LAUNCHING EXTRA BALL" message.

After this, the lives counter will display 0 lives, and dying again will underflow the player's lives to 255 which is displayed as random characters on the status bar as it can only represent up to 9 lives. As with a similar case in Sonic the Hedgehog, lives are represented by an unsigned integer and therefore cannot represent negative numbers for lives, so 1-2 equates to 255.

YouTube video showing the bug in action

Not fixed in any version.

Skip the Worm Loop

It is sometimes possible to grab the ledge by a Worm Loop door when launching Sonic directly towards it and clip through the door, skipping the Worm Loop entirely. The angle at which Sonic needs to be launched at is incredibly precise, so it may take several tries to do it.

Not fixed in any version.

Stand on an open barrel tube

After destroying all the barrels in a tube, the player can launch through the tube as a means of reaching the boss room. They are supposed to go through the hatch and land on top of it, but if they hold while going up the tube, they will stand on the hatch before it can fully close, resulting in Sonic standing on nothing.

Fixed in the European and Japanese releases. The hatch closes sooner when Sonic reaches the top.

"How about a ride?" when there's no "ride"

There's a "ride" on show here...

... but not so much here.

Trapping Sonic on one of the flippers in the left or right playfields will trigger the text "How about a ride?", with the camera panning down to show the (ridable) barrel (hinting that this is a way to obtain one of the emeralds).

However, this behaviour also applies to the two top flippers. Trap here and the camera still pans down, but there isn't a "ride" to show.

Not fixed in any version.

Lava Powerhouse

PSG error

The theme for Lava Powerhouse contains a PSG instrument which dies off the first time the song loops.

Fixed in EU version.

Showdown

Hidden flippers

Some flippers are hidden and must be revealed by pulling their corresponding hooks before they can be used. However, if the player is a certain distance away from the flipper they can still move it by pressing the buttons. This only affects the two hidden flippers on the way up to Robotnik's Ship.

Not fixed in any version.

"Get 0 more Emeralds"

Normally, grabbing the hooks underneath the wings of Robotnik's Ship without enough Chaos Emeralds will tell the player how many more they need to get before they can enter, and once they have enough the nearby hatch will open and the player will be told to dash away. If the player immediately grabs the hook again after opening the hatch, the game will erroneously tell the player they don't have enough Emeralds, instructing them to get 0 more.

Not fixed in any version.