Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, who must stop Doctor Robotnik from enslaving the population in a giant pinball-like mechanism.

After a hasty nine-month[4] development, Sonic Spinball was released for the Sega Genesis in November 1993 and for the Game Gear and Master System in 1994.

Some Chaos Emeralds are blocked off by obstacles that require Sonic to hit certain switches or bumpers in order to create a clear path.

A "status strip" at the top of the screen provides hints for defeating bosses, as well as encouraging messages when the player makes progress.

At any point in the bonus round, the player may trigger a tilt shake that rattles the table and affects the ball's trajectory.

[16] The evil scientist Doctor Robotnik has built a fortress on top of a volcano to transform the animals of planet Mobius into robot slaves.

When Sega of America's management realized that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 would not be ready until next year, they commissioned another game that could be completed in time for the 1993 holiday season.

[21] To speed up production, Sega sent veteran staff from Japan to assist, including regular Sonic the Hedgehog artist Katsuhiko Sato.

As a result, Sega Technical Institute staff changed the programming language from assembly to C, an unusual choice for Genesis games at the time.

[21] Immediately before the game was due to ship, the team was informed that Sega did not own the rights to the Sonic the Hedgehog theme tune.

After returning to the United States from Europe, Morawiec was surprised to find that the game had sold well, and was pleased that it benefited from the franchise's popularity.

[24] The Genesis version of the game has been rereleased on the Sonic Mega Collection compilation for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows,[27] Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3,[28] and multiple iterations of the Sega Smash Pack series of compilations,[29] including a port to Game Boy Advance.

Laurie Yates of Electronic Games gave it a highly positive review, with scores of 90% for graphics and sound, and 95% for playability and replayability.

[42] Scary Larry of GamePro gave it a positive review, calling it "a fun, fast, and frenetic" pinball game.

Al Manuel of the same publication opined that the graphics were not as "sharp" as other Sonic the Hedgehog titles, and also thought the sound was unimpressive.

[38] Bob Strauss of Entertainment Weekly felt that the game initially boasted a terrific concept, but had an ultimately flawed execution, saying that Sonic, acting as a pinball, often moved like a "leaden marble".

[43] Rich Leadbetter from Mean Machines also expressed concern over the game's lack of replay value, saying that despite its addictive gameplay, the four levels were not enough, especially given the price.

[50] Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead criticized the game's sluggish frame rate and slowdown that occurred when "things threaten to get hectic" in-game, noting that it suffered from "the old Mega Drive problem".

[52] Although the rollercoaster was not originally designed with a Sonic the Hedgehog theme, the ride became part of a sponsorship deal between Sega and Alton Towers.