Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Sound: 9/10
Controls: 8.5/10
Replay: 7/10

Available only at Target stores nationwide, Sonic Pinball Party marks the second time that the blue guy has rolled his way onto the pinball scene. The first time that Sonic was in a pinball game was way back on the Sega Genesis in Sonic Spinball. This game was okay, but it was very flawed. This second attempt at the pinball scene is actually a very successful one. However, it's far from the perfect pinball video game.

Sonic Pinball Party starts you off with two different boards, Sonic and NiGHTS. There is one more board from Samba de Amigo, but you have to unlock that by going through the Story mode. All the boards are pretty fun, but the difficulty curve for all of them is really out of whack. In the Sonic pinball board, there are times when it can go from really easy to frustratingly difficult, especially when you have to play through the Sonic board in the Story mode. This Story mode is really nice in the beginning, but once you feel like you've almost finished it, out comes something to make it a real pain in the ass. The NiGHTS and Samba de Amigo boards are also pretty fun, but if you haven't played those games before on the Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast, odds are you'll be lost with the sayings that are used on the boards.

Fortunately, if you haven't played NiGHTS for the Sega Saturn or Samba de Amigo for the Sega Dreamcast, you can always go into the tutorial mode and Omochao, the robotic Chao who helps you in every new Sonic game, is there to guide you. He'll teach you about the controls, rules, songs, and more as you select what you want to learn about the boards.

There are also plenty of other modes included in Sonic Pinball Party. One of which is the party mode, where up to four players can join in on the pinball fun with three mini-games, including Hot Potato, Hockey, and Ladder Climb. Hot Potato and Hockey are versus pinball games that you can play with against your friends, which are actually sorta fun, and Ladder Climb is a co-op game that involves you and a friend trying to get your pinball higher and higher as you two cooperate to get the ball to the highest point. This is fun the first time around, but after that, it's just plain boring. Also, if you're friends don't own the game, there's no problem in that because you can link up without the need of multiple cartridges.

Another mode included in Sonic Pinball Party is the Tiny Chao Garden, where you can raise your very own Chao and even connect with the Nintendo GameCube to send your Chao to Sonic Adventure DX or Sonic Pinball Party, just like in Sonic Advances 1 and 2.

But, perhaps, the most addicting, and frustrating mode in Sonic Pinball Party is the Casinopolis mode. In this mode, you can play Casino-like games, like Roulette, Slot, and Bingo, but the catch here is that you play it pinball style. Most of the time you won't even know what the hell you're doing and you wind up losing more rings than you came in with. More Casinopolis games can be unlocked through Story mode, but none of the Casinopolis games make you want to come back again to play them.

Aside from those complaints, Sonic Pinball Party has very colorful graphics which look great on a GBA, and prove to you that the little handheld does more than producing old 16-bit remakes. And the sounds will leave hardcore Sonic fans in awe as they relive these remixed songs from old Sonic games from the Sega Genesis, and newcomers will enjoy the music, too, and even find quite a few pretty catchy.

This game is a great pinball game that sits next to Nintendo's Pokémon Pinball and Sega's own Pinball of the Dead. But if you can't find this game at your Target store, then it's probably best to find it on eBay if you just have to have another pinball game or another Sonic game. If you don't, then you'd probably be better off with the two pinball games I just mentioned. If you do find the game at Target, however, don't be shy to pick it up as you will have fun with this game.