Hands-On Preview: Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball by Jersey Jack Pinball

Can you believe that despite being a video game icon for 35 years, the Sonic the Hedgehog series has never had a full size pinball machine? SEGA actually came close. In 1994, SEGA purchased Data East Pinball Inc. and established SEGA Pinball, which was subsequently sold in 1999 to become Stern Pinball. However, even with SEGA being in the pinball industry at the peak of Sonic’s popularity, they never once thought to release a Sonic pinball machine. Fast forward to 2026, the year of Sonic’s 35th anniversary, and thanks to Chicagoland-based Jersey Jack Pinball it has finally happened! Sonic has a pinball machine.

Thanks to our contacts at SEGA and Sam at Jersey Jack Pinball, I managed to pay a visit to their company headquarters in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. For those who don’t know, Chicago and its surrounding Cook County area is widely considered the historic and spiritual “home of pinball”, serving as the global capital for the design and manufacturing of arcade-quality pinball machines for nearly a century. In fact, our friend Ken Horowitz of SEGA-16.com recently wrote a book on the subject titled “From Pinballs to Pixels: An Arcade History of Williams-Bally-Midway”, and based on everything I’ve read about the history of pinball development, I was prepared to be amazed.

Arriving at Jersey Jack Pinball, I was delighted to learn that little has changed over the decades when it comes to the manufacturing process of pinball machines. Making my way through a small office area, I entered a large warehouse area filled with staff members hard at work assembling dozens of Sonic the Hedgehog pinball machines. Seeing the machine at every stage of assembly, and seeing the game’s designer Steve Ritchie on the factory floor doing the final tests of each machine, was magical. I’ve been following video game development for over a decade, and know how insular video game development has become over the years. So to see the pinball manufacturing process as such an active and physical process by comparison was very exciting.

Jersey Jack Pinball Marketing Specialist Sam showed me around the floor and answered my many questions as I watched employees install the custom built figures of Sonic and friends on the ornate and colorful playfield. What was most interesting was seeing the various elements that differentiate between the Collector’s, Special Edition and Arcade editions of the machine (see the full breakdown of each version at the end of this article). While the core gameplay remains the same, extra elements like moving figures of Sonic and Eggman that battle it out on the topper based on what is going on in the game’s video screen, different graphical elements on the side of the machine and shinier gold rings elevate the base edition of the game to higher priced tiers.

The game itself has a lot more depth than I expected from a pinball machine. For one thing, the game is not simply what you see on the playfield itself. There is a large video screen on the backglass of the machine that plays a variety of graphics and video clips that tells a story unique to the pinball machine, complete with newly animated cutscenes and original lines recorded by Roger Craig Smith and other voice actors. Also, despite the playfield only depicting Green Hill and Eggman’s evil mechanical base, the game has seven stages from the series that takes players through a Sonic video game-like stage progression system complete with rings, enemies, emeralds and even a Super Sonic mode. I remarked to Sam that the Sonic machine really is like a game within a game, presenting a video game-like experience within a pinball machine.

The game’s designer, Steve Ritchie, was nice enough to take a break from play testing the machines to tell me a bit about the game’s development and what it was like collaborating with SEGA. One of my first questions was “why has it taken so long for Sonic to have a pinball machine?” and Steve, a pinball industry vet, had a unique insight. Back in the 80s and 90s, turning video games into pinball machines just wasn’t done because they were two different types of games. There wasn’t this thought process like there is now where a popular video game is translated to another form of gaming. Sonic was developed as a video game character, so why should he also exist as a pinball machine? Pinball machines developed their own unique characters and settings, or relied on adapting movies, TV shows and musicians to pinball machines. It’s something I never really considered, but from the mindset of a pinball company in the 80s and 90s it makes a lot of sense.

A really cool element to the game that Steve also told me about was the music. Sonic music legend Jun Senoue worked on the game’s soundtrack, recording new tracks and re-recording some classics. In addition, British and American musician Slash, best known as the lead guitarist of the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, worked on the soundtrack alongside Jun! How did this happen? Simple, Slash asked Jersey Jack if he could work on their next pinball machine project and it just happened to be Sonic.

After touring the factory floor and meeting Steve, I went hands on with the machine in the company’s lobby. The Jersey Jack team and Steve did a fantastic job translating Sonic to the world of pinball. Of course, it’s not Sonic without a loop-de-loop and the machine features a metal rail loop with magnets to keep the pinball on the track during it’s loop around. The game also works in rings and badniks for players to collect and destroy to rack up points and progress. Perhaps my personal favorite mode was a Big the Cat hunt for Froggy which would occur on occasion. The visuals, both on the video monitor and within the game itself, are all modern Sonic and feels very much like a pinball take on Sonic Generations. This, in my opinion, was a smart move as it allows the game to celebrate 35 years of Sonic with a cohesive visual style.

I’m sure there are fans who wished Classic Sonic would play a part, or that the game was entirely Classic Sonic (something Steve told me they initially pitched to SEGA), but the game sticks entirely to the modern era with game locations represented from 1991 with Green Hill Zone to 2008 with Rooftop Run. Fans of Sonic’s many friends should enjoy several cast members littering the playfield and appearing throughout the game. There is the aforementioned Big the Cat mode as well as appearances from Shadow, the Chaotix, Chao, Metal Sonic and others.

From what I experienced with the game itself, Sonic the Hedgehog from Jersey Jack Pinball is the ultimate Sonic pinball experience and exceeds all my expectations of what a Sonic pinball machine could be. Perhaps we lucked out by not having a Sonic machine from SEGA Pinball in the 90s, because whatever they would have made then would pale in comparison to what Jersey Jack was able to accomplish in 2026.

I encourage Sonic and SEGA fans to seek a machine out to try for themselves, and fans who are able to afford a machine should definitely consider purchasing one for themselves. Not only is Sonic pinball a great arcade quality experience, but it has so much depth that it would offer hundreds of hours of enjoyment in a home setting.

the game comes in three styles:

Collector’s Edition

For the ultimate display piece and gameplay experience, the Collector’s Edition is built for those who want everything. Gold sparkle playfield accents, Knuckles Red laser-cut armor, a mechanical battle topper with super-wide LCD, and a numbered plaque that marks your place in Sonic history. The ultimate Sonic pinball experience.

Special Edition

An edition built for the fans of the blue blur himself. Fully loaded with premium finishes, a shaker motor that puts you inside the action, Sonic Blue armor, a dual-layer RGB acrylic battle topper, and Invisiglass™ that keeps every detail razor sharp. The full Sonic experience, with a boost.

Arcade Edition

The most classic pinball experience in the Sonic lineup. Every iconic Zone, every core gameplay mechanic, all the speed — a machine built for game rooms, arcades, and Sonic fans of every age. Gotta go fast!