Sonic the Hedgehog pinball table revealed on franchise's 35th anniversary

1 hour ago 1

Published Jun 23, 2026, 1:49 PM EDT

'It's the fastest game I've ever made,' says veteran designer Steve Ritchie

Even after 35 years of Sonic the Hedgehog games, movies, and TV shows, Sega's blue blur is still capable of doing new things. On Tuesday, Sega and pinball maker Jersey Jack Pinball revealed Sonic's next game, an all-new Sonic the Hedgehog pinball table launching on June 23. While Sonic has dabbled in "Spinball" in the past, and pinball-inspired levels are a common feature in the hedgehog's side-scrolling games, Sonic the Hedgehog is the mascot's first legit pinball machine.

To bring Sonic to life, Sega and Jersey Jack Pinball tapped veteran designer Steve Ritchie, known to pinball enthusiasts as the "King of Flow," for their new table. Ritchie calls Sonic the Hedgehog "the fastest game I've ever made," thanks to magnetized ramps that accelerate the ball at Sonic speeds.

While Ritchie says he isn't Sonic the Hedgehog's No. 1 fan, he did play the early Sega Genesis games with his son in the '90s and contends Sonic "might just be the perfect pinball theme." Ritchie, now 76 years old, says he's watched the movies and "after we got rolling, I realized, 'Wow, this is an opportunity to make a very fast game.'"

"I like making fast, smooth-shooting games," Ritchie told Polygon in an interview. "And Sonic, it introduces chaos big time. Not in terms of Chaos Emeralds, but just the ball flying around and just a lot of free-roaming [play] rather than being so controlled." He added, "The energy is spectacular."

The Sonic the Hedgehog pinball table does feature Chaos Emeralds, of course, and virtually every Sonic character that a casual fan could think of: Sonic, Tails, Dr. Eggman, Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy Rose. And, yes, Big the Cat and Froggy are here too. Ritchie said that the pinball machine's levels are based on classic Sonic the Hedgehog themes, and the game itself is heavily inspired by the plungers and boosters that feature in classic Sonic games. But the presentation is modern; the game doesn't use 16-bit-style graphics.

Sonic the Hedgehog features more than 6,000 spoken lines from voice actors who have worked on Sonic games. Ritchie said the design team utilized Sonic's wiseguy attitude to keep players engaged with newly recorded dialogue. The machine itself is full of impressive design touches, like a golden ring plunger for launching the ball, and Sonic the Hedgehog and Eggman figures that smash into each other above the table's backglass. The game uses a large array of colored LED lights to make the playfield look dazzling and to convey current gameplay goals.

Most importantly, "It's got good flow," Ritchie said. "Probably the best I've ever done between an upper and a lower playfield." Ritchie's previous design work on games like No Fear, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Black Knight 2000, and 2019's Star Wars is known for its spacious lower playfields, with upper playfields that are dense with ramps and targets. Sonic the Hedgehog is similarly designed, with plenty of upper-field objectives, including a floating Dr. Eggman, that align with his flow-based design principles.

But, he says, "Sonic is a very chaotic pinball machine" and "it's all fast all the time or damn near it," so fans of Ritchie's work should expect the unexpected.

Sonic the Hedgehog is available for pre-order now in three models: Collector’s Edition, Special Edition, and Arcade Edition. The tech specs and pricing for each version follow.