Sonic and the Secret Rings

"Potentially a great game, but feels like it could’ve used some touching up"

I have to admit, after the utter failure of the ps3 and 360 Sonic the Hedgehog, I was unsure as to whether Sonic Team would ever be capable of creating another good Sonic game. Although flawed in several areas, Sonic and the Secret Rings ended that skepticism. If you can look past some problems, this game is unique, fast, and fun, although it could definitely could've been better.

Graphically, this game is ok. It's one of the nicer looking titles on the Wii, but it's nothing spectacular. This game won't amaze you with fantastic graphics, but the graphics are by no means bad. They're just pretty average.

Thankfully, unlike Sonic's other recent next gen titles, the gameplay in SatSR (as it will be referred to from here on out) is quite good. Although there's still some glitches, the majority of the more frustrating ones have been removed. The homing system has been improved in that now a target appears on the enemy you're going to attack, which solves several of the problems with the homing attack nicely. There's still some camera issues and a plenty of minor bugs, but I haven't encountered any yet that have irritated me as much as in previous games.

I'm a big fan of the control scheme with the wiimote, although I'm sure there's plenty of people who don't and won't like it, but it really allows for a level of speed that Sonic Team has shown they can't do otherwise. Backing up is annoying, but you don't need to do it to the point where it really becomes a problem. Control improves throughout the game, and the rpg element (Sonic levels up, gains skills, and gains skill points that you can use to “spend” on skills before entering a level) is nice in the sense that you can essentially customize the controls however you like them.

The difficultly of this game varies widely. Don't put this down right away because it seems slow or hard to control... Give it at least a couple hours. Going through some of the difficult levels can be surprisingly intense, and because people aren't used to controlling Sonic by tilting the wiimote, it can get pretty challenging. If Sonic Team had let Sonic start the game with the speed and sensitive controls that he gains by the end, SatSR would certainly be incredibly frustrating to play simply because the player wouldn't be able to handle it. On the other hand, you have ridiculously easy boss fights, which mostly consist of Sonic jumping on the bosses head. As if that isn't obvious enough, the ever helpful Shahra continuously points out each bosses “weak spot” for you. The idea of thinking about how to defeat a boss is non-existent in SatSR.

So, you'd think with some of the best gameplay we've seen in a 3d Sonic game, we'd have a really great game here? You'd think so. I thought so too, after playing the first couple levels. But SatSR simply ignores too many of the subtle things that separate a good game from a great one to be a top-notch game.

The plot... is pretty bad. But then again, I can't even remember a 3d Sonic game with a captivating plot, and it really doesn't make that big of a difference to me in a Sonic game anyway. I didn't mind the substitution of comic-book like images for cutscenes, and the voice acting isn't actually that bad, but the actual plot is pretty laughable. To sum up the very beginning of the game, Sonic encounters a genie named Shahra, who melodramatically explains that the Erazor (pronounced like eraser) Djinn is erasing (oh no!) the pages in “The Arabian Nights,” and that Sonic needs to come to save the day. So he does. That's about as creative as the plot get's. Maybe this is sufficient for the 8-year olds out there, but personally, if they're going to put effort into the plot, I'd at least like to see something a little more interesting. There's plenty of annoying dialogues that are repeated several times throughout the game, and Shahra makes about as irritating a companion for Sonic as Navi was for Link in Ocarina of Time.

Another issue that kind of goes along with the plot is the complete randomness of the missions. Some of them are unlocked in an order that makes sense plot-wise, (for example, a bomb is going to go off, so the next mission features Sonic's escape) but others are unlocked seemingly randomly. And yet other missions are utterly random in their entirety. Why does Sonic need to finish with 0 rings? Why does Sonic want to break 5 jars? Sure, the gameplay is good, but the lack of creativity in some of these missions takes away from what's good about it.

The music is truly a mixed bag. At first, the music seems really good, but as the game progresses the lyrics begin to sound stupid. (“We're gonna rock the place, place, place!”) Similar to the graphics, the music isn't bad, but it's certainly nothing spectacular. It's a far cry from the catchy tunes I can remember from the genesis games.

There's plenty of replay value if you want it, although the rewards really aren't that appealing. If you have no desire to go and complete the optional missions, collect fire souls, or go for gold medals, the game is short enough where you probably want to rent it. The party mode is fun, but it's not something that you necessarily want to buy this game for, especially with plenty of Mario Party games in the future. Plus, if the party mode is all you're interested in, you still have to play through the single player mode and collect fire souls to unlock the games in the party mode.

And then there's things about this game that leave you scratching your head. The most obvious example of this is that the game never actually tells you how to hold the controller. (It's supposed to be held parallel to your body, just for the record) You're probably laughing, thinking, “How the heck could they leave something like that out?” But they did, some way or another. (The good news is, now you know, so you won't spend the first hour of playing wondering why Sonic doesn't move right when you tilt the controller right)

Sonic and the Secret Rings is a solid game that could've been better if touched up some. I tend to side with the argument that maybe Sonic Team was a little too busy with their 360 and ps3 endeavor and didn't take enough care with this game. Perhaps they just wanted to throw out a gimmicky wii title to make some money off of a historically great franchise. Regardless of their motive, this game actually turned out decently enough to overcome most of its flaws, and provides a stepping stone for future Sonic games.

Overall: 7/10

On a final note, this is probably one of those games that you want to rent before you buy it, for two reasons. First, some people just won't like the control scheme, and, compounded by a bad plot, there's absolutely no reason to play the game if you don't have fun playing it. Secondly, other people just play a game to beat it, and after that, they have no desire to play it anymore. If all you want to do is “finish” the story and be done with it, the game will probably run at or under about 10-12 hours, which is far too short to be worth buying the game for.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/07