Review: Sonic & the Secret Rings

Sonic the Hedgehog games have been on a spiral downwards ever since they first hit a 3D platform. We saw the worst yet on the Xbox 360 and Playstation3 awhile back however it wasn't the last Sonic Team would have up their sleeve. Their next attempt would be on the Nintendo Wii under the name of Sonic and the Secret Rings. However it wouldn't be much of an improvement considering that the controls are highly flawed and the game itself gets very repetitive in no time at all.

Let's look at the game in parts however, starting with one of the up points of the game, the storyline. Sonic Team actually came up with a bit of a unique idea this time around. Sonic finds himself inside the pages of a book thanks to the help of a genie of a ring he finds named, Shahra. The world in side the book in in danger of being destroyed because of an evil genie by the name of the Erazor Djin. It seems that the coming of Sonic to that world has been predicted and that it will be up to him to save the stories of the world from being completely destroyed. Sonic won't be the only familiar face within the game either as some lookalike characters who Sonic will often mistake for his friends will also make appearances. The storyline elements are depicted in a bit of a unique way, by unique I don't exactly mean that it's a brilliant style but it's different from what you're used to seeing. This unique style I'm referring to is that most cinematic scenes in the game are depicted through a comic book style instead of the usual animated format. This is an attempt to stick to the storybook theme of the game and it is an interesting idea that gives the game a little more character that sets it apart from the previous Sonic games of it's kind.

Moving right along to the game play now and once again it isn't bad. That is when the controls are actually cooperating but I won't get into that just yet. The game play throughout most of the game is that Sonic is on a set track and that you'll be moving him right and left in order to avoid obstacles. Throughout the game there are eight different worlds which each have a series of missions to complete. The first mission you will have unlocked for each world will of course be to just generally make it through the level in one piece. After clearing that general mission you will be able to unlock more difficult missions which a few examples of would be, finishing the level in a certain amount of time, collection a certain amount of rings, or collecting no rings at all. Of course rings return as the general form of health in the game like in previous games before it, as long as you have one ring in your possession you'll be able to take damage and not die. Of course playing through so many missions on a single level is going to get quite repetitive and fast. There are two new abilities added to the arsenal of Sonic for this game, they're known as speed break and time break. These abilities can be used to do pretty much what their names imply, speed Sonic up for a short period of time or slow time down allowing Sonic to painlessly avoid difficult obstacles. In order to use these abilities you will be required to collect magic orbs which are scattered throughout the levels much like rings.

Leveling up abilities, now this is one thing I would have never wanted to see in a Sonic game and it's on thing I never want to see them include again. This only adds to the painful amount of replay value of the game. When you start the game you won't even have Sonic's full speed until you manage to level his stats up. You can do this simply by completing missions or add more by killing additional enemies throughout each level. This only adds to the annoying repetitive nature of the game which I mentioned above as it's impossible to max your stats by just clearing each level a single time forcing you to have to play through the levels multiple times to even come close to maxing.

Close to each world had a mission where you would be fighting against a boss. Some boss fights were a bit more repetitive then others as for most of them you would be chasing them along a path just waiting to get in a hit every now and then. After most boss fights you will collect what is known as a World Ring which will be your main objective to collect in order for you to advance through the game.

Now for something that I've been putting off talking about for this game through the entire review so far, the controls. I have to admit at first the controls don't seem horrible but once you start getting into harder levels you will begin to notice just how unresponsive the controls can be. The main control scheme of the game will be tilting the remote left and right in order to move Sonic from the right and left of the screen. As I mentioned before Sonic will be running on a preset path so you'll have very little control where exactly he's going except for moving right and left. Of course you can still jump by pressing the 2 button on the remote. Keep in mind that when playing this you'll be playing with only the remote and you'll be holding it on it's side using it almost like a steering wheel. Attacking is another slightly unresponsive element. You'll attack by flicking the controller forward while in mid-air. This it the term the game itself uses, flicking, but a more fitting word that I myself would use would just be any sudden movement of the controller since it all works the same. However the problem comes in when the movement doesn't register. That also works in the reverse as sometimes it may just activate whenever you make any sudden movement even if you didn't intend it to happen. Getting Sonic to walk backwards is another problem. You are meant to be able to tilt the remote back and simply go back but it's never that simple is it? Of course not, half the time he will start to back up and then start going forward again if you tilt it back too far. There are a few other sets of controls that are awkward and often unresponsive but I'm not even going to go into them as I believe that I got my point forward already.

The graphics really aren't all too impressive and are really just identical to those we've grown used to from Sonic games from the previous generation. The music all happens to be lyrical music which is another thing which has become common throughout Sonic games over the last few year. Some of the music is really great and addictive but some is just alright and can actually take away from the level although for the most part the music is a plus.

It doesn't end there though, Sonic Team also decided to try their hand at a multi player mode. Now I bet you're thinking, alright some one on one racing with my buddies, sorry but no. Instead they've gone Mario Party on use and added a party mode to the game. That's right they called it party mode seems like they didn't even try to hide the fact that they obviously copied the idea from Nintendo's hit series, Mario Party. There's absolutely nothing special here and unless you have someone to play along with then this mode isn't even worth wasting your time on. There are multiple modes each with different methods of playing but it would all come down to playing a short mini game in each. Of course there was a section that allowed you to play just each mini game separately but most of the mini games weren't a whole lot of fun and just made better utilization of the remotes capabilities.

Overall Sega tried to put an end to their long line of mediocre Sonic games and I am sorry to say they didn't quite do it. The game was an improvement from Sonic the Hedgehog on the Xbox 360 and Playstation3 however it still didn't match up to what we all remember Sonic being capable of. For hardcore Sonic fans then I would still say that it is worth a play but for those who are easily annoyed by sloppy controls then I would have to say it would be best for you to simply steer clear of this title and move on to one of the other many great games on the Wii.