Sonic and the Secret Rings Review - Wii

You have to give respect where respect is due. Sonic and the Secret Rings breaks from the “Sonic Adventures” mold that’s been haunting the series ever since the Dreamcast. Sega revitalizes one of their biggest franchises by recapturing the sense of speed player first experience in the original title. Such a drastic change in format demonstrates a renewed interest in the blue hedgehog and hope for the continuation of this once beloved franchise. Does that mean that the game is any good? Of course not, but it will give you enough hope to chew on until they come out with the next one.

Speed Reading for Furries

1,001 Arabian Nights holds within its pages over a thousand tales passed down through centuries and collected within a single tomb.  The worlds of Aladdin and Alli Baba lie in ruins at the hands of an evil genie, Erazor. As prophesied in the book, a blue hedgehog will save their stories from destructions. Sonic sets out across the seven remaining Arabian worlds to recover the rings that will put an end to the Erazor’s reign.

Your spiky blue butt dashes through some of the most impressive stages to hit the Wii since launch. The design and detail of these winding stages take you from the back of a flying carpet to rocking deck of a pirate ship. Sonic and the Secret Rings develops some of the first next-gen graphics on what many have hailed as a last-gen system. Don’t get too used to the glamour just yet. Sonic only feeds you one full level for each of the seven stages. More often, you’ll be chewing down on leftovers for the rest of the game.

These leftover stages usual come from a smaller section of the larger stage or several sections looped about in a mobius of misery. Objectives change more often than the stages themselves as you’re required to pass the same area without collecting ring, beating a number of enemies, or just passing a stage before the timer runs out. The difficulty spikes randomly across different obstacles. At times, the challenges break down into memorization with a lot of trial-and-error just to make it to the end. After you finish one daunting stage, you’ll often hesitate going to the next stage knowing it looks exactly like the last one.

Where do you think you’re going?

As it should be, Sonic’s natural state is running forward. Tilting the Wii-mote left and right will get you through most obstacles in your way. Jumping comes from releasing the number two button instead of the press making every jump one you must anticipate rather than react. The dash attack comes from locking on to a target, jumping, and then pushing forward on the remote. You’ll quickly dispatch large groups of enemies with consecutive flings of the mote. The lock-on, however, is not an exact science and often takes a couple of precious seconds for it to work.

Miss a needed target and you’ll find yourself having to stop and awkwardly work your way backwards towards the target. For simplest of stages, the controls work. Anything more complex will have you working on the same level and drowning in the same awful synth-pop for quite some time. To its credit, Sonic and the Secret Rings is rather forgiving when it comes to completing certain levels. Players won’t have to suffer through all the levels but some are just unavoidable.

Chapters Better Left Unread

For all the complaints you may have about the single player game, the “party-style” multiplayer feature looks as though designers slapped it on at the last minute. Gone are all the pretty environments and the limited controls of the single player campaign. Up to four players can wonder where they went wrong with their lives. The games themselves are painfully simple, relying on a flick of the remote and little imagination. Canoe races, wood chopping, and balloon popping make up some of the repetitive games you’ll find lurking inside.

To Be Continued…

Sonic and the Secret Rings brings back the nerve-twitch speed that made the first Sonic game so popular. Loose controls and repeating levels marred what could have been a break out hit for a series that desperately needed one. With more time, a couple of extra levels, and a multiplayer mode that doesn’t make you want to go play outside; the next installment of Sonic for the Wii might just be the one to add to your collection. If there’s anything to learn from here it’s that potential doesn’t make for a fun game.

Article by: Rob Manuel
Video produced by: Rob Manuel