Sonic and the Secret Rings Review

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Publisher: Sega Developer: Sonic Team / Now Production Platform: Wii Players: 1 (Adventure), 1-4 (Minigames) Release: 2007 Genre: 3D Platformer / Action Rating: 7.3 \ 10.0: Good

Above is a scene from of the missions in Dinosaur Jungle

When the Wii was released, Sega was probably thinking, "Let's make a game that fully takes advantage of the Wii!". That sounds like a good idea, but they took it too far. It all begins when Sonic reads the Arabian Nights and falls asleep, and is awaken by the genie Shara. Shara tells him that the Arabian Nights face destruction by the evil genie, Erazor Djinn. Sonic is transported to the world of the Arabian Nights by Shara, where they confront Erazor. He wants to recover the legendary World Rings, which Shara claims don't exist. Erazor shoots a flaming curse at Shara, which Sonic jumps in front of to take for her. Erazor will only remove the curse, which will eventually kill Sonic, if he recovers the World Rings for him. Good enough story-- except for the fact that Sonic clearly doesn't have to hurry to remove the curse if he has enough time to complete a full journey, and there are even times when Erazor is for somereason trying to stop you from gathering the rings. As for the gameplay... to move, you have to tilt the Wii Remote, you dash forward by shaking the controller, and you can perform  the homing attack by shaking the Wiimote. Homing in on a chain of enemies and plowing through them all admittedly feels thrilling, I will say. The control scheme is primarily centered around motion, with the only exception being that you press 2 to jump. However, the controls can be loose and unresponsive at times, leading to lots of frustration-- the excessive implementation of motion was not a very good idea. That's not to say The Secret Rings is bad overall. The game is divided by worlds, each representing a different story in the Nights. Each world has a variety of missions to engage in such as completing a stage without dying, collecting a certain amount of rings, and more. The game takes an amusing twist when you encounter characters from the Arabian Nights resembling Sonic characters such as Sonic's best friend Tails, Knuckles the echidna, and Sonic's longtime nemesis Doctor Eggman. You can earn different skills which you can arrange in sets you can use when you play, adding a small bit of depth. One thing about this game that will stick in your head permanently is the4 soundtrack-- but not for the right reasons. While the music is good, the game's main theme is overplayed, and the lyrics can be extremely repetitive (geez, I wonder how much time it took to write the line "Who's gonna rock the place? Place? Place?") Aside from the main game, there's a Mario Party-style Party mode in which you can play motion control-based minigames with up to four players. Sonic and the Secret Rings is a good game, but the idea of a completely motion-based game just isn't a really bright one. It's not bad, just flawed.

Ups
Creative setting
Amusing characters
Four player party mode, I guess?
Catchy music

Downs
Heavy focus on motion controls that just doesn't work
Soundtrack has repetitive lyrics

ESRB: E Content: Cartoon Violence Price: $19.99 (Retail)