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    Sonic and the Secret Rings

    Game » consists of 4 releases. Released Feb 20, 2007

    The first in Sega's "Sonic Storybook" duology of Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off titles, this game follows the titular hedgehog's race against time in the tales of Arabian Nights as he collects the seven World Rings before a genie's curse ends his life. Known as the series's first take on the use of motion controls.

    jnerd's Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii) review

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    • jnerd wrote this review on .
    • 1 out of 1 Giant Bomb users found it helpful.

    The best 3-D Sonic game, unfortunatley that isn't sayin much.

    Sonic and the Secret Rings is the best 3-D Sonic game ever, which is not saying much for Sonic or the franchise. Sega tried to embrace the Wii’s new technology and the applications where very intuitive, but overall they felt loose and a little rushed. Because of how scattered the cinematics are throughout Secret Rings I couldn’t follow the story, which is probably a good thing because it would have dragged the game down even faster.

    Gameplay:
    Sonic’s control scheme is very simple, and as previously stated, is executed very well. The use of the motion sensing technology throughout the game is not awkward or over-used like in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, in fact it plays just like Excite Truck. The downfall of this is that the controls where sloppily done and feel rushed. You hold the Wii Remote horizontally then tilt it to the left or right to move Sonic, just like driving in Excite Truck. The major malfunction with the Sonic control scheme is its inability to do precise movements. When you are trying to collect rings, and you need to be accurate, turning is very difficult because it twitches too the far left/right. To move in reverse you tilt the Wii Remote back (( towards yourself)) which is fine, but when you tilt it too far forward it also makes you go backwards which is an inconvenient glitch, something that should have been caught before mass-production. Besides those two flaws the controls are rather smooth, and truly work well with the game mechanics. The whole game consists of running through a course without hitting anything…and occasionally you need to jump or attack an enemy or two. There is a party-mode that supports up to four players, but it is very shallow and forgettable. The entire party-mode is a cheap rip-off of Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. You play a bunch of random mini-games that are overly simple with poor controls. Each time you win you get to open one out of ‘X’ number of chests, after they are all open it’s over, to spice it up even more each chest has either ‘X’ amount of gold or a ghost which makes it soooo much more exciting! Other than that there is not much more to the game, it’s a 3-D Sonic game you shouldn’t have read this expecting too much...

    Environment and Graphics:

    The fun factor in Sonic is definitely there, it just is not a lasting effect. After beating The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Sonic is the game a lot of people needed to waste time until Super Paper Mario or Super Mario Galaxy comes out. One major game-play downfall is the speed, you can get to a relatively high-speed but even at top-speed it feels slow for a Sonic game. Another negative is the acceleration time, whenever Sonic runs into something he has to starts off really slow and builds momentum, which takes much longer then it should. Once again, if you can overlook these few flaws then you will have an enjoyable time, although even with a positive attitude towards the game or the Sonic series in-general it does start getting repetitive around the third or fourth world...which is about half-way through the game. Speaking of 3-D, the graphics are great, besides some awkward looping animations and a few random camera or frame-rate problems it runs smoothly. The cut-scenes surpass those of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as do the in-game graphics. The animations are fluid and the environments are lush and detailed, it all comes together very well. I would say Sonic has the best Wii graphics to date.

    Sound:

    The audio is crisp but nothing revolutionary, the same coin sound-effects you have been listening to since the Sega Genesis. There is a new theme-song, which plays way too much, is an edgy punk re-mix of some horrid band. It is ridiculous how many times they loop that throughout the game…can you say “Over used”? The style of the song just doesn’t work with a Sonic game. Nice try though Sega.

    Conclusion:
    I would say overall Sonic and the Secret Rings is a rent at best. I would consider purchasing it if the price dropped, but for what you get with it is not worth MSRP. Good luck next time Sega.

    Other reviews for Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)

      Sonic and the Secret Rings 0

      Sonic and the Secret Rings was, to many, Sonic's last chance to redeem himself after the debacles that were "Shadow the Hedgehog" and "Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)". This game certainly succeeds in that respect, and is easily the best 3D Sonic game since the days of the Dreamcast.We'll start with what feels immediately different from previous entries in the series. First of all, you no longer completely control your forward and backwards movement. You move forward automatically, and can adjust your...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

      A bad game with limited controls 0

      Sonic and the Secret Rings has generally been seen as one of the better Sonic console titles since the series began to struggle following the Genesis era. People actually like this game. How is that possible? This is a bad game further crippled by shit controls. The game is broken up into 7 worlds, each containing 10 or so missions. Each world is introduced with a headliner action stage. These main stages demonstrate a new take on the modernized Sonic gameplay dilemma, as Sonic is constantly mov...

      0 out of 0 found this review helpful.

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