Sonic and the Secret Rings Review

Did you hear the news? Sonic the Hedgehog for the 360 and PS3 is a terrible game. Hey, I can’t make this stuff up. But instead of porting and dumbing-down an already bad game to Wii, Sega opted to create something new for Nintendo. Sonic and the Secret Rings foregoes the adventure aspect of late (finally!) by putting Sonic back in linear levels that are focused on going fast and avoiding spikes. You know… like the old Genesis games. Isn’t it about time?

Sonic and the Secret Rings does a great job of bringing back that classic Sonic charm. These levels move incredibly fast and are filled with pop-up monsters and traps that are just as intense and exhilarating to avoid as they are annoying to hit. You certainly have to think fast to make it through in one piece, because you only have a few seconds to hit a switch or grab a special item before you’ve already sped right by it. That sounds almost like a complaint, but it’s not. When Sonic gets moving, this game is cool. Though moving Sonic side-to-side by tilting the Wii remote may seem marginal, there’s still enough control to make you feel like you’re just barely hanging on for dear life. I love it.

But Sonic doesn’t always go, go, go. The Secret Rings continually wants to slow the action down instead of letting it run wild. There are too many instances where you have to stop and creep past falling spike balls, which is boring and doesn’t fit in at all. But these moments aren’t nearly as bad as when you get stuck on an object and have to manually back up. Because Sonic runs forward by default, backing up is made needlessly frustrating. If you tilt the remote too far back, he’ll start running forward again, usually right into the monster or spike trap you were trying to get away from. And when you do back up, you can’t even see where you’re going. That said, this game has serious ups and downs. One minute, you’ll be cruising through a level with a big smile on your face only to wish, seconds later, you’d never seen this game.

It’s a shame, too, because narrowly dodging death at high speeds and smashing into chains of enemies across a chasm is very satisfying. When Sonic jumps, you can shake the remote forward to send him dashing forward. If an enemy, switch, or item is nearby, he’ll home in and smash it. So if it’s a cluster of enemies, you can keep smashing them without ever touching the ground. It’s a fun system that feels great with the Wii remote. Other mechanics, however, aren’t so pleasant. It’s better to avoid grinding rails, because they’re too hard to bail from in time. And flying pots require so much remote shaking to move, it’ll give you a headache. Even worse, the camera angle often changes to be more “dynamic,” but the controls don’t change with it. Confusing and frustrating, to be sure.

In Sonic and the Secret Rings, there are really only eight levels, but these are split up into multiple missions. The first mission is a once-through the entire level, which is a pretty long ordeal that can take up to ten minutes. Then on, you can select various missions that tackle different sections of that level. For instance, you might have to collect 99 rings or finish with no rings, defeat 40 enemies or not defeat any enemies. While there is no overworld (just your old-fashioned level select menu), there is a story that tries to tie all this together. Sonic has been transformed into the book, Arabian Nights, and must collect seven special rings to restore order to the novel and free himself from a cursed, flaming arrow stuck in his chest. Were you expecting more? It’s a simple premises, but it does affect which levels are available. Only certain ones are required to advance the story.

You’ll want to play the extra levels, though, to gain experience points. Sonic actually “levels up” in this game, increasing the rings he can hold and the amount of points he can assign for special skills. When you first start out, Sonic is slow and hard to control. But as you level up, you’ll be able to assign him skills like better acceleration, a longer homing range, quicker recovery time, and even a five-ring bonus at the start of a level. It’s a bit annoying to have to wait so long before Sonic starts to get good stats, but it also lets you personalize your gameplay and gives you something more to work towards.

Sonic and the Secret Rings isn’t a long game, though. Don’t expect to spend any more than 5-6 hours getting to the final battle. But that doesn’t take into account all the optional levels, which are often more fun than the required levels. Every level can be replayed for a gold medal, too, and several levels contain hidden tokens which will open up mini-games and new characters for the multiplayer mode. This 4-player mode, unfortunately, is the worst mini-game compilation on Wii yet. So many of the games feel broken or consist of mindless remote waving. It’s not even worth checking out once.

On the other hand, this is a great-looking game. The levels move so fast, it’s hard to notice a lot of the background detail, but it’s definitely there. Load times are short, and the framerate never falters, which is always a plus. But what we might not be able to agree on is the quality of the music. For every person who likes this soundtrack, there are two or three who hate it. Sonic has usually been about cheesy, angst rock, though, and many of these songs are surprisingly catchy. If you can tune out the lyrics–seriously, “Dino! It’s a jungle!” does not make for good lyrics–you just might enjoy it.

Final Comments

This game is a difficult one to review on reflection. There were times when I absolutely loved it and times when I wanted to drive that Wii remote through the TV screen. The real problem here is that Sonic and the Secret Rings tries to do more than it needs to. The game is at its best when all you do is run fast, dodge spikes, and smash into bad guys. And that’s all Sonic should do. But the game keeps slowing you down, sometimes to the point where you’re stuck on a monster’s crotch and can’t back up, which happens way more than it should. This is a great, new direction for 3D Sonic games, but if Sega really wants to revitalize the blue hedgehog, they’ve seriously got to let some of these design elements go. Just let them go, Sega…