After nearly a decade of true three-dimensional gameplay that has been marred by mildly impressive platformers, someone at Sega finally decided to create a game that actually mimics the fun of the original. All they really needed to do was can the pointless story lines and add some real user-controlled speed! Okay, the story may be a bit bland, but what can you expect from a game that has been around since 1991?

Some people argue, myself included, that the first Sonic game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (or alternatively on the Sega Game Gear) is still the best game in the series. True, the immediate sequel, Sonic 2, did add characters and the spin-dash but it didn’t really add that much to the gameplay. This might be because Sonic was always about 1 thing: going so fast that you made the sign at the end of the level spin around a hundred times. It was cool back then, and it’s still really cool today. Don’t believe me? Go download it on the Wii Virtual Console, it’s awesome.

Sonic and the Secret Rings is a return to the original’s ideas. Where other three-dimensional Sonics had to hop around on small platforms, never really speeding up but for the occasional cinematic, non-player-controlled loop-run, this 3D Sonic is all about trying to go for the longest stretch at the quickest speed without being slowed down. It’s just like the original!

The story starts out with Sonic sleeping on his couch, with a book that he had been reading. He is jarred awake by a voice asking him to wake up. Upon waking, he finds a large ring on his coffee table, and when he touches it a genie comes out. See? I told you the pointless story lines were gone! Long story short: Genie explains that the world is being erased by a guy named Erazor (har har), and once all pages are erased he will be set free into Sonic’s world, where he will continue his destructive ways. Sonic is the hedgehog of legend and must stop him by jumping into the book’s worlds. There are other little twists in the story, but why ruin it for you?

So, how will you go about defeating this menace? You’ve got a lot of moves in your arsenal. Unfortunately, not everything is smooth like it should be.

Tilt, Twist, Button Press

The controls start off simple. You hold the Wiimote sideways, just like you would to play an NES game. Sonic is constantly moving forward, like in an on-rails game. You can stop him by holding the 1 button, like braking. You can also make him walk backwards by twisting the Wiimote towards you. The 2 button is used as your jump button. Of course, the main control is the turning, and you do this by tilting the Wiimote.

The controls simply aren’t as responsive as they should be. In a game where you are going at ridiculous speeds, the ability to pull off a quick tilt to get out of the way of oncoming obstacles is very important. The jumping in particular has either a quick jump (by quickly tapping), or a charged jump (by holding, then releasing the button). The charge jump doesn’t always respond to your button press, and this can leave you helplessly running into a pit.

There is an upgrade system that lets you upgrade everything from your speed (you start off really slow), to your turning ability, and even special moves. Unfortunately, it feels like the developers start you off with a character that underperforms, as opposed to starting good and ending great. The result is that in the beginning stages of the game, you are not able to smoothly perform the actions needed. Couple this with the learning process of the controls, and it makes for an unnecessarily clunky experience.

The worst offender in this regard is the backwards walking that needs to be done frequently in the game. A combination of slowing the pace of the game, and glitchy application make it one of the lone dark spots.

I hate cacti…cactuses…cactisusis?

The gameplay itself is 70% smooth. Through 70% of the game you will find yourself running through forest at blazing speeds, and jumping up and performing homing attacks on multiple enemies with relative ease. Then the camera will shift back and forth for dramatic purposes, and the control of your character gets needlessly difficult as you wrestle with the camera’s movement to stay steady and judge where you are.

The camera is much better than in previous Sonic games, but it’s nothing spectacular. Learning where everything is in the game and replaying the levels constantly, is the way this game progresses. It feels old-school, but not on purpose.

It seems that at the end of most levels, when you should be running at full speed to the goal, something will block your path. You’ll slowly sidle your way on some small ledges, or have to defeat one last enemy who doesn’t show up until you are already past them. No spinning signs at the end for you!

Level design is, again, much better than previous 3D Sonics, but it seems that just when everything is going great, and you feel the game is amazing, they throw wind at you to slow you down, or there’s a cactus in the middle of a bend. Seventy percent of the game is an absolute blast, but the rest can be really frustrating, as you struggle to understand why your little hedgehog is traveling so slowly.

The Wii has guts

This game looks great. There are lots of things going on at once in some levels, and the reflections, water effects and particles are all beautifully rendered. This is easily the best looking Wii game to date. The final level is particularly cool, and is actually the best level to play through. It really shows what the Wii is capable of, and is a shot at all the horrible PS2 ports that keep making their way onto the Wii.

The cut-scenes are all done in comic book form to help further involve you in the idea that you are playing in a book.

The voice acting is, again, pretty bad. It really doesn’t seem to matter for Sonic games, and that’s okay. Focusing on the gameplay is much more important. The rock ballads are your standard fare. They have “inspiring” lyrics that are all game-specific. Other sounds are typical Sonic fare, and that’s just super.


70% fast, 30% wtf

In the end, this game is finally returning Sonic to its roots. It has been way too long, and I’m glad to say that any sequels for the Wii will no doubt be the glimmering examples of gameplay for Sonic games. It would probably be better if the controls were simplified, and they did away with the upgrade system, or at least made your starting character a bit more capable. Walking backwards is okay, but when it seems to be implemented as a NEED rather than just to be able to track back and get a couple of bonus items, AND lacks the proper camera to see where you are going, you can’t help but feel that it was some sort of compromised addition.

Beating the game doesn’t take too long, but finishing all the levels with gold ratings doubles the time necessary to complete the game. There is plenty of gameplay. There are bonus development items to unlock as you get better ratings on levels, such as concept art and videos. There are also multiplayer mini-games, but most of them are pretty poorly done. It would have been better to see time devoted to fully finishing the single player experience, as opposed to making cheap multiplayer games.