Sonic and the Secret Rings

[Setzertrancer]

This Review is actually a copy of my script from a video review on my new channel on Youtube, if you would like to see and hear the review instead of read it go here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTPaX5O94Ec

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Ever since the genesis, Sonic games have been notoriously bad as they have never been able to sucessfully convert the formular that made the 2D sonic games so much fun, to 3D. That is until now. Sonic and the Secret Rings is a really fun game and even more so drunk, trust me.

A Good Sonic Game???!!!

I havn't liked a Sonic game since I was playing Sonic and Knuckles + Sonic 3 on the Genesis. At last there is a game that has rekindled the speed and fun of Sonic into 3D semi linear levels. The levels have Sonic running along a predetermined path kind of a 2D path though a 3D environment. But you can tilt the Wii mote in order to move left and right along a limited area, which is nessessary to go around obsticles that speed toward you a the speed of sound. It requires quick reflexes to perfectly plot a path through these and the game isn't cruel and allows you to pass a stage quite easily with a lot of crashes and only requires that you make near perfect runs in order claim Gold Medals for each stage. With this I beleive they have found a great way to keep you playing as trying to get golds is frustrating but fun enough that I sometimes played a stage 25 times to finally get the gold medal and unlock features such as new multiplayer minigames and concept art. Just owning the gold make you feel good though it not about the rewards. The graphics look really really good but you often have to choose to either admire the visuals or hit a huge spiky ball painfully. The automatic camera works really well and shows you the action from angles that look cool but sometimes also makes it hard to see what is ahead of you,

Blue Headed Speed Demon

While most of the game is about getting through stages as quickly a posible. There are a variety of other stages in which you have to collect all the rings or pearls or kill all the enemies. The really difficult stages are where you'll die if you collect any ring or any pearls making really hard obsticles. The game consist of a total of 6 stages but this is more then it sounds as each of these stages has over 10 missions. One is normally running through the whole stage which normally takes more then 10 minutes an then there are more challenging shorter stages where you run through a modified section of the stage with more enemies or rings or whatever the victory condition involves. The Wiimote controls are very responsive and I havn't had any problems with them that I can recall. You hold the remote on it's side and tilt it to the left and right to move and press the 2 button to jump. You also push the Wiimote forward to attack enemies, this is fun because it feel like you are physically hitting the enemies with all your anger. Other buttons activate different abilities that Sonic recieves as he levels up. Yes that right RPG elements have been incorporates and Sonic earns more skill point as he levels up by passing levels. These skills points are used to equip a variety of skills sonic leans and you can change these between each level so you can use whatever will be useful in that mission. His two most vital skill are his speed break and time break. Speed break makes sonic speed forward at the speed of light and blasts away most obsticles in his way. Time break slows down time matrix style and actually allows sonic to move left and right at about the same speed allowing you to weave through otherwise imposible obsticles.

What a Soundtrack

The music on the game deserves it's own special mention, because it is awesome. Each of the 8 stages has a great rocky song with catchy lyrics that perfectly suits the fast pace of the action. My favourite being the Evil Foundry theme. For a game that has a quite an attitude in it's speed an music the storyline is quite lame and childish but you can always skip that. The game also has a lot of lastability as in order to unlock the later stages and it's mission you have to often go back to previewous stages and new missions that have opened up. Making the game take a long time to finish first time through and if you want to try and get all the Gold medals then damn that'll probably take a long time. This game is an incredible amount of fun and I would recommend it strongly.


Graphics: 9.2
Music: 9.8
SoundFX: 7
Fun: 9.2
Plot: 5
Overall: 8.8

[MrBawb]

I personally found the game terrible, the Wii Remote controls were really buggy and sometimes the character wouldnt move at all, or move too much. It takes a lot of control. The graphics were pretty good, but the gameplay was bland. It was like watching sonic run, and then tilting your remote to the side to make sure he doesn't hit anything. That, does not make a game in my book.

[Josh_R]

I personally found the game terrible, the Wii Remote controls were really buggy and sometimes the character wouldnt move at all, or move too much. It takes a lot of control. The graphics were pretty good, but the gameplay was bland. It was like watching sonic run, and then tilting your remote to the side to make sure he doesn't hit anything. That, does not make a game in my book.

I agree with every thing said here. It looked like it would be a great play, but once I started I was sadly mistaken. It was a difficult game, and it requires a mastery of Wii remote skills. Complete bullshit. The only good thing about the game was the music.

[MrBawb]

I agree with every thing said here. It looked like it would be a great play, but once I started I was sadly mistaken. It was a difficult game, and it requires a mastery of Wii remote skills. Complete bullshit. The only good thing about the game was the music.

And even then, the title song sickened me to the point that I was plotting ways to here it the least possible. XD

[loaf]

Oh my god this game is so terrible. Any Sonic game after the first 2 for Dreamcast are bad. The next one coming out is the only good one since Dreamcast. The controls are bad and the game was just to easy for me when I played it. It's like a 5 out of 10. Game wasn't fun at all.

[Josh_R]

It's like a 5 out of 10. Game wasn't fun at all.

A 5/10. You must be in a good mood today or something Loaf. I felt that this game didn't even deserve a 2. It was awful. I am glad that I gamelfyed this game instead of buying it. I would of been pissed if I shelled out that much cash, and got a game of this shitty calibur.

[Unlucky Rufus]

A 5/10. You must be in a good mood today or something Loaf. I felt that this game didn't even deserve a 2. It was awful. I am glad that I gamelfyed this game instead of buying it. I would of been pissed if I shelled out that much cash, and got a game of this shitty calibur.

Yeah, that game was a mistake. I'm pretty sure we'll still see Sonic games 10 years from now. The game industry loves to play with 8 Bit classics just because they know they'll at least make 50%-55% revenue back.