Temple Guardian

Sonic and the Secret Rings
Released: February 20th, 2007
Developer: Sega Team
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Adventure

How far has Sonic really fallen?


Sonic and the Secret Rings was the first Sonic game I've played since Sonic 3D.  I didn't have any expectations for it, so I can't compare it to Sonic Adventure or anything, sorry.


Story-wise, this game fails, hard.  Sonic...finds some book or something...and a magic ring...with a Navi like character in it...then...he...goes into the book...to....stop some evil genie....with some arrow in his chest....that was supposedly a time limit....but the game forgets about the arrow....and he randomly gets another transformation...and uhhhhhh.  Yep, that's the story.


Gameplay wise, I think this is really a step in the right direction.  You just run through the levels as fast as possible. The camera is set directly behind Sonic, and cannot be moved.  Of course there are monsters in your way, but they can be easily gotten rid of without losing much speed.  The environments are all varied and nice to go through. There is a jungle, desert, pirate ship, dead...graveyard place, a palace, some sky palace, a fire factory, and another one I'm forgetting.  You can run on dinosaurs, hop in cannons, ride magic carpets, run on the walls, it's cool.  The music is decent.  It's pretty popish and upbeat. It's pretty fun flying through the levels and just pwning everything in sight. 


Sonic gains xp whenever he beats a level.  This xp can be used to unlock new abilities.  Abilties can be set (with a total of 4 sets) and changed whenever.  These abilities increase things like speed, attack, defense, number of rings you can hold, ect.  The levels themselves are normally kill all the enemies or beat the level by the set time.  The xp system keeps you going though, as there is always more to unlock and use. 


Each world has a set number of levels.  You complete the level, beat the boss, then view a cinematic then repeat.  The bosses are frustrating at times, but for a reason I'll mention later.  They themselves are pretty easy and have a set pattern.  None are too interesting or memorable, except the last one and that is only because of Darkspine Sonic (his new transformation)  The story behind this transformation makes 0 sense, but that's ok. (the rings he's been collecting help him or something)  It's still cool though, but I'd prefer Dark Super Sonic.  (Sonic X reference hooooo)


Unfortunately, this gameplay sounds fun as peanuts....but it suffers.  The controls HATE working.  They are laggy, slow, and difficult to control.  To do a homing attack, you must flick the Wiimote forward.  How fun is it when Sonic keeps stopping and going instead of attacking?  It isn't.  In some parts of the game, you must attack certain enemies in a row to get across large gaps.  If the controls don't want to work, you'll just fall and die.  This is frustrating when you race or fight bosses.  On the pirate levels, the controls will lag, and Sonic will not dodge the barrels in time and you lose.  You have to get it right on, or recover quickly after a single mess up, to win.  The bosses have to be hit perfectly.  If you lag even a tiny bit, Sonic gets hurt.  It's extremely annoying because you know what to do and how to do it, but the stupid Wiimote doesn't feel like working.


Along with that, they're unnecessary parts of the game which only slow you down.  There is sometimes a pot you must jump into, swing the Wiimote up and down, to get it to fly up so Sonic can jump out.  What is the point?  It's so slow and tedious.  They should've just had one of those red bumpers.  (which do exist, but more should've been added in)  Other time, you must back up to collect something or hit a switch.  The camera does not move.  You blindly back up.  It's very very unfair.  (they did fix this in Sonic Unleashed)  You're trying to back up to collect a ring, but oh crap, there is a spiked ball there.  How is that suppose to be see able?


And yes, this game is riddled with bugs, the bad kind of bugs.  The "Hey you can't complete this level!" type of bugs.  Sonic can get stuck in objects, all objects.  The most infamous of these bugs is the Sky Palace level.  (I believe that it's name anyway)  The wind is blowing in your face, debris is in the air, the music is majestic, you even get to chase after a bird while running on a rainbow it leaves behind.  Sounds pretty cool right?  2 problems.  First, when you start the level, there is this...tiny piece of the floor that Sonic will get stuck on.  I mean, stuck.  It's right in the beginning so you cannot really back up.  You can't go around because there is crap on either side.  You can't jump because...you know, he's stuck in the floor.  You can only keep pressing the jump button and praying he gets out.  If not, you have to jump as soon as you start the level, and somehow dodge the debris flying in the air to get around that.


The other problem with this level, is that there are certain switches you must press to open certain doors and such to get through.  But guess what?  You're flying through the level, then BAM, a wall.  Guess what?  You have to back up.  A spike ball is rotating around the button.  You hit it, and either die or lose rings, then struggle to aim Sonic to step on the button.  Then you must slowly go forward, and jump to a ledge to run up that way.  But the controls don't feel like working.  So instead, you run into the wall a head of you, then you must back up, hit the spike ball, see a pattern here? 


The characters are pretty awful too.  There is that Navi ring-genie thing.  She's just annoying with a cardboard personality.  At least Navi wanted to get funky with Link.  The genie just sits and whines.  During the final fight, she even says something along the lines of "Give up! You can't win!"  Gee, thanks partner.  The evil guy has the same cardboard personality "HEHEHEHEHEHEH I'M EVIL" at least Dr. Robotnik was cool.  The other "characters" are like...Sinbad and friends.  But they are all dressed up and voiced like Knuckles and friends.  The cinematics aren't even real.  They are just like...paper done.  The characters don't really move.  It's all on this cheap page by page way. 


There is also some kind of a multiplayer party mini-game mode.  I ignore this though.  I would always go to the music or something when I unlocked new things.  Why couldn't they just have 2 Sonics on the Single Player? Like a Co-Op?  That'd at least be interesting.  

I probably should mention the difficulty, but it's impossible to tell.  It would be an easy going game if it wasn't for all the problems that make it frustrating.



In short, this game had a good premises.  It was an interesting approach.  The enviroments were good, nice levels all around.  The basic gameplay is oodles of fun.  However, the poor control, bad bugs, and horrible story don't make it any better.  It'd be better to buy this as a 10$ game, then turn the voices off (if you can, I don't even remember) and pretend Sonic is just dreaming. (like Mario 2) 


+ Good envrioments
+ Nice music
+ Xp system
+ Fun gameplay
- Bad bugs
- Bad control
- Bad characters
- Bad story
- Why is there even a multiplayer?


Sonic and the Secret Rings gets a 3.  Cool if you like it, cool if you don't.