Being a Wii game, Sonic and the Secret Rings controls much different than expected. The free movement using the analog stick is gone and in its place is an almost ‘on-rails’ approach. You see, Sonic runs by himself and you must turn him using the Wii remote Excite Truck-style. You can stop him via the 1 button and even move backward by twisting the remote backwards, so the controls do offer some degree of freedom. Jumping is handled using the 2 button while Sonic’s homing attack is performed by thrusting the Wii remote forwards. Initially this doesn’t feel responsive enough and your frustration will build quickly as you fall into the water multiple times even though you feel you weren’t at fault. But with time things start to click and homing attack success becomes far more consistent.
This could be down to practice but it’s more likely that it’s because Sonic actually controls better as you advance through the game. You see, as you complete levels you earn experience points. These points soon ‘level you up’ and unlock a wealth of abilities that improve the overall control of Sonic. Moving left and right is smoother, running is quicker and your jumps fly further. You can improve the range of your homing attack, increase your grinding speed and better your mid-air control. All of these upgrades can’t be used at once however as each one has its own points rating and it’s up to you to mix and match within your point limit to get Sonic to control how you want him to. There are also secondary power-ups you can activate too. These can give you rings when you die, a speed burst from the starting line or magically make pearls become attracted to you.
Day out at the beach, anyone?
On the subject of pearls, there are two special abilities, activated via the dpad, that require collecting pearls to fill up a special bar to enable them. The first, known as ‘Time Break’ slows down time, essential for carefully sidestepping your way past hazardous spikes on narrow ledges for example. The second, ‘Speed Break’, is the complete opposite and grants you super speed for a short period. Both, while not exactly essential to the design of the game, do have their uses.
The structure of the game is a little different from what you would expect of a Sonic title. While each of the 7 worlds do begin with a traditional blitz through to the end of the stage, that really is only the beginning as you’ll be revisiting certain parts of the levels to compete in various missions. Alarm bells may ring here for some, but fear not, it never resorts to the old ‘find the 3 gems’ routine that plagued previous 3D incarnations. Due to the general linearity the controls bring, when you are asked to find items, the missions are clear and concise so there’s no aimless wandering around.
The missions themselves are reasonably varied. Ones like getting the goal within a set time limit, fighting a boss or racing head to head against an opponent, while fun, aren’t exactly out of the ordinary. But there are a few mission types that think outside of the box a bit more. The ‘finishing the level with no rings’ missions are never easy, especially given the amount of rings that are usually stacked up in awkward places towards the end of the stages.
The level design throughout the game rarely disappoints and gets better and better as you progress. Because of the strict movement the control system brings it allows the levels to develop into the rollercoaster ride you would hope for in a Sonic game, while at the same time still retaining some degree of control. Recent Sonic games have been guilty of sending you through a series of uncontrollable loops, often leaving you watching rather than playing. Here things are different and even though you may only be reduced to hopping over a spike or sidestepping an enemy, you still have some involvement in the game as you run vertical up a wall and are then thrown through a series of spiraling loops.
Who stole my other foot?!
The boss fights at the end of certain levels are definitely a plus point for the game. Each of the battles has an old school feel about them as they require not just skill but a good deal of memorization to defeat. Remembering waves of attack patterns isn’t something you see a lot of these days so it’s nice to see it here. When it comes to attacking the bosses the game often calls for some unique Wii remote movements to defeat them. One boss for example has horns on its head that you must literally tug away at with the remote until you pull them out, so it’s rarely a simple case of finding its weakpoint and then hitting it repeatedly for massive damage.
One of the most impressive elements of Sonic and the Secret Rings is the style of presentation used throughout the game. The Arabian Nights storybook theme not only gives the game a different feel to what you usually get with a Sonic game, it also provides us with an alternative to the CGI cutscenes. The use of hand drawn comic book-like panels to present the story is not only refreshing but also very visually appealing. Sonic regains his 2D style and is much more reminiscent of the hedgehog we all loved in the 16bit era as a result.
In fact, visually the game on the whole is very hard to fault and is certainly one of the prettier Wii games thus far. The range of environments the game takes you through is about as varied as you could hope for, and expect, from a Sonic game. From sandy beaches and prehistoric jungles to pirate ships and mid-air fortresses, the game doesn’t tie itself down to its Arabian Nights theme too much. It’s colourful, well textured and effects like water and dust particles look good too. The framerate is solid, while both 16:9 and 480p support are the icing on the cake.
The soundtrack is an acquired taste, with an interesting mix of crunching guitars and Arabian sounding instruments making up most of the music you’ll hear throughout the game. Somehow the lyric filled cheesy rock tunes work and you’re left with one of the more memorable Sonic soundtracks in recent years. The voice acting on the other hand is typically patchy. Not helped by a painful script, most of the dialogue sounds like something from your local panto performance, but given the storybook theme it fits and isn’t as cringe worthy as it could have been.
It's a long way down...
While Sonic and the Secret Rings is arguably the best 3D iteration to date, it’s still not without its problems. While moving at speed the game couldn’t be much better if it tried, but when you’re forced to slow down for some of the trickier sections the controls aren’t really up to scratch. It’s not a game breaking problem as the majority of your time is spent dashing at high speeds where remote movement is as smooth as you could hope for. But when you’re trying to slow down, turn precisely or even move backwards it’s often more hard work than it really should be.
As stated earlier in the review, Sonic and the Secret Rings is made up of 7 worlds. While this doesn’t seem a lot, the amount of missions that are packed into them mean you really get the most out of each level. In addition, there are gold, silver and bronze medals for each mission that you can achieve depending on your performance which further extend what the game has to offer. Also, within each mission are ‘fire souls’ that must be collected to finish each mission completely. Often found in the trickiest places possible, these fire souls are needed to unlock hidden characters and mini games for the multiplayer.
You see, in addition to the single player campaign, Sonic and the Secret Rings does actually contain a Mario Party-esque multiplayer mode. Here you can play with up to 4 people in any one of 40-odd mini games waiting to be unlocked. Depending on the mode you pick, its structure is actually more like Fuzion Frenzy 2 than Nintendo’s mascot party game in that you’re playing for points, but the end result is the same. Admittedly there’s a fair few stinkers in here but there’s an equal amount of gems to be discovered too, complete with some unique Wii remote usage. In summary, it’s not what you should buy the game for but it’s of a high enough quality to add something to the game rather than drag it down (Yes, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, we’re looking at you).
Sonic and the Secret Rings is something many have been waiting on for a long time – a good 3D Sonic game. At its worst it can be as irritating as its recent predecessors, but when you’re sliding down the back of a dinosaur, skipping gracefully over deadly spikes and screaming through the air on little more than a beam of light the game is immensely fun and rewarding. If you can put up with the bad to get to the good you’ll find plenty here to enjoy.
I'll gonna have to try and get a copy on GCN.
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