Harry Po- er, Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii, 2007) Review

 NOTE: This review is part of a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective

Well, I’m finally done with 06, hopefully the next game will be b- god damn it.

Background and History

I first want to mention that in my 06 review, I stated that the development team had been split to allocate more people to Secret Rings. Well, turns out that wasn’t entirely true, and while a version of 06 for the Wii had been planned, ultimately it was decided that it would take too long, leading Sonic Team to make a completely original game for the Wii while 06 was in development.

Yojiro Ogawa had an idea for a Wii Sonic game in mind - a game where Sonic is continually moving forward, and it was also decided that the game would be themed around ‘Arabian Nights’, kicking off what would be considered the “Storybook” series of Sonic games… that only consisted of two games but whatever. According to an issue of Nintendo Power, Sega also mentions that they had cut back on certain elements of previous Sonic games to ‘bring [Sonic] back to basi’- god damn it guys.

Anyway, the game actually had a sizable development team, and was announced at E3 2006 as ‘Sonic Wildfire’, before the game’s title was changed to ‘Sonic and the Secret of the Rings’ and then shortened to just ‘Sonic and the Secret Rings’.

At launch, the game surprisingly did get decent reviews after it came out - having an average score of 69 (heh, nice) out of 100 among critical reviews on Metacritic. And I say surprisingly because, well, anecdotally it always seemed like Secret Rings was one of the more disliked games in the series. It does have it’s fans, but even among what is considered to be the ‘Dark Age’ games, I definitely see a lot more praise for Unleashed and even Black Knight, whereas I’ve more commonly seen this game painted in a negative light by people in the Sonic community and internet in general. Most I can really say is that even when discussing the game among fans who look at what is considered to be the ‘Dark Age’ more positively, reception tends to feel pretty mixed or polarizing.

Personal Experience

I will say that this was one game I never actually played prior to a couple years ago. Even when I was just getting into the Sonic community and franchise as a whole, this game just didn’t seem very appealing to me, especially when looking at people’s reactions towards it in the communities and websites I participated in. It did sort of strike me as odd how the game received relatively positive reviews compared to what I saw people saying about the game, but either way, I basically just chose to pass on it for the longest time.

I did, however, pick up Secret Rings in 2019. It was about $5 at the local game store I often go to and since I had a lot of money from working my first job and from family members after graduating lying around, I figured “eh, why not?” Afterwards I tried playing it for the first time and, well, I can’t really say my first impressions of the game were great. I really didn’t like the controls, I didn’t enjoy the autorunner-esque gameplay, and even the soundtrack just felt forgettable. I do remember playing a bit of it - maybe about up to the point where Sonic meets Sinbad (or Knuckles), but for the longest time I sort of just shelved this game.

But well, considering I’m doing a Sonic retrospective, I of course had to play the game in its entirety.

Story

Sonic starts to wake up from a nap, and as he reaches for his clock, he accidentally grabs a ring causing Shahra to appear, who reveals that an evil entity by the name of “Erazor Djinn” is erasing the events of the Arabian Nights and if not stopped by the “Legendary Blue Hedgehog” (wonder who that could be), he could achieve enough power to take over the world outside of the book. Sharha acts as Sonic’s personal genie after he puts on the ring and they both head into the Arabian Nights world.

Sonic and Sharha meet up with Erazor Djinn, who shoots Sonic in the chest with a flaming arrow that is slowly burning out, and when it completely does so, Sonic will, well, die, unless he brings the seven World Rings to Erazor Djinn. The story unfolds from there. Quick spoiler alert, but it’s also revealed that Erazor Djinn is the genie from Aladdin, so I guess Will Smith’s life really went downhill.

Overall, I’d probably say this story just… exists to me, I guess? There’s not much I really find wrong with it - it’s a fairly straightforward, simple story, which I don’t really mind. As I’ve mentioned in every post-Dreamcast Sonic game review I’ve done, I don’t really care too much about stories in Sonic games - it’s nice to have a good Sonic story, but I’m not going to lose sleep if a Sonic story isn’t that good. I will say I wasn’t a big fan of some of the dialogue in the game, and also I feel the voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag, but on that note, I did like the “storybook” art style used in most of the game’s cutscenes - it’s a unique approach to story presentation that really makes this game stand out. Otherwise I don’t have too much to say about it.

Other than the “mountain of handkerchiefs” line in the game’s ending cutscene being r/im14andthisisdeep level stuff. Okay, for the record I do get the intention behind it - plus how it loops back to the beginning where Sonic asks for handkerchiefs after sneezing - but I feel like on it’s own, especially combined with how it’s delivered, it just sounds dumb and if you watch it without context it sounds like Sonic is saying “haha cry bitch” which makes it ironically funny to me.

Presentation

I touched upon the storybook art style within the game’s cutscenes, and I will say that like 06, the FMV cutscenes are pretty well-animated and nice looking. This game doesn’t have any in-game cutscenes from what I can tell, but considering that Sonic Team was still trying to figure out in-game animation at this point, it is nice to see this game do something different. 

As for the actual in-game graphics, this game does look pretty good for an early Wii title. Admittedly the game does feel a bit smeary to me, plus Sonic’s model in particular always looked sort of… I guess, squashed to me? Especially when he runs, when looking at him from the back I always felt like the way his spines spread out looked awkward to me. And being an early Wii game, this game does feel a bit dated in some places - particularly the smeary textures and graphical effects, but at the same time, it’s not one I can really fault too much. I’m not a big fan of the “Arabian Nights” style either, but I think this game does a fine enough job of implementing that style throughout the game’s levels and environments.

The soundtrack on the other hand is just kind of forgettable to me. I wouldn’t say it was terrible or anything, some of the tracks were fairly catchy and nice to listen to while actually playing the game, but I can’t say this is a soundtrack that I have much desire to go back to among others in a game franchise known for it’s good music. The game’s main theme, Seven Rings in Hand, definitely got old after a while for the very simple reason that it feels like it’s always playing - a snippet of it when starting the game from the Disc Channel, it plays in the title screen, it plays in the menus, it plays when you beat a level, it plays in the game’s final boss, it plays in my head when I’m trying to go to sleep…

Actually, I’m not sure that last part is normal. I should really ask someone about that.

But yeah, it just feels pretty overplayed within the game, and the song itself just isn’t very catchy or memorable to me. Pretty much every song in this game has lyrics that are pretty repetitive and I can’t even really hear over the in-game sounds and dialogue. Like I said, it’s not a bad soundtrack but it’s really not one that sticks with me or one I really plan to go back to, it just sort of exists to me.

Gameplay

I think the two biggest comparisons I can make when talking about the core gameplay is the mach speed sections in Sonic 06, or for a more modern example, one of those endless runner games that are common on mobile phones - like Temple Run or the series’ own Sonic Dash. Take that idea, and make an entire game (with a defined end goal and whatnot) out of it, and you basically have Sonic and the Secret Rings. Sonic is continuously moving forward, and the levels can be thought of as an obstacle course as you dodge enemies and hazards coming towards you.

To be perfectly honest here, this kind of gameplay… really isn’t my cup of tea. It’s something that can be fun for a few minutes on a mobile phone (where you mostly just swipe side to side), but it’s not something I really find fun for an entire game. I really didn’t like the mach speed stages in 06 as it is - they felt really trial-and-error heavy and not having complete control over Sonic with no real way to stop or slow down as obstacles and hazards come towards you really made those stages annoying to play.

I will say when it comes to the core gameplay though that Sonic and the Secret Rings does provide some improvements. Sonic still tends to continuously run forward throughout the game, but admittedly control is a bit more fluid compared to 06’s mach speed sections (with how linear the level design is here, angling your jump isn’t as much of a concern) and you do have the ability to stop and reverse at will.

With that said though, this game has a completely different control issue that just about makes it almost as annoying to play.

I guess to preface things a bit, I will say that motion controls are something that I feel get a pretty bad rap. While it is understandable in many cases, and the whole motion control fad of the late 2000’s didn’t help, I do feel in some ways motion controls provided an interesting evolution in gaming especially after the release of the Wii. Games like Wii Sports and Mario Kart Wii made interesting and unique uses of motion controls that made the system and concept really stand out, and for FPS games in particular, they’re without a doubt the best alternative to keyboard and mice on console. Even now, gyro controls are often seen as a preferable alternative when playing FPS titles on consoles - when playing Overwatch on the Switch for example, it’s definitely a better option than using the standard joystick and buttons for movement.

But… I can’t really say that bad rap is completely unfounded. Like I said, motion controls were somewhat seen as a fad in the late 2000’s, and it felt like a lot of game companies were trying to cash in on it. Microsoft and Sony both brought their own devices for their respective consoles to try and compete with the Wii, and on top of that, there were plenty of developers trying to cash in with shovelware.

And that brings me to my biggest issue with Secret Rings - it really feels like Sega/Sonic Team’s own way of attempting to cash in on that hype. Now, I understand why they develop something entirely different from 06 for the Wii - even without considering what 06 would end up being in the eyes of the gaming community, the Wii was just a system that was doing it’s own thing. It wasn’t trying to be a traditional game console - it was a console with a new idea that intended to reach out to more than just the core gaming community. Like I said, there were games that cemented that casual appeal that just couldn’t be replicated on more traditional game systems, and I can understand Sonic Team’s desire to reach out to that same crowd and try something new.

On top of that, too, the Wii was also less powerful than the 360 or PS3, and considering 06 seems to slow down a lot on those two consoles as it is, porting the game to the Wii most likely would have been a tough challenge.

But I feel like the desire to experiment ended up leaving the game with a control scheme that’s just all around counter-intuitive and not enjoyable to use. And maybe it was a unique idea and technical marvel back when it was released, but playing the game over a decade later… it really ends up feeling reflective on the state of the industry and all the problems that came with.

As mentioned, Sonic is continuously running forward throughout the game. You can stop and reverse him, but for the vast majority of the game Sonic will be constantly running without taking any time to stop. Even when he runs into a wall, enemy or hazard, the little blue guy will still keep moving forward. Almost inspirational.

But obviously you still need to move Sonic around obstacles, and the game utilizes motion controls to do so. You have to lay the WiiMote horizontally, and to move Sonic side to side, you have to tilt the WiiMote in that direction. To homing attack, wait for the reticle to turn red and move the WiiMote forward. To reverse, tilt the WiiMote towards you (or upside down).

My problem here is that the use of motion controls feel really awkward and janky as this game uses them. I already mentioned that I’m not fond of the idea of a Sonic game where I’m pretty much entirely on rails and continuously moving forward, but I feel like the controls here make the experience feel even worse overall. 

For the record, I will admit my WiiMote - the built-in ‘Plus’ variant that came with the Wii I got for Christmas almost 10 years ago - is a bit old, but it’s still perfectly functional, and even prior to starting the game I changed the batteries. I sat at a distance from the Sensor Bar, while also making sure I was in a position where it could accurately read my movements. I even tried playing a few rounds of Mario Kart Wii after finishing this game, and while I’m not entirely fond of the motion controls in that game either, I will say I felt like they felt smoother and more responsive than in Secret Rings.

With Secret Rings, I almost consistently found the controls to be janky, awkward and imprecise. Moving from side to side alone just didn’t feel right to me - I feel like the way Sonic moves often either felt too touchy or sensitive, or too sluggish, with little in between. With the way Sonic’s continuously moving forward too, it especially feels annoying when he reaches his top speed. The game’s level design in general feels pretty trial-and-error heavy, and often I would run into obstacles I could barely see coming and have a pretty little window of opportunity to dodge. When it came to sections that were more two-dimensional - like when Sonic would be walking along a wall - I would try to just slightly tilt the WiiMote enough while also trying not to make huge steps, only to overshoot and get hit by a hazard. Making precise movements in this game seems like a pretty simple task, but it’s made difficult with how this game uses motion controls.

And if moving side to side was a pretty annoying task for me, most of Sonic’s other movements felt even worse. For one, the homing attack - as I said, to do the homing attack, you need to wait for the reticle to turn red and then swiftly tilt or move the WiiMote forward. I will say I do like how this game does introduce the “reticle” homing attack into the series - compared to other games it does make it easier to tell what I’m targeting - but when it comes to the homing attack move itself, once again, it feels imprecise. There were times where it felt like the game gave me a very short window of opportunity to attack, and if I was just too slow enough, I would end up just airdashing and falling to my death. This was especially a problem I had on the initial Erazor Djinn fight - particularly during the parts where Erazor attacks you while on the side point of view. There were times where I swear he was open, but I guess I was just a little too late and he was able to hit me.

Rail switching was something else that just didn’t feel right to me. When on a rail, you’re supposed to move the WiiMote in the direction the rail you want to jump on is, but in my case, I felt like this was just pretty inconsistent. Sometimes I felt like Sonic would jump extremely far in the direction I was tilting, therefore missing the rail, and some other times, I felt like Sonic would literally go in the opposite direction I was tilting.

And trying to walk backwards felt the worst out of the control and movement options. It feels pretty inconsistent whether tilting the WiiMote towards you or just turning it all the way upside down makes Sonic walk in reverse, and trying to move from side to side while going backwards feels even more awkward and janky than it does normally. I unlocked the Back Step skill early on and tried using that, but it didn’t really help - if anything the way Sonic moved backwards felt even more clunky while using it.

Even movements that didn’t necessarily need a motion to use felt awkward - particularly the jump. In most games, Sonic jumps at the push of a button - sometimes jumping higher depending how long you press it. And I would think that for a game like Secret Rings, where you're on-rails and can’t stop, that control setup would be perfectly fine. Well, the jump doesn’t work like it does in other games. Instead, pressing the ‘2’ button “charges” up a jump - instead of just jumping like normally, Sonic jumps after you let go of the button. You can hold the button for a bit longer for a higher jump, but either way, it makes the jump in this game feel sluggish and awkward to use compared to other games in the series.

But okay, I think you can probably tell what my biggest issue with this game is - the controls. I often just do not feel like I have much control over Sonic throughout the game especially with how he is continuously moving forward. You can hold the 1 button to make Sonic completely stop which helps somewhat but when trying to slow down and make precise movements, this control scheme feels extremely counterintuitive. Even with the ability to brake, Sonic can’t strafe left or right while doing so, which only adds to this game’s control issues when it comes to positioning and making precise movements.

Now, as you play the game, there are skills that you can achieve and equip that do help Sonic’s controls somewhat, but I felt like a lot of the time these barely even helped. The most prominent are two that you unlock after the third world - the “Speed Break” and “Time Break”, which you use by pressing up or down on the D-pad respectively after filling up your Soul gauge (wow, I guess the people telling me that the late 2000’s Sonic games have ‘soul’ weren’t kidding) by collecting orbs scattered throughout the level. And frankly, both of these abilities were pretty situational to me. Time Break I only really used in the initial Erazor Djinn battle to make hitting him a bit easier, and Speed Break I did use a bit more but even then mostly just in pathways where I knew I wouldn’t get hit. 

Unfortunately Sonic doesn’t become invincible during the Speed Break which severely limits how useful it is in gameplay unless you already know the level design and can identify areas where there’s little hazards.

Anyway, I have another major problem with this game that doesn’t have to do with the controls like I’ve been ranting about. That being the game’s structure. Now, just by the story, you would think your main task is collecting the seven World Rings, but that’s not entirely the case. In fact, collecting the seven World Rings is pretty much optional even though Sonic’s life supposedly depends on it, and if you don’t bother with that part of the game, you can beat the initial “Erazor Djinn” fight and technically be done with it. But the ending feels like a cliffhanger, and to unlock the ‘true’ ending, you have to collect the seven World Rings.

So how do you go about it?

Well, the game is pretty much entirely structured through its mission system. The first mission of each world is usually just playing the level normally, but to progress, you have to complete a certain amount of missions - some involve not dying, killing a minimum quota of enemies, not killing any enemies, looking for specific collectibles, so on and so forth. But I feel like the game doesn’t really make it clear which missions you have to do to move forward, and that’s especially the case when you’re trying to collect the World Rings.

To collect the rings, you have to complete a *specific* mission in each zone that varies depending on each of them. I guess at least it doesn’t make it feel as padded out as, say, doing all the missions for each zone would, but it still felt completely random which mission the game wanted me to do, and I only really even bothered to collect the World Rings because I could easily look up which missions I had to do on the Sonic wiki. But even then, those missions might not even be unlocked, meaning you have to do other missions in order to unlock that. And these missions often just felt extremely repetitive to me, and it made the game feel more padded out than it really needed to be.

Conclusion

So, yeah, after playing 06, I can’t really say I found Secret Rings to be much of a better experience.

I think the thing is that I’m not fond of this game’s concept - an entirely on-rails Sonic game that is riddled with trial-and-error level design that makes playing the game’s levels annoying and frustrating. But I feel like that concept is made worse by this game having a really counterintuitive control scheme that often feels awkward, sluggish, janky and in some cases unresponsive, and ultimately just being a relic of the worse side of early Wii motion control hype. In the end, it just came off as one of my least favorite Sonic games in the series. Even with a lot of other Sonic games I don’t enjoy, I can still say that at the bare minimum, I still had a grasp for control, even in the case of 06.

But Secret Rings doesn’t have that going for it. I’d probably say I still prefer it to 06 - this game doesn’t drag as much and doesn’t feel as bloated with several playstyles that don’t work, but I feel that preference is very slight, and overall, this is one of those Sonic games that I just didn’t really feel like I had a good time with. There’s things I like about the game’s presentation, but overall, Sonic and the Secret Rings just isn’t a very good experience to me and not one I really intend on replaying.