Sonic & The Secret Rings review

There’s no sense in denying it; the Sonic series is one that has continued on a downward spiral for the past few years. Recent games starring the blue speed-freak have shown levels of decay so toxic that their taint seems to affect the beloved classics. The recent effort on the Xbox 360 in-particular was soul-destroying; a bland, glitch-ridden mess that was not so much a game as a device of mental torture. At that point, we lost patience with this string of sheer crassness we have had to endure these last few years; to us, Sonic was now dead.

However, we may have spoken too soon, for faint sounds of life can now be heard from Sonic’s coffin. You see, despite our abject hatred of other recent Sonic games, he is still a character we have all grown up with, and if truth be told we would rather his name meant something other than 'broken wrecks of games' to us again. With that said, can Sonic’s Wii debut be the game to finally restore some of his shattered pride, and finally provide the first decent 3D Sonic game in years?

Known originally as Sonic Wildfire, this new outing sees Sonic pitted against a nasty piece of work called Erazor Djinn, an evil genie that is twisting the worlds of the Arabian Nights stories to fuel his own dark power, in order to escape the book and wreak havoc in the real world. Sonic must enter the book and restore the stories to their rightful state. It’s a completely daft plot, and is a strictly Sonic-only adventure (though Tails and Knuckles do make cameos as Arabian Knights heroes Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor), but this is no bad thing in our view. In fact, we find it thoroughly refreshing to play a Sonic game that doesn’t take its silly story seriously, and isn’t melodramatic sub-Final Fantasy rubbish. What works so well about the story is how it’s presented, in the style of a comic book similar to Phantasy Star Online Episode III, which suits the game’s storyline really well.

The story’s hardly that important though. Since when has a Sonic game needed to give you much of an excuse to blast through a set of environments smashing everything in your path? It is in this department where the game is largely successful. Sonic’s movement is restricted to steering left and right by tilting the Wiimote, moving forward automatically, essentially making this an on-the-rails game. However, aren’t all videogames, on some level, on-the-rails? They have environments constructed to essentially herd you in one direction, with next to nothing in the way of interactivity. It’s really no different from any other Sonic game in that regard.

Despite its essential similarity to other Sonic games, we were surprised at just how well this one works. The Wiimote-based controls work reasonably well (for most of the time, anyway), and some moves are actually rather clever. The new lock-on system of attacking enemies is one we have a lot of praise for; a targeting reticule now appears on the enemy you’re locked onto, so now there is a definite indicator of a successful attack, finally doing away with some of the frustrating randomness of homing attacks that have plagued the series for a long time. Flicking the remote forward to attack whatever it is you’re locked onto feels intuitive, and is fairly precise. The camera system is also surprising in that it is actually helpful most of the time, mostly remaining locked behind Sonic, but often giving you a good view of the road ahead.

There’s also a ‘level-up’ system in the game, giving you experience points for successful missions. As you increase in levels you can gain more points to buy new abilities for Sonic. These can actually having a direct effect on how missions are handled, such as increasing Sonic’s speed, improving his ‘handling’ and giving him more effective brakes. The system allows you to tailor Sonic’s abilities for the missions he will have to face, adding a suitable layer of customisation to the game. The downside to it, however, is that several abilities end up becoming a necessity. Sonic's handling, for example, initially feels very loose and woolly until you gain some levels, which seems a bit artificial. Customising your rings' abilities also leads to a lot of menu trawling, of which there is more than enough of in this game.

The graphics are beautiful. The Arabian Nights-inspired setting has allowed for some terrific art direction. Dinosaur-filled jungles, flying islands and pirate vessels caught in huge storms are some of the seven stages on offer. It’s been done before, but the execution is still done well and bursting with colour and life. We would probably even go so far as to say it's the best-looking Wii game yet. The game can also display blistering levels of speed, with no signs of slowdown, serving to remind us why we loved Sonic’s adventures from the old 16-bit days.

However, despite the very welcome improvements shown so far, there are areas the game falls flat on its face which serve to hamper enjoyment. Having to clear a set number of completely unconnected missions in a level in order to proceed with the story doesn’t feel natural at all, and can get very frustrating when you want to stop messing about with them and stop trawling through menus for the umpteenth time. Having to hold down the jump button to charge up a jump is also something we disapprove of, as charging it up slows you down and disrupts the flow of play. Also, while the camera is mostly helpful, it has one huge failing; when you make Sonic walk backwards, the camera doesn’t flip round to show you what’s behind him, causing many a collision with obstacles and enemies that you passed earlier. It essentially makes backtracking more trouble than its worth, and is doubly frustrating when you miss a mission objective and fail as a result of this. Some frustrating and glitchy boss battles also appear, which remind us of those awful ‘running’ boss battles from Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance 2. There are also occasions where the game will suddenly decide to not register your actions with the Wiimote, causing aggro when the homing attack doesn't work no matter what you do. We think a button-based alternative method of using it could have been offered. We also could really have done without the puzzle-type segments, for they seem like nothing more than an excuse to extend playing time.

Sound is also a part of the game we take issue with. The music in the game is hyper-generic rock, with the occasional slight Arabian twist, only this time with some of the worst lyrics imaginable. This music definitely fits into the ‘so bad it’s good’ category. One nice thing about the sound though is the option to switch the voice-overs back to the original Japanese, which is good if you think as little of the English voice-overs as we do. Multiplayer is also available in the form of Mario Party-style minigames.

This game is certainly the best non-portable Sonic game in years, but given just how awful other recent efforts have been that’s not a difficult task to achieve. We really do believe it’s a step in the right direction for the much-maligned franchise, and contains a lot of elements that feel like real ‘Sonic’ moments. However, it proves to be as frustrating as it is fun, with several flaws that interfere with one’s enjoyment of the game. As such, it’s hard to recommend wholeheartedly. With that said though, while nothing can make us forget the abominations that Sonic has appeared in over the last five or so years, this is still a decent first step to redeeming the series. Guess we won't be needing that coffin just yet after all.