Review by Christopher Coleman |
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Sonic's back again. The previous next generation incarnation of Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog on the Xbox 360 was, according to most accounts, a disaster of epic proportions. I myself have experienced the dubious pleasures of such Sonic games as Sonic Heroes, Sonic Riders or that godawful Shadow the Hedgehog game. Conventional wisdom would dictate that the only Sonic game that's been worth a go in the past numerous years would be Sonic Rush on the DS. All that's changed with "Sonic and the Secret Rings", baby. The story is complete and utter bollocks, as you might expect. Sonic's visited by a cute little genie girl, and needs to enter the world of the Arabian Nights to stop an evil guy from destroying them from within. It makes about as much sense as waking up in the morning when you're me, but it does allow for some rather spectacular visuals. The initial "world" is a transition area into the Arabian Nights game proper where you learn the various moves Sonic can perform, and it has massive pages from the Tales that you're running along. It looks gorgeous - this is the likely candidate for most attractive Wii game released to date. It's easy to tell that Secret Rings is a game designed specifically for the Wii - the controls are interesting and well thought out, not a "how do we tack on motion control?" hack job. Only the Wiimote is used, and it's held horizontally. Tilting it left and right makes Sonic run left and right, and angling it back toward yourself will put Sonic's brakes on (and even get him to shuffle slowly in reverse). Holding down 1 stops Sonic, and pressing 2 does jumps - hold and release for big ones, tap for short hops, and to do Sonic's famous attack, you jab the controller forward towards the screen. By the time you've cleared all the missions in the initial training world, you'll be ready to take on what's to come in the game, and will probably feel quite confident after a brief bit of play.. the controls really do seem reasonably intuitive to me. As well as the ring collecting you'd expect, Sonic can also collect pearls which will allow him to power up special abilities. Time break and speed break allow you to slow down time or crank Sonic's speed up respectively. The capacity to use these is measured by a small meter on the side of the screen. Sonic himself has skill rings which can be equipped with skills unlocked by finding fire rings in each level - also, experience points are built up over progressing through the levels which can help enhance his skills - allowing you to more smoothly move left or right, for example. After extended play, it'll no doubt be tiring to have to constantly jerk the remote forward to do attacks, and I found on occasion that it would be a bit finicky to get Sonic to lock onto targets. A section where you had to attack a couple creatures in a row, then bounce off a trampoline and land on another platform had me swearing rather profusely while still in the early stages of getting used to the controls, let me tell you. Overall, Sonic is well worth checking out - perhaps only as a rental if you're not already a long suffering Sonic the Hedgehog fan. 8/10
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