Sonic and the secret rings is the first in a spin off duology where sonic travels through ancient myths and stories. Secret rings is set in the world of the Arabian nights but unfortunately all of the stories of the Arabian Nights are being erased by a evil genie called Erazor Gin. (There's the first problem this villains name is the stupidest I have ever heard of. When erasing the stories of the arabian nights he also erased any semblance of fun from this game) In order to stop him a opposing genie called Sasha summons sonic to defeat the evil genie and GOD I HATE THIS STORY. This game treats it audience like children even though the only people who will ever play this game are the die hard sonic fans and the poor unfortunate souls who don't know any better. However, there are some interesting plot ideas blended into this trash heap in that all the main characters of this world are sonic's friends as the different characters of the Arabian nights.
Graphically the game is an early wii title so its acceptable for the time but looks atrocious compared to other sonic games that came out around then such as Sonic 06. The voice acting is pretty terrible with the exception of Sonic with Erazor Din being some of the worst, most forced voice acting that I have ever heard. Luckily Sonic games are always known for the soundtrack being the best part of the game but game is really a mixed bag. What I mean by that is that all the songs for the levels are good the first few times you hear them but as they start repeating the same songs over and over again it get really irritating. It also doesn't help that the music is kept on a constant 20 - 30 second loop. The place where this is the absolute worst is in all of the screens you need to get through to access a level. It repeats this one song at nauseum and it never shuts up.
Although all of the technical stuff is pretty bad, games on nintendo consoles are known for their gameplay and not their specs so how does the game play? EVEN WORSE THAN SONIC 06 AT TIMES. The game is played using the wiimote held sideways and you have to tilt the remote in order to move left and right. Gameplay consists of Sonic being put on a linear track and forced to run forward. Luckily unlike the mach sections from Sonic 06 you can actually stop this time. However other than that one difference its pretty much exactly the same. Its like some idiot at sega thought to himself, "Hey you know the worst part about sonic 06 I bet that would be a lot of fun if we made the controls slightly better but also a lot sloppier," and then turned that into an entire game. If you want to move sonic at all you have to tilt the wiimote to get sonic to attack you waggle the wiimote. Basically every control in this game is motion control which was just in its early stages at the time and so it doesn't allow for any finesse in a game about running toward enemies as fast as possible! Nowhere is this more apparent than in the 4 phase final boss fight where you have to move sonic through a course of pattern memorization which requires precise movement of the wii mote. Something that wasn't possible with early motion control. After finishing each level sonic gains experience and levels up unlocking equipable abilities therefore making this a sonic game with RPG elements. luckily these abilities make the game slightly less frustrating. Finally Sonic has the ability to use super moves such as time stop and one that speeds him up even more. Time stop is annoying for the fact that its a sonic game you're supposed to go fast not slow and time speed up is annoying because it sends you hurtling forward at such ridiculous speeds you'll probably run into a wall or fall off a ledge instead of getting any usefulness out of it. Long story short don't buy Sonic and the Secret Rings getting this game is one wish that I wish I could take back