Sonic's first adventure on the Wii includes great graphics, innovative motion control, and a great sense of speed.
(-) After the first time the multiplayer attractions are rather dull; the controls will infuriate you at times; an overly cheap final boss
At the very beginning of the Wii's launch, developers needed to think on how they could manage to handle the motion controlling capabilities that the Wii possessed. This lead to a challenging task, because anyone could make you just flail the remote to use a special attack, when in reality you don't need to, so as a result the motion controls are tacked on. Take Call of Duty 3 for example, where you're challenged with an enemy solider and you must thrust both the remote and nun-chuck violently to save yourself. These controls are completely un-necessary. Then you think of a game like Wii Sports, that uses the motion controls naturally by resembling bowling balls, golfing clubs, est.
But a company like Sega really wanted to make the motion sensing capabilities feel natural with this Sonic game. They had the desire to make a pushing step forward in the series, and with this new system in the wake, it would be their perfect chance to innovate. So as a result, we got a completely different Sonic experience than anything we have ever seen before, an entirely on-rails trip which you use the thrusting of the remote to attack, giving you a greater sense of controlling the spiky hero than randomly thrusting the remote, and yet still keeps that familiar speed and agility that we have loved from the series sense it's debut in the 90s.
This is the first of what was later called the Storybook series, the menus being stylized as books and missions called chapters is proof, so the story is a pretty sizable departure from any past titles. As Sonic wakes up from his nap he is transported into the world of a story book, where he finds a fairy names Shara and must stop the evil genie that is Erazor by collecting all the secret rings. Along the way she accompanies him on his quest, and you'll see the story unfold through many motionless frames and cutscenes all done with a mythical and magical style, unique to the franchise. Along the way Sonic ends up meeting other characters you'll recognize with different names, Knuckles is now King Sinbad, and somehow Eggman is a king, but Sonic still believes that they are Knuckles and Eggman, yet they deny it.
The gameplay involves Sonic running non-stop and you must turn the remote left and right to make him move. To jump you press the 2 button, but to attack enemies, you thrust the remote forward to do Sonic's signature homing attack, which in a curled ball he tracks toward the enemy with a dash. This feels very innovative, natural, and helps you interact with the action, even if you can't directly control on your own, and it's just fun to do. The controls can also be quite difficult to get used to, but once you get the hang of it you'll see that this game takes full advantage of the Wii console's broad capabilities. Sonic also has two new abilities, Time Break, which temporarily slows down time for the need for more precise movements, and Speed Break, which he dashes with his utmost speed to clear the fastest and farthest distance. But sense Sonic is constantly moving, and you have to jump nearly all the time to get around in the game, the controls can be extremely frustrating at times and you will inevitably lose your temper at least a few times playing the game. There'll was a time, for example, when I made it to a difficult part of the very last chapter, and there was a force of energy draining Sonic's rings, then I fell off, and kept respawning back and getting destroyed by the forcefield again, because I couldn't make it to the rings. But they were definitely fully utilized in this game, because the challenges you face are still varied. At one level Sonic must run from a herd of rhinos, surf with a board over a stormy ocean, and fly with a cape mid-air. I don't particularly enjoy shaking the remote to use a pot with wings though. Still, it all comes together in a sensible and mostly enjoyable package.
The game is made up of seven different levels that have various challenges to keep you busy. As well as completing the level, you'll also be challenged to reach the goal in a time limit, reach the goal unscratched, don't get defeated, destroy a certain amount of enemies, collect a certain amount of rings, defeat bosses, and still more. There is a lot to do in Sonic and the Secret Rings. Completing all these for some reason gives your hedgehog experience points, which you can use to equip a skill ring and boost various abilities such as turning and jumping, which doesn't make a very big impact on the gameplay and its questionable why its there. It doesn't exactly glaringly affect the game by any means, it just seems a bit un-necessary.
This game looks amazing. Sonic is brightly colored and equipped with a lighting flame, and watching him run really fast through the levels is very rewarding. The levels are also given some pretty adequate detail and difference but they all still have that story-book genie feel to them. The level designs are seeping creativity through each faucet, one level in particular you're running through temples then you chase a gliding hawk that expels light from its back, then Sonic runs on the light in curls through the air while missiles plague the screen to try and get Sonic. It's plain to see that Sega knows just how much the Wii's hardware can handle, and they pushed the visuals to their very limits to reflect that. What's also amazing is how fast Sonic runs through these levels and how the frame rate still seems to be on the dot with all the action being processed all at once. Just simply watching Sonic run is enjoyable.
On the audio side of things however, not quite as impressive. Most of the cheesy rock tempos in the levels are okay, maybe not as memorable as the earlier Sonic titles, but they still feel fitting for the sceneries and the overall experience. But at certain points of the level, Shara will give the player a direct message about how to use the motion controls to do a certain move, then you accidentally fall off, you get to that part, she'll repeat that again. It isn't much of a problem, but it was kind of a lazy way to design it. Also the voice acting was a mixed bag. When Sonic and Shara interact with each-other in game, the quality is okay, but during the cut-scenes, it sounds like the voice actors are pretty apathetic. Like when Sonic reluctantly agrees to save the "body" of King Eggman by barely lending his shoe from the cliff he fell, the mad man barely shouts "How dare you! I am the king! Must you be so rud-e!?" Come on, a little backbone wouldn't kill you. You'll also hear some decent music from the Sonic fanatic rock band Crush 40 every time you navigate the menus, which many of us will love or hate that, but thankfully it doesn't contaminate your experience too much.
As you find glowing red rings around the level called fire-soul you can unlock characters and mini-games for the multiplayer party mode, which is decent but far from remarkable. They consist of a barrage of different mini-games that are mostly simple and use the motion controls of the Wii remote, but for some unknown reason you can use the Gamecube controller but that makes them even less fun. These party games aren't all that fun but its a good thing they are at least included because somebody might get some enjoyment out of these.
One weird programming decision made with the game however is by the time you complete everything, which getting every nook and cranny will take a decent chunk of time, you fight a challenging but fair final boss of Erazor with a slashing sword, then the credits roll. But there's still one variation of a final boss, that even unfolds the story one last time, where Sonic is possessed by some kind of demented spirit and Erazor becomes planet sized, and you can activate power by shaking the remote, but the game never makes it clear how to hit him. Meanwhile, he shoots attacks that seem unavoidable. This overly cheap boss is unacceptable, but if it weren't for the rest of my experience with this game, I would probably complain more about it. Even still, Sonic and the Secret Rings is a good game, raises the standard and delivers in a way which few Sonic games lately have. With great graphics and sense of speed as well as depth and some multiplayer attractions, this isn't just better than the Sonic 06' joke on the other system but a good game on its own. Great game to launch the Wii with.