Sonic is back in one of his best games.
Gameplay and Controls: The gameplay is really simple, it moves forward by itself and you gotta turn (by tilting the Wii Remote) and jump (by pressing the 2 button) and more. You stop moving by holding 1, doing "speed break" (where you run extremely fast and you acquire later in the game) and "time break" (where it goes in slow motion) and this is done by pressing up or down on the d-pad on the Wii Remote. It's pretty responsive for the most part, but you'll get really frustrauted when it all comes so fast. There's also a party mode with over 40 mini games, but it's really shallow. You can unlock 4 additional characters for party mode and some more minigames, but seems very similar to Mario Party and Super Monkey Ball which are both far superior. Thankfully you only play as Sonic in the Adventure Mode. You can level up like in a RPG and there's over 100 different skills to get. At the beginning of the game, you start off really slow, but hang in there and unlock some of those skills before thinking of giving up. There's also over 100 missions in the entire adventure mode which makes for a lot of variety. The level design is pretty solid as well, although you'll get frustrated every now and then.
Graphics: The graphics in Sonic and the Secret Rings are gorgeous. Sonic is pretty detailed and the enviornments look really sharp and crisp. You will probably notice some blurry textures in some environments, but really not a big deal. The framerate is rock solid too. I think the best looking world is "Sand Oasis" and the rest look really good overall as well.
Sound: The sound is pretty good overall. Some people will love the cheesy 80's rock music and others will hate it, but I love it, although it doesn't really fit the theme of any of the worlds. The sound effects are punchy, but the voice acting is still bad and can be funny sometimes.
Value: The adventure mode will take you a while to finish, but trying to unlock everything will take much longer. I've been playing for 70 hours and I still have a ton to unlock. Getting gold medals is no easy task, as they're pretty tough to get, as you have to finish missions quickly. Multiplayer adds a little replay if you've got friends, but playing by yourself in Party against computers is boring. Most people are going to play for the Adventure mode.
Conclusion: If you're a die hard Sonic fan, there's no need of convincing you to buy this game. The game is really fun most of the time, but can also be extremely frustrating. Sonic and the Secret Rings really is a great game.
Breakdown:
Story: 6/10
Gameplay/Controls: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Value: 10/10