A fairly-long in detail review on this fun yet disappointing game...
Gameplay: First lets talk about the controls. I, personally have had very few problems with the controls. The motion sensing for homing attacks and moving around are all extremely responsive. I have however had a few odd glitches where my homing attack hasn't been picked up but these times were few and far apart. Unfortunately for most people the controls in this game have an extremely long learning curve and most people will give up with the game before they finish the second level.
However after the controls become familiar you will be flying through the 7 worlds of the Arabian Nights, collecting World Rings and defeating enemies. Figuratively speaking of course, the game starts off slower than Link wearing Iron Boots. This is a problem solved as you progress through levels and are rewarded skills to upgrade Sonic with, speed upgrades, attack upgrades and various other little things that you'll probably use for the related tutorial and nothing else.
I know this all sounds extremely negative at the moment but trust me, the game gets better as it gets faster and your reflexes are pushed to the limit as you dodge oncoming obstacles while everything is just a blur, of course if you miss an item or something earlier in the level you can always go back but unfortunately with Sonic's newfound camera angle (which for the most part is directly behind Sonic as he runs) going backwards is reduced to nothing but hopping. It seems that those magicians over at Sonic Team managed to magic up another broken camera. How can you break an on-rails camera? Easy, allow the player to go backwards but don't allow the camera to ever turn round! Thus the player cannot see behind him and voila, broken camera. Luckily you wont need to go backwards often.
Gameplay: 6/10
Next up, Story. Now this is where Secret Rings really gets strange. The basic plotline is this, after sitting down with his trusty smoking pipe (not really) Sonic decides to read the Arabian Nights. However he is sucked into the book by a the Genie of the Ring "Shahra" who explains that the evil Erazor Djinn is erasing the stories in Arabian Nights one by one! You go to face Erazor and teach him what's what and he shoots Sonic with an arrow! Ohnoes. And that's not all, the arrow is cursed! And so it'll continue to burn away until it either kills Sonic or is removed. Of course Erazor isn't going to just pull it is he? So he offers Sonic a deal, bring him the 7 world rings in return for his life. Then he disappears and Sonic runs off to find him. Also, Tails, Eggman, Knuckles and others make cameos as various characters from the book.
And that's the plot. No joke, that's all. There are no plot twists or anything apart from Shahra appearing to have some kind of emotional connection to Erazor...
Story: 5/10
Graphics-wise Secret Rings is one of the most beautiful games on the Wii. It's 7 enviroments are unique and brilliantly detailed, from the whisping sands of the desert to the large marble interior (and exterior) of Erazor's fortress/mansion/temple thing. Everything is brilliantly animated, with Sonic's spines moving as he jumps and the giant golem enemy lurching around brilliantly.
The only problem I have with Secret Ring's graphics is a minor one, during the intro to every level a countdown from 3 shows up and as each number ticks down the game zooms in on Sonic slightly more. The first and second level of zoom show off the beautiful graphics but dear god, the third level of zoom makes me want to gouge my eyes out. With a spork. And this is at the beginning of EVERY LEVEL.
Graphics: 8.5/10
What's that? A whole positive section? I can't have that. Time for Replay value then. Sonic and The Secret Ring's Replay value is pretty sparce. You'll complete the game (if you do that, the last few levels are bloody hard) and then what? There's the multiplayer mode, which is Mario Party-ish and has sometimes wonky controls. While it boasts 40 mini-games i've yet to see them all this is because I've not played multiplayer in the mode that lets you select your own minigames yet and the computer tends to only pick between same 4 games over and over. Occasionaly throwing in one of the better games.
So is that it? Just multiplayer for replay value? No, there are also unlockables. You can unlock characters and minigames...for multiplayer...And you can unlock the final-final boss to fight...
6/10
Gameplay: 6/10, Buggy controls and another broken camera stops this Sonic game being as good as it could be.
Story: 5/10, Linear, and horrible. It has the most dramatic pinky promise ever commited to game, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though...
Graphics: 8.5/10, beautiful. I'm sure the Wii could do better though.
Replay-Value: 6/10, you can unlock multiplayer stuff and the final boss fight...You could go back and get a Gold medal in every mission but trust me, you wont want to.
Overall Sonic and The Secret Rings is the best 3D Sonic game so far but truth be told that isn't saying much. It has many control problems to begin with and at times is extremely difficult. Overall though, it's fun.
6.5/10