Fox's Review: Sonic and the Secret Rings

[Fusion]

Having gotten the jist of the game by now, I know at least some of what you can do in the game, so I have enough basis to review on:

Graphics (9/10): Well, you can definitely prove that Sonic 2006's engine was used here, because of simply the graphics and the way the engine moves.  There doesn't seem to be any other reason, other than the fact that this game was just going to be a port of the already atrocious Sonic 360.  At least it didn't turn out like that... Aside from the generic flame effects that would've helped this game a lot better if it were named 'Wildfire' (there's flames all over the place) but instead we get Mario and the Secret Mushrooms.  Sonic's detailed... Well, everything goes by a little fast for me to get a good look at it, but the view detail is nice, though.  During the Sand Oasis level, first "paragraph", at the end of the level you can definitely see a generic Arabian palace as you race towards it.

Sound (7/10): Once again, we're met with the same old voice actors 4kids dumped on us to "liven the series".  Sonic sounds different, though, just a little.  Not every line of his is uncharacteristically cheezy, yet everybody else also sounds like they were picked out of the generic random bag of voice acting haven.  Other than that, we're also still treated to yet again more rock music crap that doesn't sound catchy in the slightest.  It's like Sonic Team doesn't even -have- a music division any more: The developers pick what sounds cool and cram it in.  Rock music + Arabian theme... I don't think that fits all that well, to be honest.

Gameplay (10/10):

Now this is what Sonic and the Secret Rings will be known for: It's unique gameplay.  Instead of roaming around freely, you're presented with a more Star Fox-ish method of playing.  The entire game can be played with the Wiimote itself, all you really have to do is hold it like an NES controller and bam you've got yourself started on gameplay already.  The game also has a series of missions to get you started on the basics of the game.  You have to play through these before you can run straight into the actual levels of the game.  It may seem hard to pick up, but it's not.  However, tilt the Wiimote too far forward and you'll start walking backwards.  Sonic's also slow to get a nice running start, so the game's not as fast.  Most of the levels are objective-based, and when they do make you go through a turn, the game does it automatically and there's very little chance of flying off the screen through a wall because of it.

Story (5/10):

Okay, so right off the bat you wake up and there's his genie wanting to know who you are, or you want to know who she is because she just woke you up and somehow you're in this Arabian-like land whose only colors are sand yellow, dark yellow, something else yellow.  Apparantly there's Erazor, an evil Djinn, that's ripping apart the book of their existance paragraph by paragraph (ah, so THAT's why individual stages are labelled 'paragraphs!').  You won't find any other Sonic characters in this world.

[Jesuszilla]

Burned.



Yeah, honestly? Sonic Heroes scared me away from any future Sonic games. And seeing SONIC RIDERZ at Target proved my predictions correct: Sonic was heading downhill.

[UHMEEEEBA]

I think its largely due to there being too many other playable characters. It used to be Sonic, sometimes Tails, and then Knuckles.

Along comes Sonic Adventure and you have those three, some lame Female Sonic, a cat who attacks with fishising and a robot no one cares about, and a whole lot of emphasis on people who aren't Sonic. Which in turn led to the series eventually being crap.

Making Eggman into less of a villian was also rather silly, the same thing can be said of Bowser though too.

Also lame pallette swap, aka Shadow, was pointless when they already HAD an evil Sonic look alike robot.

[Jesuszilla]

Yeah but he got blown up.

[UHMEEEEBA]

He's a robot, he can totally get better.