Overall 5.8 Graphics 7.3 Sound 8.8 Addictive 6 Story 4.8 Depth 7.5 Difficulty 8.8
8
my Sonic and the Secret Rings review theironhide
Yeah, I've waited long enough for this. Well,
all right lets go (as Sonic himself would say). Those of you who have red my
Sonic and the Black Knight review (if you haven't, take a look) may wonder what
I think of its predecessor Sonic and the Secret Rings. I've already given a few
things away in my Black Knight review, but I never went into full detail of my
thoughts on this game. See, Sonic and the Black Knight was my first (main
series) Sonic game and has been 1 of my all time favorites since, its predecessor
(Secret Rings) is a game I got about 5 years later because I was debating
whether or not I wanted the game. Thought later on, I decided and I was like:
screw it, I like Sonic so I'm gonna give it a chance no matter what negative
things people say about it. So you might wonder: do I regret that decision, or
am I glad I made it? Well, lets find out
Graphics; 8
Yeah, it's no secret that Secret Rings looks pretty outdated. This was Sonic's first game on the WII and that is not very hard to see, since the textures don't have as much detail as later Sonic games on the WII like Black Knight and
Colors. Also, the storybook cut scenes ,while they're a nice touch, it seems like Sega didn't want to animate them at all, plus they're a bit blurrier than in Black Knight. However, the fact that the game isn't the most detailed can be excused by the fact that this was Sonic's first WII game. To be honest, while it is not as detailed as later Sonic games on the WII, Sega still did a decent job at the level design and textures. The levels look nice (especially for a launch title) and often show a lot of detail. In fact, the camera often gets very showy during game play. What I mean by this is that the game gives a lot of different camera angels to show of how cool the action in the game looks (like in a lot of level mods for Sonic Generations). The character models, while being pretty outdated now, looked rather nice for their time, and the textures aren't too bad. The game isn't the most appealing visually, but it looks nice for the time it was released and I still think its nice to look at
Sound: 9
I have to admit, the sound overall is very well done in this game. Like in Black Knight, the sound effects are used for even the smallest things like walking / running and sound like Sega put a lot of effort into them. However, that pails when compared to the freaking music. The music in this game is (in my opinion) among the best in the series. That honestly feels weird for me to say because when I first listened to 'Let the speed mend it' in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games London 2012 I thought I was gonna hate the music in this game, but my mind was blown by it when I first played the game, you can easily tell that the music far surpassed my expectations. There is not a single music track in this game I don't like and every single track fits with its level (my personal favorite being the 1 that plays in evil foundry). So you may wonder: why only a 9 out of 10? Well the thing that keeps this away from getting a 10 out of 10 is the voice acting. Don't get me wrong, it is a huge step up from Sonic 2006 (especially for Sonic's voice actor, Jason Griffif,) and the recurring characters sound just fine here. However, the same can't be said about the new characters, most specifically Shara (a ring genie that has a similar role to Tails in the more recent games) and the Erazor Djin (the main villain of the game, and no that's not a spoiler because it's revealed in the very first cut scene of the game). I'll honestly admit that I don't hate Shara like others do, but I won't deny that her voice can get really annoying in game play (especially when she yells). As for the Erazor Djin, he is 1 of the most ridiculous villains in Sonic history. I guess he's supposed to sound like a darker version of Disney's take on the genie from Aladdin and I'm sure the voice actor is trying, but I just can't take him seriously (just listen to his dialogue in the final cut scene and you'll know why). That's it for the sound in this game: nice sound effects, epic music, the recurring characters sound fine, the new characters could have been done better.
Addictiveness: 8
Here we go to probably the most controversial part of the game: the game play.
For those of you who don't know, this game controls kind of like 1 of those WII
racing games (like Mario Kart or Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing) where you
tilt the WII remote to control Sonic. This is 1 of the reasons why many people
don't like this game since they see it as nothing but a gimmick, but I'm not 1
of those people. I personally think the way you control Sonic in this game to
be very creative and fun to play with. Sure it's pretty hard to get the hang on
at first, but you'll improve over time.The game also has a multiplayer mode
which is 1 of the few parts in this game which I think to be better than in
Black Knight. The main reason for that being that it has a lot more stuff to do
than the multiplayer of Black Knight and it has some very creative and fun
mini games. The game itself also has a couple of element that also appeared in
Black Knight like the soul gage and a similar jump. I overall thought this game
to be a lot of fun to play trough.
Story: 5
Yeah, the story is probably the weakest part of the game. Like in my Black
Knight review, I'll try to summarise the story without giving away any major
spoilers. So this is a basic summary of the story: a genie named Shara gets to
Sonic's world trough a book. She tells Sonic that the worlds stories are
vanishing, because the evil Erazor Djin is destroying the world of the Arabian
Nights. So Shara gives the ring she belongs to to Sonic so that he can wish
himself into the world of the Arabian Nights. After a little while, the Erazor
Djin appears out of nowhere and explains that he tries to destroy the world of
the Arabian Nights and recreate it in his own image (cliché goal, I know).
However, he needs the 7 world rings to accomplish his goal, so he curses Sonic
(ever thought he tried to curse Shara) in order to force him to go look for the
7 world rings.Also, like in Black Knight, he comes across other recurring
characters in form of story figures (like Tails as Ali Baba and Eggman as king
Sharyar). So that's a summary of the story. I won't deny that the story is
pretty weak (especially the ending), but most people (including myself) don't
play Sonic games for the story anyway. 1 thing that is kind of weird is that
they were hinting towards a sequel in the end credits. We all know that the
game did eventually (a year or 2 later I think) got a sequel, but the kind of
sequel they were hinting to was a direct sequel (which never saw the light of
day).
Depth: 8
I'll be honest, the main story of the game is really short. Heck, I was
able to COMPLETE THE ENTIRE MAIN STORY ,INCLUDING CUTSCENES, YESTERDAY. And
that's not even a joke, I did complete it in 1 day on my second play trough
(which was yesterday). However, the game is not just playing the main story
out. Like I previously mentioned, the game has a very fun mutliplayer and a lot
of mini games. The game also still has missions to complete if you're done with
the main story if you want to.And of course there's always the possibility of
replaying the main story (like I did). So, there is plenty of stuff to do in
this game and I like it that way.
Difficulty: 8
The game can get pretty tough at points. The main reasons why you might get a
hard time at this game are the fact that you need to time your movement right
by reacting quickly and the tilting mechanic may take a while to get used to.
The bosses may also be a pain in your first few tries (especially the battle
with the Erazor Djin). Some missions (especially if they're necessary to beat
the game) may also be quite frustrating in difficulty.Howeever, it didn't stop
me from playing.
So those are my thoughts on Secret Rings, how does it hold up? Well to be honest, I didn't had very high expectations for this game. The main reason for that being how bad this game got received by critics, but I honestly think this game is very enjoyable. The game has nice graphics (for its time at least), epic music and fun game play. Because of it, this game (at least to me) deserves an 8 out of 10. Because of games like this, I never lose fate in Sega and Sonic team.
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 8 Story 5 Depth 8 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 08-03-14
Review Replies: 0
2
got to get this off my chest cowboy03
This is a game I have been asked for my opinions on for the past few years and have been very hesitant on talking about it due to how many people will disagree with me but regardless this is how I feel about sonic and the secret rings.
I feel this game is the worst in the sonic series for a variety of reasons ill get into but the positives I have for the game while few do show that it had potential.
I think the graphics are decent at best they aren't terrible but certainly aren't anything to ride home about in any means.
The soundtrack and sound quality is the best aspect of the game period and really fit the atmosphere that the game is trying to fit. The only issue with the soundtrack is how often the main theme is played in game but the rest of the soundtrack is on the great side.
The story in a lot of cases felt dull but a few notable moments here and there disappointing for me to say that.
The game itself has some fun minigames which is where I spent most of my time instead of playing the main story mode. in fact I once made a joke with a friend to which we called the minigame mode sonic party and that it was basically a Mario party ripoff without the board. (take that how you want it.)
The reason this game gets a 2/10 overall rating and a 10/10 difficulty rating is because of one thing mostly. And that is...
The controls. Even the more buggy sonic games had better controls than this and it kills me to say that. For the fact that if the controls were more tolerable it would have made the game itself much better.
Here are some examples.
Exhibit a: The tutorial took me a month to beat due to unresponsive controls and resulted in 4 broken remotes and a headset thrown at the wall.
Exhibit b: several challenges that were necessary for the games completion had used some of the worst controlling gimmicks and as such made me avoid the game entirely for 5 years.(at this point it was 2017 and I had owned the game since 2010 quit in 2012 which is where I quit).
Exhibit c: Several abilities that were made baseline in previous sonic games were locked behind a progression system that was so notorious that it spawned several memes and jokes online even to this very day.
Another positive I can give is that the stage design feels natural and fluent of a sonic game and maybe could have been better in a different game in comparison to this one.
Spoiler alerts for story coming up as I feel this should be brought up.
It all boils down to sonic hunting down for the equivalent of the chaos emeralds in this game the seven world rings.
And if he doesn't he dies. It doesn't feel like a sonic story and made me rage just from seeing it.
In conclusion as much as this game gets talked about and I respect peoples opinions on it. I really do not like this game and just wanted to give my reasons why. I am gladly open for a discussion on this topic so fire away.
Graphics 5 Sound 8 Addictive 1 Story 3 Depth 6 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 07-28-19
Review Replies: 0
7.6
Sonic and the Secret Onion Rings Lexatom
Sonic and the Secret Rings was released on the Nintendo Wii by none other than Sega. Fun fact, this was just going to be a port of Sonic 06 to the Wii, but they wanted a standalone title for the console, which resulted in Sonic and the Secret Rings....another bad Sonic game! Although not as bad as Sonic 06, which was released a year earlier than this game, making this game's release be in 2007. Why do I see this as a bad Sonic game? Read on and find out.....derp.
Graphics - 9
The graphics in this game are awesome! (Unless you're playing in the Party mode....) A lot of the stages in this game have elements in them that really show off the capabilities that graphics in Sonic games have. I always felt Sonic games had good graphics, and this game makes that statement hold. Stages like Dinosaur Jungle and Night Palace really show off the amazing backgrounds and models this game has to offer. I suggest you go look at some gameplay footage or some screenshots of this game to see what I mean. All I can really say for this category is incredible.
Sound - 10
Again, this is a Sonic game. There is not a single Sonic game in existence that I know has a bad soundtrack. Similar to Sonic 06, this may be a mediocre game gameplay-wise, but the music and graphics really stand out. Some of my favorite tracks include The Palace that was Found for Evil Foundry, and the Night Palace theme which I forgot the official name for. All the music I've heard in this game is pure incredible (except the Lost Prolouge stage.....ugh...)
Addictiveness - 7
This is the part of the review where you get to hear the bad things about this game! Hooray! Anyways, this game has glitches, but not as much of a severe degree that Sonic 06 does. The problem with this game are mainly the controls, but that will be talked about more in the Difficulty section. There is sort of a Party mode included in this game, with multiple different modes. Kind of like a rip-off of Mario Party. Alos kind of like what they were trying to do with Sonic Shuffle. Some of the minigames are actually quite enjoyable, believe it or not. But some of them are just plain broken, such as the one where you have to steal gold from the genie without waking him up....that one's the worst on the list.
Story - 7
I don't particularly like the story in this game, but I guess it kinda works. It's basically just the story of the Arabian knights
replaced with Sonic characters. I feel as if this was some kind of lazy story-writing, but I guess the seven rings made up for it, even though they're just using a quick
replacement for the Chaos Emeralds.
Depth - 8
Depending on whether or not you want to piss yourself off trying to 100 percent complete this game is what make depth. There are 5 Fire Souls, which are basically just Red Rings reskinned, except you can unlock and equip new abilities. I sort of don't like how they used the ability system in this game, though. In Sonic Generations it was awesome, but it's just kind of awkward in this game. It might be just me, but whatever. Oh, yeah and you can unlock more characters in the Party mode depending on how many Fire Souls you obtain throughout your adventure.
Difficulty - 9
The reason the difficulty is rated high for this game is mainly because of the awful motion controls. Why do people feel the need to include motion controls in the first place? Yeah, I understand immersion, but I don't really care about that crap unless I have an Oculus Rift infront of my face. The motion controls for the Wii were gimmicky to begin with, but Sonic and the Secret Rings just takes it to a whole other level. To move Sonic left and right you have to move the Wii remote in the direction you want to go in? What's that? You want to know how to go forward? Oh, don't worry the game makes you go forward unless you hold down the 2 button. Why.
Overall - 7.6
This may be a mediocre Sonic game, but at least it's not AS bad to Sonic 06. It's kind of close, though. The motion controls are what turned me off from this game, and it did for many others too. And because of all of this, here is the score this game gets.
Graphics 9 Sound 10 Addictive 7 Story 7 Depth 8 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 01-08-16
Review Replies: 6
7
Worth a rental supernerd117
Hi this is supernerd117, back with my fourth review, this time of Sonic and the Secret Rings. Review is below:
Sonic's back, this time to save the world of "Arabian Nights" from a malevolent entity known as the Erazor Djinn, with the help of some familiar faces and a genie named Shahra. He has to hurry, since his life force is diminishing due to a curse put on him. Fortunately, that's something he's good at.
Controls:
The developers at Sonic Team thought they'd try something different this time: Instead of Sonic's usual control, he is controlled by moving the wii remote in different directions from a horizontal position. This can be quite off-putting at first, but will grow on you a bit as you play. 2 is to jump, and 1 is to brake, but other things can be done according to your skills list (more on this later).
Graphics:
The game and its environment look great, but are not particularly awe-inspiring. The best fast platformer games, such as Rayman Origins, show off the environment while you are running through it. This is not one of them. You will be impressed by a few things, such as the boss battles, but these are few and far in between.
Gameplay:
This will be the most disappointing section for many Sonic fans. Although Sonic controls well, there are so many stops in the action throughout the game, that it will turn even many of the most die-hard Sonic fans off. Fortunately, the problems are offset a bit by a list of skills, each with a certain point value. Sonic gains experience through completing missions/levels well, and when he levels up, he gains skill points. These can be used to equip certain skills to Sonic that can speed up or improve the gameplay. Important to the gameplay is the speed-up or slow-down time mechanic, and one that works OK, but is too little capitalized on in the game. For example, there are levels where you will have to use the slow-down mechanic to bypass obstacles, but rarely, if ever, do you have to use the speed-up power to progress, and its implementation is poor, because there are so many cheap obstacles/deaths, such as spike pits, throughout the game.
Multiplayer is not very good at all, however. The collection of 40 or so minigames are poorly implemented and seem like an afterthought to the game. For example, one game involves playing a violin, moving the wii remote back and forth. That's it. Other games also have similar problems.
Sound:
Fortunately, unlike Sonic Adventure 2, the music doesn't get in the way of the action. Instead, the wonderful rock tunes will propel you forward. Most tracks are cool and tame, yet exciting nonetheless.
Addictiveness/Depth:
The amount of depth in the game is really something. There are over 100 things called fire souls to collect in levels that unlock stuff such as artwork or characters in multiplayer. The quest for these will keep you quite busy, since many fire souls require different skills in a level to unlock. Also, the quest to get a better time is here to, and will probably keep you coming back for more.
Overall:
Overall this is an OK game. Even Sonic fans will want to rent this one first, as some won't like it. It does enough good to make it worth a buy, but make sure you like the game first.
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 8 Story 4 Depth 8 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 07-05-13
Review Replies: 1
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