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Review- 2nd Opinion: Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)

by Graham on March 3rd, 2007

 

Recently Nathan posted up his review of Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii.  To help get a better impression of a game, it is always good to have a second opinion. So here is mine.  Enjoy.

Note: As this is a 2nd opinion I will not go into as much detail as a normal review - and you should read Nathan’s original post for full details on the game.  I will also be referring to Nathans review alot.

No doubt many of you will be dubious about Sega’s latest attempt to bring Sonic’s good name and grace back onto our screens since his debacle on the 360 and PS3.   And you would be right to be cautious, what with recent Sonic titles being of poor quality and many reviews of Sonic and the Secret Rings being confusing- many stating that it is the “best 3D Sonic title” out there- yet giving it lower scores than previous Sonics.

As a pretty big fan of Sonic, and a fan of the Nintendo Wii, I was very excited about this game.  All the previews seemed good, the videos and screenshots excellent.  But the final reviews scared me a tad.  The MetaCritic score (overall average from various sites) is around the 7/10 mark - a good score to be sure, but certainly not great.  But being a stubborn son of a gun, I took the plunge and bought the game on the day of release- the reason it has taken me a while to get this up, is because the game was only released yesterday (2nd March) here in the UK, its not me being slow- it’s Sega.

As I said, I was very excited about this game.  And perhaps that is the reason why I found this game so disappointing….

The Bad.

For me the main factor about Sonic is speed, Nathan says that it is the flow of the game, which to some extent is true, but I would argue that for Sonic it is mainly speed- that is, at least what he was famed for when the original battle between Sonic and Mario first came about.  And the biggest problem I have with this game is that Sonic is too damn slow.

As Nathan mentions, part of the game is that you build Sonic’s powers up and and can make him faster, but I find that even when ‘charged’ up Sonic is not fast enough.  He should be fast from the word go I think, but it takes him ages to build up to full speed and it’s something that the player has no real control over.  We can make him stop or skid, but we cannot make him accelerate or go faster at will.  And when we do get to top speed we are almost certainly going to fall victim of some stone or cactus in our way that will stop us dead in out tracks.  Or an enemy will appear and we will have to do a charge jump in order to attack it.

This is also another issue Nathan brought up, bout the charge jump.  It slows down the play dramatically, as Sonic skids and stops as he charges, and we need to wait for him to lock on to enemies, then in mid-air wait for the target to turn red.  It takes only a few seconds, but these seconds feel like ages, especially when you are on a time limit or have just been going particuarly fast and now have to rid your path of enemies.  Because Sonic and the Secret Rings is a rail-based game, meaning you cannot go anywhere (like Sonic ‘06 or Sonic Adventure), more often than not you will have to kill enemies to get past them.  I personally put the blame on the poor controls Sega thought up.  They seem to think that because they are making a Wii game, that they need to try and use as many controller features as possible.  This is where they fail.  In order to do a jump attack, one must hold down jump (to charge and lock on to enemies) then release.  When in mid-air the targetting reticule will turn red and the player must thrust the controller forward to make Sonic attack.  this is not necessary.  It would have been alot easier and smoother for Sega to just make it so that you tilt the controller to move left and right and move up and down for catapults and the flying pots.  That’s it.  Because moving the controller left and right is easy and can keep the gameplay smooth- for the parts where Sonic is in a catapult or a flying pot, the gameplay stops and you can take a few seconds to move the controller in a different way quite happily.  But it’s a little annoying having to thrust the controller forward to attack, as often you have several enemies in a line to attack.  Sega should have really used the same method they used in all other Sonic games- tap jump twice to do an attack, and just keep jump held down for longer to keep Sonic in the air longer -not a charge jump, as Nathan also suggested.

Nathan also mentions the problems with reversing.  Personally I found the reversing to be terrible, half the time he would take a couple of steps back then start running forward again.  Not to mention (as Nathan did) the fact that the camera doesn’t move at all.  This would be fine if you could keep running forward avoiding enemies, but you can’t.  At one point you are thrown into a circle with 3 enemies (the Dinosaur level for anyone who wants to know), and must defetat them to continue.  You are meant to attack them straight away, as you fly overhead- doing so will mean that you can just carry on smoothly. However, should you miss an enemy, Sonic will keep running to the edge of the circle. You then have to reverse, avoiding enemy attacks and try and lock on-problem is trying to get Sonic to face the enemy to get a good lock on.  To resolve this I think Sega should have just put a button control in that causes Sonic to perform a 180 degree spin and start moving the other way- still on rails.  But at least it saves us from the dreadful reversing and also makes it a hell of a lot easier to attack. And this problem doens’t occur just the once- another situation, you have to run to a wall and hit a switch- doing so will cause some rings and a jump pad to appear…behind you.  You now have to reverse and hit the jump pad.  Sonic is very slow at reversing and it ruins the whole speed and fluidity of the gameplay.

On the flip side you acquire a special skill that makes Sonic run very fast….perhaps too fast.  I said I think Sonic should be about speed- but speed you can control, when you activate his super speed, you just let Sonic go on his own- it only lasts a few seconds, and hitting any enemies or spikes will stop him dead (which happens all the time for me) but its crazy.  I don’t mind games when they make characters speed up dramatically, but most developers let the player control what is happening.  While you can controol Sonic, you actually can’t see what you are doing- the screen is so blurred and he moves so fast.

  I would have liked Sega to allow the players to control Sonics acceleration, rather than making him continually move forward and giving us a break button.  I would rather have my finger held down on a button, making him accelerate at my will, than having him run on his own and causing me frustration when I want him to stop or slow down.

Another great complaint I have is the ’side missions’. yet again Nathan pointed this out.  But often the side missions are very frustrating and boring.  I think Sega should have made the game so that Sonic has one Large level, and 3 acts within the level- like with the old school 2D games.  Then once the player has finished those 3 acts he can go to the next level or maybe do them again- but having to collect a set amount of rings or whatever.  But in this you have one level where you run to the finish then a load of extras -like ‘Don’t die’ or ‘Don’t smash a vase’ which feel pointless, and it seems to take ages to open up a new world/ level. In short there is too much focus on these side missions.

The Good.

But all that said.  Sonic and the Secret Rings is not a terrible game.  Instead it is a great game with some great flaws.  Firstly the graphics and level design are some of the best I have seen in a Sonic game.  Nathan said that he felt the graphics were ok- and not as good as the 360/PS3 game.  I disagree.  Sure some of the objects are not as sharp as Sonic ‘06, but the amount of objects and detail on screen is pretty good.  At times when you are flung into the air- you get to see alot of the world surrounding you- and it looks damn good.  I recall Sonic ‘06 having pop-up, not major things, but even so small objects that pop-up ahead.  I have not noticed any pop-up in Sonic and the Secret Rings.  I also prefer Sonics design in the Wii game.  Sonic in ‘06 is very thin (compared to other Sonics), some may say that as an athlete it suits him more, I disagree, Sonic is a cartoon character and as such needs to be full and detailed, he’s certainly not fat and I think he looks great in the Secret Rings. 

The fast parts of the game are great fun.  I mentioned how think the game is too slow, well it really shows on the areas where you do get some speed up.  An example would be some of the log rides you go on- one part you fall off  a bridge and land on a log that is travelling fast down a winding river- this part of the game is fast and very fun, it’s also one of the easiest parts of the game to control!

Some of the new ideas in the game are pretty decent, just not well implemented.  I actually like the idea that Sonic can power-up his abilities with his magic ring, it’s just that I think Sega made Sonic initially weaker and crapper because of this.  If Sonic was already pretty fast, and you could upgrade him- then this game would be alot better.

The actual level/world environments are brilliant.  I really like the levels they have on offer, the only problems are the niggling parts, where you have to kill enemies to get past them or have to backtrack.  If Sega got rid of these parts of the game, the levels would flow faster and I think people would appreciate them more.

Summary:

Sonic and the Secret Rings would have been an amazing game, had Sega not dropped the ball on several points- like making Sonic slower and some dreadful controls- Jumping is a big factor in Sonic games, perhaps someone should remind Sega.

But the overall idea behind SSR is one of brilliance.  I would wholly encourage Sega to try and make another title like this for the Wii, but hear out the main issues gamers had with it.  The game was meant to be ‘back to basics’ but Sega chucked in too many of the new features you find in recent Sonic titles, which threw the game off balance.

Unlike some other reviews I can hold my hand up and state that this is NOT the best 3D Sonic title out there.  For sheer enjoyment, playability, story, level design and extras I would immediately jump for Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast.  The first true 3D Sonic title is still the best, not because it is the original, but because Sega have never managed to copy it successfully.  Since Sonic Adventure, Sega have taken a few of the good parts and tried to add them to their other 3D titles- while missing out the rest of Sonic Adventures good features.

So Sega/ Sonic Team my message to you would be to go back and play Sonic Adventure- look at what you made some 8 years ago, and think why that game game recieved consistent 8 and 9/10’s while your recent attempts are falling short.

2nd Opinion Score:  7/10

~G~

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POSTED IN: G, Nintendo Wii, Review