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The Land of mystery meets the Legend of Speed.
Ever since Sonic made its debut in 3D it has been hard for him to adapt in any console. Some Sonic games were actually better than others but were known to have bugs or were hard to control most of the time. Sonic Heroes was one of the few sonic games that worked without flaws and was easy to control. However when Sonic made the jump to the next-gen for the Xbox 360 and PS3 the game was full of bugs, and bad camera angles that affected the game play.
In Sonic and the Secret Rings that is no longer the case but getting used to controlling Sonic with the New Wii Remote can be a challenge alone.
The Story involves sonic being dragged into the Book Arabian Nights where a new enemy called Erazor is looking to erase all the pages of the book and once that is completed he will focus on taking over the world. Shahra a Genie who wants to stop Erazor leaves the book world and travels to the real world in order to recruit sonic. Sonic of course agrees to join in to stop Erazor and save the book Arabian nights. Erazor uses an arrow to curse sonic to death if he does not find and bring him the 7 Secret Rings scattered all around the Book, hence the name Sonic and the Secret Rings.
The Story was made to revolve around the Sonic Universe where the king is non other than Dr. Eggman (AKA Robotnik) who is kidnapped but erazor and you must save him. That does not happen often in other Sonic games. There are other characters in the book as well which include Tails, Knuckes, Amy and other characters from the Sonic world.
When the game begins it starts off by introducing the new controller setup by teaching you tutorials in order to get a good feeling of the game. These tutorials are not optional, they’re mandatory and you will not move on until you get a good score. There are many tutorials to unlock and once you beat a certain amount of levels you can move on to the main story.
There are over 100 Missions all over Sonic and the Secret Rings which must be unlocked. These Missions span from the Desert, Jungles, Pre-historic times and other locations. Unlike other games where you go from one mission to the other, You will jump from mission to mission depending on what paths you choose. For example you can complete mission #1 from chapter 2 and instead of moving on to mission 2 you will instead jump to mission 4 and so on and so forward until you have unlocked and beaten enough missions to move on to the Boss battle of that stage. Because Sonic moves forward automatic with no stopping, Boss battles are always fought non stop.
Sonic will always move forward unless you command sonic to stop or to move backwards by tilting the Wii Remote backwards. Moving the Wii-mote left and right will obviously move Sonic left and right. To do homing attacks you press the #2 button which will make Sonic Jump and you must move the Wii-mote forward. It can take a while to get used to controlling Sonic with the new Setup. Sonic’s Homing attacks can be used for may things but sometimes they will not work properly which can cause you to loose your rings or even die.
In Some levels you will die and you will have to start the level over again. In others you will just be returned to a certain check point. There are no Lives to be used in Sonic and the Secret Rings so you can take your time and die as many times as you want before you get it right.
Every time a level is cleared you can unlock new moves and customize each ring with new or upgraded moves. You will grow levels and increase your power every time you score a certain amount of points at the end of the level. Your points will be collected and added to the previous points you’ve earned in previous missions. About 79% of the time you will grow a level every time you beat the mission if you score enough points.
The Classic Sound effects are still here and I think that they are here to stay with new soundtracks added to each game. There are 2 main songs in Sonic and the Secret Rings one is played when choosing a Mission and the other is played at the end of the mission. After a certain time those 2 songs get boring but other than that the Sound Tack is Solid. The voice over is great as it has always been in other Sonic games but unlike the Xbox 360 version where their lips keep moving while there is no talking and when there is talking there is no lips moving, This game does not suffer from that problem.
Sonic and the Secret Rings has some of the best Wii graphics so far. There are no cut scenes in the game as the story is told in comic book mode. If other games where to have the same type of graphics that Sonic and the Secret Rings have no one will ever complain about the graphics the Wii has to offer. The environments are almost dead if it weren’t for a couple of enemies round the area to defeat. The game moves smoothly with no lag and so far I have found no bugs.
Aside from the 100 Missions in story mode the game also features 40 mini games in party mode for you and your friends to enjoy. There is not much replay value after that unless you want to beat the game again. Unlike the Xbox 360 version of Sonic there are fast loading times and a lot less of it on the Wii version and unlike the 360 version the script is solid with no cheesy dialogs or ending.
Closing Comments:
Sonic did not adapt well into the 3D world and with the 360 version tainting the good Sonic name and game play Many people doubted the Wii version of Sonic, but rest assured that Sonic and the Secret Rings is a solid game. It can take a while to get used to but the game is fun non the less. The controls do take some time to get used to but hopefully sometime in the near future they will decide to leave out the tilting and replace it with classic 3D sonic controls on the next sonic game for the Wii. Game Play: The game handles well but can take some time to get used to. 7/10 Graphics: Some of the Best on the Wii so far. 10/10 Sound: Soundtrack, Voice over and Sound Effects were greatly done with Dolby Pro Logic II technology. 8/10 Controls: Uses the Wii’s motivational control but it wouldn’t be missed if they decided to let it go and go back to Classic 3D sonic controls. 6/10 Life Span: Over 100 Missions (half of which are short), 40 party games for Multiplayer and offers no replay value after that, unless you want to pass it again. 5/10
NightHawk: Console-Central Network
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