Game Review: Sega's Sonic and the Secret Rings - First Impressions
Added: February 27th, 2007 (tagged with: game+review)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Disclaimer: I have just begun to play this game. These are my first impressions based on what I have seen thus far.
So far, I have only played through the first 8 pages of the Lost Prologue chapter, in which you learn Sonic's abilities, and the first page of the Sand Oasis chapter, where the game actually begins.
In Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic must help out a genie from the 1001 Arabian Nights book. The evil "Erazor Djinn" is erasing the story page by page and Sonic must stop him before the story vanishes completely.
The cut-scenes in the game consist of 2-D storybook style animation and full 3-D movies. Depending on the time and score you have at the end of each page, you can earn medals, pages for your Special Book, and experience points that can be used to add effects to rings that Sonic can wear.
As far as the Adventure (Multiplayer) Mode goes, I find it pretty childish. I have only played the Treasure Hunt game in which your place in a bunch of mini-games gives you spaces to move on a board. Matching three hidden treasures wins the game. Some of the mini-games are too easy, like cutting logs. Others are extremely difficult to control, like the canoe game.
I have a few concerns about the game. Sonic is immersed in a 3-D world, but his movement is limited. I have not played any of the other 3-D Sonic adventures, so I don't know if this is normal or not. Sonic continuously moves forward, unless you hit a button to make him stop, or tilt the Wii Remote backwards to make Sonic back up. You only have a limited range left and right to move Sonic by tilting the Wii Remote side-to-side, so Sonic is really just moving along a set path. It seems to me that, at least so far, you have less free range of motion than you did with the original 2-D Sonic games for the Sega Genesis.
I think I would have preferred it if the game made use of the nunchuck attachment to control Sonic's movement and the Wii Remote to control Sonic's actions.
As I have only just begun to play the single player adventure, I think it is too early for me to cast an opinion as to whether or not fans of the classic Sonic adventures will enjoy the new game for the Wii.
