Wii: Sonic and the Secret Rings

Natoma said:
I gotta say, I was pretty surprised to see this game. I thought this was a Xbox 360 exclusive.
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Nope, Sonic: The Secret of the Rings has always been a Wii exclusive title. You probably mixed it up with the latest Sonic title for PS3 & X360 which got horrible reviews.
 
I'm looking forward to this game. March seems to be a great month for Wii in Europe, with Sonic, DBZ Tenkaichi 2, Trauma Center (release date not set in stone, sadly), and perhaps Heatseeker (arcade-oriented combat planes game).
 
First review: IGN: 6.9
IGN said:
Closing Comments
Sonic and the Secret Rings is my favorite entry into the franchise since its 2D roots. That's high praise for some, I'm quite certain. Bearing that in mind, if you really liked the Sonic Adventure titles for Dreamcast or GameCube, I think you will find much more to be excited about in this Wii-exclusive undertaking. I can tell you that the experience is more fun and more beautiful than any other – at least, as far as I'm concerned. But that being true, there are still flaws – big ones – and I'm less willing to tolerate and forgive them now that 3D games have fully evolved and we've seen exactly what great developers can do in the third dimension. Sonic Team has taken a giant step in the right direction here, and of that there is little doubt, which is why I hope that more time and attention goes into the camera system and level designs for the inevitable sequel.

I want to take moment to specifically explain the score. For me, Sonic and the Secret Rings offers moments of greatness where I find myself caught up in the intensity of the experience and, oppositely, moments where I want to pull my hair out or throw the Wii remote down because of imprecise control or insulting design choices. I think that some gamers, particularly diehard Sonic fans, will be able to get past these drawbacks and enjoy the great times, which are also in supply. However, for me it's really pretty simple. Call me harsh, but I don't believe you should be forced to deal with the bad to enjoy the good and hence, I've scored the game with that in mind.
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Seems like a mixed bag.

EDIT:
Gamespot 7.6

Sonic and the Secret Rings delivers an excellent sense of speed and plenty of depth, and what's just as impressive is that it makes Sonic fun again.

The Good: Nice graphics and great level design; excellent sense of speed; varied challenges keep the game interesting; dozens of multiplayer minigames.
The Bad: Controls can be extremely frustrating.

..
Whether you remember the glory days of Sega's mascot or are just looking for a new Wii game to bring home, Sonic and the Secret Rings is a solid choice. The gameplay is simple but challenging, and there's something incredibly satisfying about running really, really fast. The minigames aren't anything special, but together with the single-player game, they round out the package nicely. If you're looking for a game that provides a lot of thrills and enough depth to sustain them, you can't go wrong with Sonic and the Secret Rings.
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I am convinced that after a good 10 years of not having a great Sonic (3d) game we should only expect (meh) good ones. The 2D speed platform formula seems nearly impossible to translate to 3D. The expansion of the Sonic universe in the recent years has also cluttered the game with many useless characers. I got a good fix out of the greatest hits mega collections thinga-ma-watchit.
I like my Sonic like I like my women - two dimensional. (Ok maybe some faux-3d)
 
From reading the reviews, it sounds like this is an essentially good core idea with some flawed aspects of execution, much of it related to the completely awkward mechanic for moving backward. The reviewers are saying "Best 3D Sonic ever," despite ranking it below Heroes and Sonic Adventure 2. This contrasts with reviews of more recent Sonic games that made them sound fundamentally bad at the core. Sounds like this new take has a lot going for it, and they could really make it great if they work out some of the kinks.
 
Got to agree with both of you

But I think if they put the appropriate dedication into the game I think they can make a prober 3D sonic. Perhaps a Sonic that combines 3D and 2D aspects of controls might bring something innovative.
 
In general, a behind-the-charactor 3rd-person perspective doesn't lend itself well to games that rely on speed.
 
You two never played Extreme G3. :)

That game was absolutely phenomenal. I wrote this review 6 years ago:

I had thought that Wipeout was by far the best racing series I had ever played up until now. I'm a serious fan of the futuristic techno psygnosis design, and I had honestly believed that there was nothing that could top it. In fact I purchased a PS2 almost solely based on the belief that Sony was going to release Wipeout Fusion shortly after the launch (as they claimed). Unfortunately that never occured. Fortunately, however, Extreme G3 was available for the Cube when I went shopping to get games.

Let me just say this. Crucial art direction, track layout, and musical direction personnel from Psygnosis went to Acclaim and played crucial parts in the development of Extreme G3. It definitely shows. Extreme G3 conveys the most intense sense of speed and nausea in any racing game ever. You don't know what speed is until you upgrade your engine to the 1000G model and power up the turbo boost in a loop on Oceania or Megalopis.

Or when you siphon off enough energy near the finish line from one of your opponents in the lead so that you can boost yourself into the lead and win at the last possible second.

This game is about speed, super speed, sonic boom sound barrier busting speed, and even more speed. The control is ridiculously tight, and the gamecube controller is absolutely *perfect*. It's so good that I basically use the default controller setup scheme.

This game is easily one of the best racing games of all time. The weapons system requires intelligence in deployment, i.e., do you use the defensive leech mechanism, or do you drop bombs behind you to slow your opponents down. Do you fire heat seeking rockets at them, or use your shield energy to boost past them. It is a highly intelligent racing game that I appreciate. I find myself these days doing things that in the past I would not have thought of.

One of these involves a tactic of actually slowing down so that an opponent can pass, just so that I can activate the leech weapon and siphon off energy if I know that a loop is coming up soon and I'll need all the turbo boost I can store. Simple things such as that that change the dynamic of your standard fare racing game are greatly appreciated.
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The only one that was well rated was the GameCube version of Extreme G3. The PS2 port was pretty badly savaged. The original ExtremeG game wasn't rated well either.

:)
 
My brother brought the new Sonic game home. It's pretty good. I'm only a handful of levels into the Adventure Mode, but it's fun.

Natoma: Extreme G3 and F-Zero GX are very fast, yes, but that's truly exaggerated speed.

It took the developers extra effort to make those games as fast as they are.
 
Natoma said:
Interesting. The reader reviews at IGN, gamerankings, et al, have been much more positive than the actual official reviews. Case of fanb*ys?

http://readerreviews.ign.com/rrobj/game/index/800277
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That can be the case, it's also (I think) a problem with many reviewers savaging good games that didn't get much hype in order to build a false reputation of "thoughness/fairness".

I got Sonic and the Secret Rings today, and it's extremely fun. I'm only at the second level (dinosaurs), but so far I'm loving it.
 
I picked the game up the other day and it is a blast to play. The game starts off slow but get some experience and build up Sonics speed and the game just rocks. Much much better IMHO then the media reviews it has received.
 
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