So it is now Sixteen years since Sonic the Hedgehog first blitzed across our screens on the Sega Mega Drive. The distinctive blue spiky haired, sneaker wearing mammal designed to replicate Nintendo’s mushroom eating mascot Mario, and sell bucket loads of cartridges for Sega. Did it work? Yes it did, very much so. The appearance of a speedy, slick and cool games character took the world by storm. After all, why be a fat plumber jumping to collecting coins, when you can be a blue hedgehog jumping for rings?
The inevitable sequels and spin offs emerged, some good (Sonic 2, Sonic 3) and some bad (Sonic Spinball, Sonic R), teaming up with more friends (Such as the fox, Tails) and meeting new enemies (Knuckles, who is now a friend).
When Sega launched their more powerful systems, the Saturn and later, the Dreamcast, it was thought that Sonic should now be recreated in 3D, and explore amazing new worlds. A terrible mistake, these games lacked the original sparkle that once caught everyone’s eye, they weren’t blazingly quick and the definitely weren’t cool!
The Saturn, despite having some great games, disappeared once the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 arrived on the scene. Sega went away for a while and developed The Dreamcast, what was supposed to be the console to destroy the Nintendo 64 and compete with the upcoming Playstation 2, but it didn’t. After a good year of sales and excitement, it all went a bit quiet. With backwards compatibility, more power, and more support from developers, consumer interest quickly switched to the Playstation 2 and the Dreamcast followed his baby brother the Saturn into console heaven.
Right then, enough of the damn history lesson (which, by the way, you will be tested on later), we’re meant to be finding out about the newest game, Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Nintendo Wii. Just before we do, I better just mention Sega’s decision not to develop a successor to the Dreamcast, but instead, continue as a game developer and publisher for the Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, Microsoft’s Xbox (and subsequent consoles).
So, it’s 2007. The world is in possession of the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. The latter being a hugely different animal to the former two. Instead of developing a super computer, Nintendo have decided to create a family games unit; focusing on playability and not cutting edge high definition graphics.
An exclusive new Sonic game is just what the Wii needs right now, with Nintendo back to work developing titles such as Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3, there has been a bit of a dry spell of star quality games for the Wii, since it’s launch in December with fantastic titles such as: The Legend of Zelda, Wii Play and Super Monkey Ball. Sure there are a few you might want to rent, but nothing to spend your hard earned notes (or well scrounged pocket money) on.
Who else, other than Sega, have the experience, talent and determination to bring a great title, capable of using the Wii’s unique Wiimote controller and push it’s relatively weak graphics capability (compared to the other two consoles) to the max?
I was expecting great things of Sonic and the Secret Rings, good graphics, a real sense of speed, the promised return to classic game play, and most of all, some fun.
What did I get for my money? A hollow experience is the quick answer.
Upon booting up Sonic and the Secret Rings, you are treated to a rather well presented and unique story. Apparently someone called Erazor Djinn (the bad guy) has started stealing the magic power out of the Arabian Nights book of stories. A genie, Shahra (who also is from one of the stories) comes out of the book and asks Sonic for help in dealing with Mr Djinn, giving Sonic a magic ring which will enable her to transport him into the book and meet the King (who looks suspiciously like Sonics arch nemesis, Dr Robotnik (or Eggman as he is now known).
With the story done, it’s time for the ‘training’ missions, where you learn how to control Sonic using the Wiimote. Here we find out that some of the hard work has been taken care of for you, there is no need to make Sonic run, as for most of the levels throughout the game, he does this all by himself, leaving you to steer him left or right and a little then jump every now and then. To do this you hold the Wiimote sideways, not in the pointer position as you would normally to negotiate the Wii menu system. To jump and perform skills you simply press buttons one and two when required. To attack an enemy you jump and push the Wiimote forward towards the TV.
I don’t have a problem with Sonic being ‘on rails’, but with the game taking away one aspect of control, it should give you something else in return. This game doesn’t. It really does feel that if you were to leave the controller on the floor, Sonic could reach the end all by himself; save for collecting a few rings and jumping on a couple of enemies, you could do very well do this.
This would save the strain of having to hold the Wiimote up in the air for any length of time - but isn’t that the idea of the game (and the Wiimote)? If I wanted the game to play by itself, well, I might as well just watch videos of someone else playing it on YouTube.
I can’t deny that Sega have made this Sonic title look good. It has gorgeous, expansive levels and lots of background detail. There is a real sense of speed, and if Sonic doesn’t hit any obstacles (or enemies, as he is forced to stop still before jumping on one) he can achieve quite a pace; but to achieve this full speed a clever cpu saving trick is used. The amount of frames for the enemies, background, and Sonic himself, drop quite considerably. It is a case of “goodbye smooth animation and hello stutter city”! The enemies jagger around more than a knife wielding manic with Parkinson’s disease, and Sonic’s legs look more wooden than that of Pinocchio. I would actually forgive this, if, and only if, the game was any good.
The music isn’t bad by any means - your standard electro rock, which always compliments a game with speed as its basis. Nothing anthemic or so catchy that it will stay in your head for a week, but nothing to make you want to press the mute button either.
As you finish levels, the better you do (or to be more exact, the faster you go), you gain medals and ‘experience points’, which bring the opportunity to learn new moves etc.
I’ll admit it now - I didn’t finish the main game of Sonic and the Secret Rings; not because it was too difficult, but because it was just so boring. There was just no reward in playing this game.
There is a multiplayer mode too. so if you have up to three more friends they can play along in some mini games. Again nothing too inspiring here; there is just no depth or excitement to any of the games, there was easily enough scope to create some great Mario Party esque mini games but the ones here are of such poor quality, you wont play them more than once, and that is a real shame because a good multiplayer mode is always a nice addition when you buy a game.
I was so peed off with this game that after I ejected it and shoved it back into its case, I went onto the Wii’s virtual console and spent £6 worth of Wii points to download the original Sonic the Hedgehog. I suggest you do the same and save yourself £34.
To sum up: this is a nicely presented Wii title. It has the looks and the sound to be a winner, but if it’s game play and fun you’re after, well you’d better not bank on finding here.