Awesome Atrocities is a series of reviews created by King Lyger. The scoring system is represented by words: (from best to worst) Awesome, Great, Good, Okay, Bad, Awful, Atrocious. Games are judged on graphics (how the game looks and how smoothly it runs), sound (the quality of the music, sound effects and voice acting), story (how engaging and well-executed the story is), control (the responsiveness and ease of using the controls), and playability (how much fun the game is to play and replay). The overall score is not an “average” of the other scores.

SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS
System: Wii
Developed by: Sonic Team / NowPro
Produced by: SEGA

I consider myself to be a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Especially of the early days. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” in fact, is still one of my favorite games of all time. And even though I grew up with an SNES, Sonic always captured my imagination as a little kid, as he did for millions more kids like me. It seemed like Sonic was forever destined to turn everything he touched to gold.

Sadly, I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. With all due respect to the character, my fellow fans and the franchise, I must still say without hesitation that “Sonic and the Secret Rings” is the worst game I have ever played. Whatever saving graces this game tosses my way are drowned out almost instantly by a tsunami of horrible controls, inane objectives and a frustrating learning curve. In fact, while playing it, one thought kept coming to mind: “Sonic deserves better.”

GRAPHICS

The models in Secret Rings never really stand out as awe-inspiring or fantastic, but they do their job. I never experienced much slow-down, and Sonic's frantic pace was kept up with pretty well. Some of the more lush landscapes look more at home with Sonic's universe, but the frequency of sandy deserts kind of weighs it all down. The character models for the storybook versions of Sonic's friends work, but a little uninspired. The storybook sequences themselves are drawn well, and play out fine. The lack of bright colors in these sequences gives them a more “old legend” feel, fitting the atmosphere nicely.

SOUND

Only one or two musical tracks really stand out in Secret Rings. The dinosaur level is the one I can remember the clearest, even more so than the games theme song, “Seven Rings In Hand.” I'm not sure what Crush 40 was going for in the track, but it's a total mess. The rest of the music doesn't fare much better, with styles ranging all over the board, each one mixed with a bland rock guitar.

The voice acting is, as always, terrible. Knuckles' voice actor sounds like he's the only one giving anything close to a concerted effort to be believable and show emotion. Everyone else comes off as boring, at best. It doesn't help that the dialogue itself sounds as awkward on paper as it does out loud.

STORY

Sonic is sucked into a story book, where the evil Erazor Djinn is planning on tearing apart the storybook to enter the real world. The hedgehog hero is helped by a good genie named Shahra, who lives in the book and guides Sonic through the world.

The story is an excuse plot, rife with clichés. There is no character development between anyone, and the bad guy is just somebody to stop. Erazor Djinn has no motivation other than total destruction for its own sake, and that never makes a good villain. Shahra, as the sidekick/love interest, fares no better. She tries to be helpful, but she's just annoying. The overall plot is recycled from other Sonic games: cosmic horror threatens world, send Sonic to collect stuff, Sonic collects all the stuff, transforms, final battle, game over. Even the other Sonic characters who show up are picked not for fitting into their roles, but because they're other characters from Arabian stories. Everything about SATSR's plot is uninspired.

CONTROL

Here's where it gets really ugly.

To control Sonic, you hold the Wiimote sideways and tilt it left and right. This wouldn't be so bad if the control wasn't so inconsistent. On one hand, in the beginning of the game, I'd have to slam the Wiimote left and right to get Sonic to move with any kind of coherency. But – and I wish I was kidding – the game's ability system lets you earn powers that make Sonic move left and right quicker. Yes, you literally have to earn better control.

Sonic's homing attack is performed by tilting the Wiimote forward. Once again, I practically have to slam the Wiimote forward to get any sort of reaction. And with having to push a button to jump, it leaves me without a good way to grip the controller fast enough to jump, than attack.

It is possible to back up by tilting the Wiimote towards your body, but the game makes it so frustrating, it's a wonder why you would want to. The camera doesn't zoom back to let you see where you're going, so the likelihood of running into an enemy or falling into a pit is almost a guarantee. And Sonic never gathers speed quickly enough to re-attempt a jump or clear and obstacle.

In short, it was an attempt to cash in on motion control that not only didn't work, it's guaranteed to make you want to throw things at your television set.

PLAYABILITY

The basic objective for the story missions is “get to the end of the level.” Which isn't a problem. The problem stems from the inane objectives you're required to do in-between in order to advance the story and unlock new levels. From finding enough rings to killing enough enemies to reaching the goal with a time limit, each one feels more like a chore you have to suffer through. Each objective artificially extends the length of the gameplay, so instead of getting new levels, we get the same level over and over again. It sucks practically any fun Secret Rings has away, and flushes it down the toilet.

OVERALL

I have to give a lot of credit to Evan Stanley, creator of Ghosts of the Future. She took this game, put it in a webcomic, and made it enjoyable and fun to go through. I really wish I could say the same for the source material, but I just can't.

“Sonic and the Secret Rings” is proof positive of what's been wrong with the Sonic franchise for the last few years. Instead of making a straight-up Sonic game, SEGA feels the need to artificially extend its games to justify the price tag. The game would be much better without the objectives, but even then: bad presentation, worse storyline and even worse controls all combine to make a game that's best remembered as a bad dream.

Graphics: Okay
Sound: Bad
Story: Awful
Control: Atrocious
Playability: Awful
OVERALL: Atrocious