animaldude
Sage in Training
For those of you who read my Animal Crossing review (all 0 of you), you would have noticed that i said that would be the last review I posted on ZS. I guess i lied 
The doesn't mean that I won't eventually stop...
Sonic and the Secret Rings is another attempt by Sega to create a good 3D Sonic game. It succeeded in doing so, but did not come without its flaws.
When you turn the game on your first impressions are “Wow, this looks nice” because of the great starting cinematic. First, you learn that you must hold the wiimote sideways, like in Excite Truck. Then, you create an account and are sent to the main menu. The main menu consists of adventure mode, party games, a page book, and options. The party games are a compilation of a variety minigames ranging from a homerun derby to mine cart races. Much like Super Monkey Ball, some are great while others are total jokes. The page book is a collection of art and movies. This is good for getting a better idea of the story if you missed things while you were playing (which might happen a lot due to their confusing format).
This installment takes place inside the book “Arabian Nights”. Sonic is sleeping in his room when all of a sudden a genie appears. The genie, Shahra, explains to him how he is the chosen one to save the book. The Erazor Djinn is attempting to destroy the book page by page and world by world. When Sonic decides he will help due to his need for adventure, Shahra uses her genie magic to put Sonic in the book. The two eventually learn that they must find the rings from Seven different worlds.
The game starts out in the world “Lost Prologue”. Lost Prologue is basically the tutorial for how to play but it also contains parts of the story. When you click on the world there is a list of missions to choose from. Missions are formatted almost like a race and in fact, some are races. Missions can range from defeating monsters, to racing glowing orbs, to simply getting to the finish line, and many more. Defeating them unlock more and sometimes, different worlds. Each world contains a ring, and more missions. Sonic is always moving so you don’t get to choose where you’re going in these missions. This causes frequent loss of the sense of control but, you can control the side of the “path” you want to run on. You must tilt the wiimote left and right to do so, press the 2 button to jump over obstacles and use homing attacks at enemies, and press the 1 button to brake.
One great thing about this game is the sense of strategy that rings bring to it. No, not the rings that you must find but the rings that Sonic wears that give him abilities. These rings you get from the start and before you select to play a mission you have the choice of equipping a ring. You can customize four rings to your liking. After completing missions, you gain different skills. These skills can be put into one of your rings but each skill ring can only hold a certain number of skills. This is dependent on the number of skill points you have available and the skill points each skill is worth which brings strategy to the game. If you’re going into a mission where you must race, you will probably want to customize your ring to have fast attributes and turbo boosts.
The gameplay can get to be really exciting at points but also very glitchy. It’s frustrating when you lose the mission and must restart, when it isn’t even your fault. This can get people mad. Another big problem with this game is the camera. In the beginning missions the camera has spazz attacks when Sonic jumps. Fortunately, the camera gets better as you progress through the game but the glitches never fully disappear. More camera glitches include not being able to view what is behind you when moving backwards, and not knowing which way to tilt your wiimote when the camera randomly turns to a strange angle.
Some missions are good, and some are bad. Not many missions are in the middle. Several are plagued with gameplay and camera glitches, while others are challenging and fun. If they could’ve removed these glitches the whole game would’ve been amazing. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.
The graphics in this game are amazing but the camera hurts them. Some camera angles do really bring out the beauty in the environments while the camera glitches make things less enjoyable.
Now for the scores…
Gameplay- The game play can get to be very exciting at time but glitches make it hard to enjoy everything. Knowing that it’s not you’re fault when you don’t clear a mission makes it hard to keep playing…6.5/10
Sound- The sound effects in this game are beautifully timed but the cheesy music and voice acting gets annoying… 6.5/10
Graphics- If you can look past the annoying camera, these graphics are one of the best on the Wii to date next to games like TP and Excite Truck. Unfortunately, the creator took the easy way out by telling the story on pages with pictures rather then an actually movie. The in game graphics are great though… 8.5/10
Game Length- A solid adventure mode but will only have the hardcore Sonic fans unlocking all skills and beating all missions and challenges. Some party games are fun… 8/10
Overall- If you’re a hardcore Sonic fan who’s looking for one of the best Sonic games on a console for a long time this is a must-have. If you’re a gamer who’s simply looking for a wii game… this might not be for you… 7.5/10
The doesn't mean that I won't eventually stop...Sonic and the Secret Rings is another attempt by Sega to create a good 3D Sonic game. It succeeded in doing so, but did not come without its flaws.
When you turn the game on your first impressions are “Wow, this looks nice” because of the great starting cinematic. First, you learn that you must hold the wiimote sideways, like in Excite Truck. Then, you create an account and are sent to the main menu. The main menu consists of adventure mode, party games, a page book, and options. The party games are a compilation of a variety minigames ranging from a homerun derby to mine cart races. Much like Super Monkey Ball, some are great while others are total jokes. The page book is a collection of art and movies. This is good for getting a better idea of the story if you missed things while you were playing (which might happen a lot due to their confusing format).
This installment takes place inside the book “Arabian Nights”. Sonic is sleeping in his room when all of a sudden a genie appears. The genie, Shahra, explains to him how he is the chosen one to save the book. The Erazor Djinn is attempting to destroy the book page by page and world by world. When Sonic decides he will help due to his need for adventure, Shahra uses her genie magic to put Sonic in the book. The two eventually learn that they must find the rings from Seven different worlds.
The game starts out in the world “Lost Prologue”. Lost Prologue is basically the tutorial for how to play but it also contains parts of the story. When you click on the world there is a list of missions to choose from. Missions are formatted almost like a race and in fact, some are races. Missions can range from defeating monsters, to racing glowing orbs, to simply getting to the finish line, and many more. Defeating them unlock more and sometimes, different worlds. Each world contains a ring, and more missions. Sonic is always moving so you don’t get to choose where you’re going in these missions. This causes frequent loss of the sense of control but, you can control the side of the “path” you want to run on. You must tilt the wiimote left and right to do so, press the 2 button to jump over obstacles and use homing attacks at enemies, and press the 1 button to brake.
One great thing about this game is the sense of strategy that rings bring to it. No, not the rings that you must find but the rings that Sonic wears that give him abilities. These rings you get from the start and before you select to play a mission you have the choice of equipping a ring. You can customize four rings to your liking. After completing missions, you gain different skills. These skills can be put into one of your rings but each skill ring can only hold a certain number of skills. This is dependent on the number of skill points you have available and the skill points each skill is worth which brings strategy to the game. If you’re going into a mission where you must race, you will probably want to customize your ring to have fast attributes and turbo boosts.
The gameplay can get to be really exciting at points but also very glitchy. It’s frustrating when you lose the mission and must restart, when it isn’t even your fault. This can get people mad. Another big problem with this game is the camera. In the beginning missions the camera has spazz attacks when Sonic jumps. Fortunately, the camera gets better as you progress through the game but the glitches never fully disappear. More camera glitches include not being able to view what is behind you when moving backwards, and not knowing which way to tilt your wiimote when the camera randomly turns to a strange angle.
Some missions are good, and some are bad. Not many missions are in the middle. Several are plagued with gameplay and camera glitches, while others are challenging and fun. If they could’ve removed these glitches the whole game would’ve been amazing. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.
The graphics in this game are amazing but the camera hurts them. Some camera angles do really bring out the beauty in the environments while the camera glitches make things less enjoyable.
Now for the scores…
Gameplay- The game play can get to be very exciting at time but glitches make it hard to enjoy everything. Knowing that it’s not you’re fault when you don’t clear a mission makes it hard to keep playing…6.5/10
Sound- The sound effects in this game are beautifully timed but the cheesy music and voice acting gets annoying… 6.5/10
Graphics- If you can look past the annoying camera, these graphics are one of the best on the Wii to date next to games like TP and Excite Truck. Unfortunately, the creator took the easy way out by telling the story on pages with pictures rather then an actually movie. The in game graphics are great though… 8.5/10
Game Length- A solid adventure mode but will only have the hardcore Sonic fans unlocking all skills and beating all missions and challenges. Some party games are fun… 8/10
Overall- If you’re a hardcore Sonic fan who’s looking for one of the best Sonic games on a console for a long time this is a must-have. If you’re a gamer who’s simply looking for a wii game… this might not be for you… 7.5/10
