Everyone knows it. This is a spin-off. But it is easily the mightiest Sonic spin-off to date, and should be for a while.
This isn't like the Sonic games you know, this isn't a platformer, this is truly something else. In the basic intro of the game, it is shown that the notorious hedgehog protagonist has been pretty much forced by a mysterious Djinn called Shahra, to enter the world of the Arabian Night's, like literally, the book itself. These worlds have been terrorised for a while by Erazor Djinn, a genie of the lamp running free, destroying the very story itself. Now, the objective of the main game is to collect all seven of the World Rings, which you get by defeating bosses and hard missions within each level, with each being seperated by a bizaar layout of chapter to chapter, each mission being a mere paragraph of the story.
Once you get into the game you must complete a very brief prologue, just giving you basic tips on how to control the game. Sonic and the Secret Rings is different in this way. If you just leave the Wiimote sitting on the ground of whatever, Sonic will run, and run, and run, and basically not stop, even if he runs cleanly off an edge. Think of the Wiimote as a steering wheel type of thing, you must tilt the mote side to side to make Sonic swerve on his path, and you have to turn it upside down (buttons facing floor) for Sonic not to turn around, but to stop and walk backwards (why you wouldn't turn around, I don't know, but it's Sonic, don't argue!) More or less, the levels progress like this, with different missions like Get to the Goal! and Collect 99 Rings!, and yes, every mission does have an exclamation at the end of it.
The level design is beyond beautiful, every aspect being looked at from the lovely shimmer of moonlight on a lake to the speed blurs that surround you when you hit the really high speeds (play for yourself to find out). Of course, while playing it through, I blanked out the fact that there were no dinosaurs in the tale of the Arabian Nights...but I suppose that's the way Erazor Djinn likes it.
Overall, this is a killer game, is not as good as previous stellar titles of the hedgehog's, but it is easily better then any other game out so far in the recent days of his. I recommend this game highly, but, only if you are a speed freak and a completionist when it comes to beating everything.
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Overall - 9/10