Not a bad game, but very frustrating
Sonic and the secret Rings starts as a game of the first category. The controls work just fine, and untill you beat the story, difficulty is perfectly balanced. Afterwards, there is not much of a thrive to keep playing. The story is certainly not worth of making a movie out of it, but it does what it should do: give Sonic (and the player) some sort of excuse to go on an adventure.
After you beat the story, there are still about 50 missions left to get through, with some added difficulty. Like most people, I tried to get through those as well. But there was far less fun in the game. I don't think the actual story had anything to do with it, but more like the feeling that your not advancing anymore.
After a while, the game gets very hard. This is not my problem. I like a good challenge, and the biggest problem with games these days is that they are way too easy. The secret Rings just fails to deliver it in a nice package. You will die many, many times, and most likely, you will die 20 times AT THE VERY SAME SPOT before you finally get further into the level, die again, and start all over again. You will certainly keep playing, just because you hate the thought that you have been defeated. But it won't be fun anymore, only frustrating. I eventually said something like 'Good, I finally beat that mission. Now I am going to have fun some other way!'
For the graphic part; this is one one the best-looking games for the Wii. There has been much eye for detail, nothing of it all looks generic, and it's all just smooth and fits the theme. nothing wrong there, but also not mind-blowing. Even now, I feel the Wii has more horsepower then this.
I only wish the music was as good. The soundtrack from the Sonic Adventures doesn't have many fans, even though I liked it. But this was just HORRIBLE! It's repetitive, the lyrics don't make any sense, and the theme song 'seven rings in hand' has been horribly overused as menu, mission success and mission failure jingle. Note that this is also the worst of all songs, so it will irritate you to the bone.
I can't say I hate this game. It has been fun untill the end of the story. But it was just too frustrating to keep playing. There ARE people who succeeded in completing the game 100%, and they have earned my respect with that. But I will never do so, I got more fun things to do! Rent the game first, you can beat the story within three days, and if you REALLY like what comes after it, you can always buying. But I did stop recommending this game.