A decent effort and a step in the right direction for the fading franchise, but ultimately, it's a frustrating game.
User Rating: 8.2 | Sonic and the Secret Rings WII
Sonic has fallen on hard times as of late. The only decent game starring the 90's Mascot appearing in the few years being the sometimes-fun Sonic Rush on the DS. While Sonic and the Secret Rings is a good effort, it still suffers from terrible design flaws and controls that aren't as tight as they should be. I'm sure you've read how the controls work, so I won't bother going into a lot of detail about that, but I will tell you the problems I've encountered. Sometimes, there is a bit of a delay with turning and it does become very annoying after a while. Also, on the pointless missions where you have to do a level without killing an enemy, you'll find Sonic doing a homing attack on an enemy without you thrusting the Wiimote forwards like you're meant to. The basic idea for the controls are good, but they really need to be tweaked so they fit just a little better. My main complaint about this game is the mission system. While you do still get "zones", they are cut up into a dozen or so missions, where you'll be replaying the same area, but with a different objective in mind. This makes the game feel really scattered and small. You can do some of these objectives in less than a minute, so it makes it feel less like a real Sonic game. It doesn't help that some of the objectives are simply stupid (finish with no rings, finish without killing enemies etc) and you do the same objectives in each zone most of the time. It soon becomes tedious and seldom suprises. What I would like instead is to have zones and acts like in the old game. Real, long 5 min levels. The game does touch on this occasionally and you get a glimmer of the old school fun on the "reach the goal" objectives, but they are unfortunately few and far between. From a presentation standpoint, Sonic and the Secret Rings is solid on nearly every level. The menus are basic, but have a nice style and the loading times are very fast. The game really shines graphically, and the great thing is you get the feeling that the Wii is playing this game in its sleep. It is very encouraging and the graphics are certainly a lot more advanced than the GameCube and shows off some nice environmental effects as well as some awesome motion blur when you go really fast. However, musically the game is hit and miss. The main theme song is simply annoying, though there are a few good tracks during the game, but nothing amazing. Music is a big part of Sonic for me and I was quite disappointed, but it won't be a big deal for most people. In short, Sonic and the Secret Rings is far from abysmal, but it definately does need work. It's a frustrating game and occasionally gives you a gllimpse of what the game could have been, but thanks to questionable design choices and sometimes clunky controls, those experiences are few and far between. If I were you, I'd give this one a rental first. 
