Sonic & The Secret Rings has a nice sense of speed if you can get used to the controls. By the way, that's not easy.
The game is completely on rails, which is the games biggest issue. You control sonic but tilting the control similar to Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam was a racing game, Sonic & The Secret Rings is a platformer. On rails platforming is difficult and hard to get used to. Jumping requires good timing, and unlike most Sonic games, Sonic doesn't always jump perfectly like you want him to. You have to hold down 2 which makes him jump higher. That my friend, is a GIANT pain. This requires timing and a lot of patience. You don't know when to start holding it down, and how long you should hold it down, so it's pretty much trial and error.
On the other hand, Sonic & The Secret Rings has a nice sense of speed, when you're getting the controls right, it plays very smooth and how Sonic games should be. That's when the controls are working though, when they aren't... gameplay is slow and frustrating. When you get knocked into something you have to get back up to speed, you have to accelerate, like a racing game. Basically, Sonic is a freaking hedgecar. When I run... I can start fast. I don't need to build up. Maybe it's different for Hedgehogs though.
The story, ugh... I don't remember it, because I didn't care. Sonic games don't need an in depth story. Here's an idea... Dr.Eggman is stealing the chaos emeralds, GO GET 'EM! Sonic tries to throw in some Arabian Nights themed story, I didn't pay attention, it's not worth it. They allow you to skip this stuff for a reason (take note Sonic Unleashed!)
The game is from 2006, so I have to flash back and compare them to other games from 2006. For a Wii game in 2006, graphics are somewhat impressive. For Wii standards, they look decent. Twilight Princess was more gorgeous, then again Zelda games tend to impress on all levels, whereas Sonic games... eh.
The games a decent length, it features a lot of collectibles, and you'll strive to level up to earn new power ups... to make the gameplay better. Power Ups tend to make things a bit interesting with the frustrating controls.
Sonic & The Secret Rings is a fast paced game that, when you can control it, is fun to play, unfortunately, controls are annoying and hard to get used to, by the time you get the hang of them, you'll probably stop caring anyway.