Which is why Sonic and the Secret Rings feels like such a perfect fit for the Nintendo Wii. It’s a gaming system that openly ignores the multimedia frenzy offered by its competitors, and instead stays true to an old-school outlook that puts good old fashioned fun firmly at the forefront of the experience.
So, pure gameplay, then… and quite possibly, for the first time in a fair few years, pure Sonic – none of the extra characters, adventure elements or multiple gaming styles from his previous 3D outings. This could finally be the game to make 2D Sonic purists take notice of the ‘hog in three dimensions.
One thing’s for sure; this will certainly be the first Sonic game to feature high-speed motion sensitive control. Intuitively, controlling the titular hero is done by holding the Wii remote sideways like a joypad, and tilting it to make him move. Forwards or backwards momentum causes him to speed up or slow down respectively, jumping is done with the 2 button, and dipping left and right makes him turn – a setup which promises to make for lots of panicked last ditch changes of direction – and possibly not a few falling-off-the-chair moments if you find yourself too eagerly engrossed.
By the looks of things so far, that could easily happen; because this time around Sega have stripped away all of the complications and focused on one single aspect of the Sonic experience: Speed.
Even months before release, Secret Rings is already looking fast and frantic, with level design heavily reminiscent of the best levels from the original Sonic Adventure. Fans can expect lots of speedy on-rails reaction-based platforming gameplay, with a healthy dose of set pieces thrown in for good measure – such as Sonic being boosted miles into the air by an enormous hulking dinosaur, or sprinting through a ruin with pillars collapsing all around him.
This would all appear to be part of the new setting. A general Arabian theme permeates Secret Rings, with the story taking its cue from the pages of Arabian Nights – quite literally, as it turns out. In Secret Rings, the last three pages of said book have gone blank, and it’s central character, the Genie, grants Sonic access to the book’s very pages, hoping the blue dude with attitude can find the missing story strands and put the book back together.
Frankly, it all sounds a little out of place for a Sonic game – but when it all looks as good as this, we can’t say we care too much. Secret Rings is quite possibly the finest looking Wii title going at the moment, boasting some truly spectacular lighting effects, detailed background furniture and simply loads going on on-screen. This even betters Sega’s efforts on the much more powerful Xbox 360.
Helping this along immensely is the new camera perspective, which in no small way reminds us of Gears of War’s ‘roadie run’ viewpoint. Positioning itself low to the ground behind Sonic, it really does convey a frightening amount of momentum, while at the same time allowing you to see far enough into the distance that you can plan for oncoming obstacles.
The camera is also dynamic, too – not averse to panning out for wide shots to convey a sense of scale, or moving to the side for some Sonic Rivals style 2D-esque instances. Even more impressive is that the game engine would appear to handle this without any noticeable break in play; or particularly hard-hitting drops in frame rate. If this proves to be the case for the final build we’ll be very happy indeed.
We’re already very excited, because this could well offer the fine balance of 2D and 3D Sonic conventions that Sega have long been aiming for. For the first time in over a generation Sonic Team seem content to merely focus on the character’s core gameplay, and ignore the other distractions which have become so prevalent in the series. They’ve looked backwards to move forwards, and turned to an old rival in Nintendo to provide the spark that’s been missing from the hog’s outings in recent years. It may just be that act that re-establishes Sonic as a gaming icon