Shadowknight1
Loftwing
Well, from what I've heard of the PS3/Xbox 360 Sonic game, the franchise is in trouble. And from getting through maybe half of the story, Sonic and the Secret Rings isn't quite the help it needs.
First things first, the graphics. They are absolutely top notch, lots of stunning visuals. I haven't played the 360 game, but in my opinion Sonic has never looked this good. The scenery is gorgeous with lots of pretty colors.
The story on the other hand is kinda lacking and it's moved along by storybook-like cutscenes rather than CGI FMV sequences, and that seemed kind of cheesy. I mean, it works for the type of story that's being told, but it just seems odd. Though it is humorous seeing Sonic make fun of Knuckles, aka Sinbad, who is supposed to have great stores of knowledge, which is, in Sonic's opinion, a joke considering Knuckles's nickname of "knucklehead".
The voice acting is typical Sonic fare as of late, and not exactly top notch, and the cutscene with "the most dramatic pinky swear" in gaming is very cheesy.
Music is also typical Sonic fare, being rock and other instrumental, a lot of it being similar to what you'd expect out of an Arabian Nights tale.
Now for the part where the game really falters, the controls. I'm sorry Sega, but 2d Sonic style controls should be left to 2d Sonic games. Sonic is stuck to a track and is stuck moving forward 95% of the time. You are able to back up, but the camera is stuck facing forward(and Sonic looks really REALLY weird backing up). And because Sonic is constantly moving forward, it makes killing enemies very difficult, especially if said enemy drops while you're right under them. That and Sonic has been robbed of his now trademark Spin Dash, making it difficult to get up to speed and attacking has been restricted to the Homing Jump.
I won't go into the "Party games" as I don't usually mess with that kind of stuff. All in all, it's a decent to mediocre game, mostly because of the formula they decided to use. What should have been done was to keep the engine from the Sonic Adventure games. I know that a lot of people think that that particular engine has flaws, but not as many as this. But I will say this about Sonic and the Secret Rings, it doesn't have the horrific loading times that I've read Sonic the Hedgehog(06) has. I give it a 6/10.
First things first, the graphics. They are absolutely top notch, lots of stunning visuals. I haven't played the 360 game, but in my opinion Sonic has never looked this good. The scenery is gorgeous with lots of pretty colors.
The story on the other hand is kinda lacking and it's moved along by storybook-like cutscenes rather than CGI FMV sequences, and that seemed kind of cheesy. I mean, it works for the type of story that's being told, but it just seems odd. Though it is humorous seeing Sonic make fun of Knuckles, aka Sinbad, who is supposed to have great stores of knowledge, which is, in Sonic's opinion, a joke considering Knuckles's nickname of "knucklehead".
The voice acting is typical Sonic fare as of late, and not exactly top notch, and the cutscene with "the most dramatic pinky swear" in gaming is very cheesy.
Music is also typical Sonic fare, being rock and other instrumental, a lot of it being similar to what you'd expect out of an Arabian Nights tale.
Now for the part where the game really falters, the controls. I'm sorry Sega, but 2d Sonic style controls should be left to 2d Sonic games. Sonic is stuck to a track and is stuck moving forward 95% of the time. You are able to back up, but the camera is stuck facing forward(and Sonic looks really REALLY weird backing up). And because Sonic is constantly moving forward, it makes killing enemies very difficult, especially if said enemy drops while you're right under them. That and Sonic has been robbed of his now trademark Spin Dash, making it difficult to get up to speed and attacking has been restricted to the Homing Jump.
I won't go into the "Party games" as I don't usually mess with that kind of stuff. All in all, it's a decent to mediocre game, mostly because of the formula they decided to use. What should have been done was to keep the engine from the Sonic Adventure games. I know that a lot of people think that that particular engine has flaws, but not as many as this. But I will say this about Sonic and the Secret Rings, it doesn't have the horrific loading times that I've read Sonic the Hedgehog(06) has. I give it a 6/10.