There's a lot to be happy about in Sonic and the Secret Rings. It's a stripped-down and extremely polished game which successfully captures the essence of what made Sonic fun and exciting in the first place. Moreover, it reverses the horrible trend which Sonic Adventure (and latterly Sonic the Hedgehog) titles had followed, namely adding more characters and more pointless gameplay styles in the hope that if enough mud was thrown at the wall, some of it would stick. Secret Rings' developers understand that very often, less is more; this game has less characters, less variety of gameplay, less buttons on its control layout and less superflous features, and it's a far, far better game for it.
Sonic and the Secret Rings is a very bold step in the right direction, and we're delighted to see it happen. It's not perfect by any means; it still carries through some of the flaws that have afflicted Sonic for years, such as leap-of-faith jumps and sections which can only be completed by learning the track through trial and error. The presentation also needs work in some areas, and the multiplayer mini-games are frankly crap. However, this is a game about Going Fast and Jumping, and, at last, its designers have realised that that's exactly what we want to do with Sonic. The Going Fast is brilliant, the Jumping is fantastic, and we have big smiles on our faces. Sonic is back.l
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