Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Entry 107: "Sonic and the Secret Rings" Pt.1




At least the title screen tells you how to hold the darn thing. 
The game only had a mini manual that told me to find the real manual online.


Dear Internet,

                It has been quite some time since I played a "Sonic" game.  "Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed" does not count considering that it is as "Sonic" of a game as one of René Magritte's painting can be used to smoke some tobacco.  Then again, you could probably smoke the painting itself, but it is hard to find a wood chipper that big.  What I mean to say is that "Sonic and the Secret Rings" is as much of a "Sonic" game as "Sonic Advanced," which was the last "Sonic" game I played, but not at release time mind you.  Sure, you can argue that this is just a spinoff game considering that the setting of the game is outside the norm.  The world and the characters are far enough removed from the original series to warrant not placing this game in the same lineup as the main series, even if some of the faces are the same.  But the underlining aspect of this game is the same as all the others.  You have to get to the end of a track/world as quickly as you can while avoiding or destroying enemies as you go while at the same time collecting rings and other items.  Both series so belong in the platforming genre that I can look at "Secret Rings" with the same lens as I do when looking at all the other "Sonic" games I have played.

                "Secret Rings" opens up with that cocky blue hedgehog, that we all know, being called on for assistance by the genie Shahra.  She tells Sonic that her world of the Arabian Nights is being threatened by the terrible actions of Erazor Djinn, a powerful magical entity that is destroying the pages of "The 1001 Nights."  Sonic then enters into the mystical world to help Shahra, who is also the genie of the ring on top of being an allusion to the character Scheherazade from the original text.  Quickly, Sonic meets Erazor Djinn who in turn places a curse on Sonic.  If Sonic does not collect the various World Rings that are scattered about, Sonic will die.  Sonic and Shahra then set out to collect the legendary World Rings in hopes of saving Sonic and attempt to find a way to stop the destruction of the world of the Arabian Nights.
The primary characters from left to right: Erazer Djinn, Sonic, and Shahra.

                So, there you have it, Internet.  You got the premise, the Macguffin, and maybe a little suspense thrown in.  What more could you want?  The gameplay?  Well, if you insist.  The gameplay is standard 3D "Sonic" with some things thrown in for spice.  You control Sonic through a third person camera as he runs and jumps throughout the world, trying to reach a specific goal.  You collect rings and pearls while trying to reach the goal as quickly as you can to maximize the score you receive at the end of each level.  This is all pretty standard stuff for a "Sonic" game.  The kicker?  Sonic does not stop running.  He run forward as a default function while the player controls if he goes left, right, or jumps.  Well, that is not exactly accurate.  You can brake, and you can walk backwards, but I will get to that in a minute.  It would probably be most accurate to liken the gameplay to that of an on-rails game.  You go predominantly forward along a track with little possible input to either go either to one side or another.  This is not like an open world game where you can move freely on a plane or even change your camera angle.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

                "Secret Rings" has got major problems with its gameplay.  The fact that Sonic is constantly going forward is where the problem starts off.  It would not be as much of a problem if the game had allowed the player choose when to move forward.  Instead, the game creates a frustrating mess with this forced control method which culminates in being forced to run into walls and facing dead ends.  There is a brake button to make Sonic stop, but it is rather useless considering that the game places more emphasis on the second problem with the control scheme, the jump button.  Instead of having the jump button function as a jump button, "Secret Rings" tries to do something different.  It is a slide/jump button.  Most games would have the button work as thus: press it to jump and hold it for a longer jump.  "Secret Rings" does something completely different.  When you press the button, you begin to slide.  Depending on how long you slide will determine how high you jump.  If you slide too long, you completely stop.  At the same time, if you press it while airborne, you immediately fall back to the ground.  The sliding aspect is one that feels completely out of place, especially considering that at this point I have not once needed to slide under anything in the game.  It takes quite a lot of getting used to, but it feels so out of place in a platforming game to have to charge up a jump rather than determining the altitude of the jump after initiating the jump that I have to discount this against the game.  While it does add depth to the game by forcing the player to plan out the jumps ahead of time, it detracts from the twitch response gameplay that comes from such a fast paced game.  Maybe it would be better if it was not for the motion controls.

                "Sonic and the Secret Rings" was released for the Wii relatively early in the console's life and implemented a number of motion controlled features.  What does this mean?  You can assume that it means that those motion controls are terrible, and you would be right.  Very, very few non-Nintendo games use the motion controls of the Wii well.  For the most part, the games developed by other studios do a poor job of using the Wii Remote to its greatest of capabilities.  This is in part because of the unreliability of motion controls.  If you want to do a fine tuned motion with the Remote while under the pressure of a fast paced game, you will most likely screw it up in five different ways.  Take for example the Bonelich mini-game in "Zack & Wiki" Quest for Barbaros' Treasure."  In it, the player had to flick the Wii Remote like a baton stick at the moment when a note passed by an action bar.  It was a simple rhythm game.  However, it is one of the most frustrating min-games out there due to that simple control scheme.  The question of whether the game was logging the player's attempt to "hit" the note at the begging of the flick or at the height of the flick was never addressed.  What happened was a shambled attempt to try and accurately play a game with an inaccurate control scheme.  Each of these poorly designed control schemes have unique problem like this. 

                "Secret Rings" has only two motion control problems.  Moving left and right along the rail is as simple as tilting the Wii Remote left and right, like a see-saw.  The problem relies on the homing attack and the backtracking movement.  There is a homing attack that Sonic can use to aim directly at a specific target.  The game automatically chooses the player's target and displays a red signal when the player can and should use the homing attack.  This is done, according to the game, by shaking the Wii Remote forward in a small thrusting motion.  However, this makes the attempt to actually attack the enemy iffy at best.  A forward thrusting motion would require the player to straighten his elbows and then bend them back quickly to keep the Wii Remote on a level plane to ensure the thrust was truly flat and forward.  What the game actually means is to do a slight forward flick of the wrists, which in turn is more of a downward spin along the axis.  Why do I make such a big deal of this kind of thing?  Partially because doing an elbow based thrust causes the controller to be unresponsive but also because games that want to maximize motion controls need to be as accurate in their descriptions of what they are seeking from the player.  Is the game looking for a specific axis of the controller to be beyond a set increment, a motion set along a specific plane, or some combination of the two?  Unless motion control based games tell the player exactly what they are looking for, the player has to spend time fighting the controller to learn what they are supposed to be doing rather than playing the game.

                Then there is the backtracking movement.  Since Sonic is by default running forward all the time, there are a few moments when the player has to move backwards to either realign for a jump or look for something.  This is done by tilting the controller toward the player.  The problem with this is that the controller practically needs to be upside down before the game will register that the player wants to go backwards.  There is no sort of progression of a slowdown as the player begins the tilt.  The game just decides when the tilt is enough to begin the slowdown and make Sonic start to walk backwards.  It is often instant and fickle as to when it wants to acknowledge your attempt to walk backwards.  When the game does finally makes Sonic walk backwards, it is like trying to hold in your bare hands a cantaloupe sized amount of Jell-O.  Sure, if you are calm and well prepared, you can balance that much Jell-O in your hands by figuring out the best placement of your hands.  But in "Secret Rings" you do not get time to prepare to handle the Jell-O.  You are thrown the Jell-O from across the room.  When it hits you, you fumble the Jell-O all over yourself as it breaks up into smaller pieces and begins to slide right through your hands.  You see, the player backtracks mostly when they have screwed up a jump that already is requiring them to have twitched correctly under pressure.  Often, there are enemies and traps right at those moments when the player screws up.  Compound the unresponsive controls with having to move wobbly while surrounded by enemies, and you get a very frustrating experience rather than difficult gameplay.  
What inevitably happens is super slow runs of some levels while combating the controls rather than the game's enemies.

                I will stop here for today, Internet, considering that I have written so much for a single post.  Tomorrow, I will talk about the music, menu, story, and maybe a few other things if I have time, mostly likely other aspects of gameplay.

Yours in digital,
BeepBoop

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