Sonic and the Secret Rings (re: Please Kill Me)

[Ranis]

I got a Wii a couple of days ago and picked up Sonic and the Secret Rings for it, a game that I am simultaneously having fun with and hating with a passion. The mission system was apparently designed to only have 4 bosses on 7 worlds, the missions on worlds are unlocked randomly, the camera doesn't pan out when Sonic backs up, the difficulty curve is stop-and-go into a brick wall and then through a brick wall, the storyline is subpar, and there were only 3 actual cutscenes in the whole game.

I beat it 2 hours ago and I'm still playing it, because beating the last boss opened up more missions on other worlds. Am I really having this much fun or should I just be shot?

[warty goblin]

I could really get into a game with no cutscenes, particularly "here's this really badass thing your character does, but instead of letting you do it and have fun, we're just going to show you" sort. If I wanted to watch a movie, I'd watch a movie, the fact that I'm playing a game should be a clue to the developers that I want to press buttons and make things happen.

As for lack of boss battles, that's another one I'm totally down with. I can honestly say that I think I have only ever enjoyed one boss battle in any game ever, and that was the Brumak in Gears of War: PC, and even that wasn't as fun as busting skulls with the sniper rifle. All to often they're just "here's the normal gameplay, but harder, and about 40% of your normal attacks don't work. Oh, and it has more health than a planet" which is to say, not fun (Tomb Raider Legend, I'm lookin' at you here). Very few games benefit from having your options reduced like that.

On the other hand terrible camera controls are, without much doubt, one of the worst things ever to plague a game. They can be overcome yes, but I like to overcome obstacles within the game, not the developer's incompetance or possibly stupidity.

Weird mission design is something of an annoyance, but hey, at least it's different.

Bottom line, if you are still having fun, you should not be shot. If however we catch you playing a game you know is no longer fun, and no longer even think may become fun, we will have no choice but to terminate your internet, so that you can sit alone and contemplate the depths of your errors. We reserve shooting for those who make less...dramatic mistakes.

[Jothki]

In my experience Sonic and the Secret Rings gets better the further you get into it, especially once you're in the endgame and you've finally unlocked enough to be able to go back and try to get golds on everything. Keep beating yourself against the wall, and see if you start enjoying it more.

Edit: The difficulty curve is obviously intentional. The levels requiring you to collect no pearls can be downright sadistic. I find that the game has the same sort of appeal that N does.

[Tempest Fennac]

It's been ages since I've played that game (some of the missions are really irritating, like the one where you need to put eggs in the relevant nests), but it's quite a fun game overall.

[JadedDM]

This seems like a job for someone who links webcomics in lieu of saying anything relevant to a discussion!

Slackerz! (http://theslackerz.com/index.php?Page=29)

Talk about a hedgehog flibber dee jibbet snap!

[Hermit]

Got the game a while back and boot it up from time to time to mess about with. As with many of the 3D Sonic games the exectuion isn't up to the standard of the actual theory, but its a lot more fun than I had with Heroes and the dross which came after, which nearly put me off the series permenantly. I still think Dimps just need to be given full control over all Sonic games though. The Rush games on the DS in particular are great.