Sonic and the Secret Rings / YMMV

Awesome Music: The game has quite a unique sound, courtesy of semi-frequent Sonic musician Runblebee. His songs tread the line between hard rock and epic rap, with plenty of Engrish lyrics for maximum Narm Charm.
- "The Palace That Was Found" from Evil Foundry has reached memetic status for its repetitive "who's gonna rock the place?" chant, but that guitar solo and the rest of the theme's jazziness is notable on its own.
- "Unawakening Float" from Night Palace is truly beautiful, haunting, and epic, with lyrics reflecting Sonic's struggle as he approaches the end of a journey that may also be the end of his life.
- "It Has Come to This" from Erazor Djinn's boss fight is the epitome of Runblebee's Narm Charm. The lyrics are all over the place, but that driving guitar and spitting vocals more than make up for it.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: With how intense the main story can get at times, it's a little jarring to exit out and enjoy the Party Mode for a while. It's surprisingly extensive and features characters not present in the story, making it feel like a bit of a non-sequitur. There's so much thought put into it that it almost feels like a full Sonic Shuffle sequel tacked onto another game.
Broken Base: While the game's motion controls are near universally disliked, the degree to which they ruin the game is subject to debate. Some players think they're at least usable. Another camp thinks that, while they are certainly bad, the game is still playable. Another camp believes that they make the game completely unplayable, with at least one reviewer stating that the game is worse than Sonic '06 because of them.
Catharsis Factor: After seeing all the cruel atrocities Erazor Djinn's committed throughout the game, all the times he's flaunted his arrogant and petulant ego, all the sadistic toying he's done with Sonic himself, the heavily implied emotional manipulation he's subjected Shahra to, and inadvertently killing Shahra without a hint of remorse, the joy of seeing Darkspine Sonic beat the utter crap out of his One-Winged Angel form cannot be understated. And even after Erazor survives the fight, the cherry on top is one hell of a Humiliation Conga when Sonic uses the magic lamp Shahra gave him to force Erazor to undo all the harm he's done, giving the Jackass Genie a chance to see how he likes being toyed around with, which inflicts so much physical pain on him that he begs for his life when Sonic has him imprisoned in his lamp for all eternity. And then Sonic drops that lamp into a pit of lava to ensure Erazor never brings harm to anyone or anything ever again.
Complete Monster: Erazor Djinn is a malevolent genie with aspirations of godhood and world domination. Having been forced to grant the wishes of 1,000 people as punishment for his crimes prior to the game, Erazor harbored a hatred for the creator of the Arabian Nights and sought to escape that storybook world. To that end, Erazor began to destroy and absorb the pages of the book to grow in power. When Shahra brings Sonic into the storybook to stop him, Erazor uses his Flame of Judgment curse to force Sonic into finding the Seven World Rings for him before the flame kills Sonic. He also commits other atrocities such as attempting to assassinate King Shahryar, summoning the Ifrit demon to burn the remaining pages of the book, and condemning King Solomon to life as an undead skeleton. When Sonic confronts Erazor at his palace, Erazor reveals his intention was to sacrifice Sonic to gain control of the Seven World Rings and reshape the world in his image. His attempt to kill Sonic is thwarted when Shahra takes the hit for Sonic. Erazor is unmoved by her sacrifice, calling her weak. Self-absorbed, and with the cruelty to match his ego, Erazor's transformation into Alf Layla wa-Layla only reflected the evil within his heart.
Condemned by History: While never a critical darling, Secret Rings was held in higher regard upon release than it would be in later years. Reviewers saw the game as an improvement over recent titles, particularly Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), with several praising it as a return to the faster-paced action that was deemed lacking in the series' console installments following the Video Game 3D Leap. The game was also liked for its use of motion controls, as well as Sonic being the sole playable character, as dislike of the franchise's ever-expanding cast (especially as playable characters) had become a common refrain amongst the fan community. In the years since, however, it would join its sister game Sonic and the Black Knight in being derided by critics and fans. The novelty of motion controls would soon wear off, with the gameplay controls now being seen as clunky and irritating to deal with; the plot was seen as more ridiculous, with Sonic being trapped in One Thousand and One Nights now seeing the same dismissal and skepticism as him becoming a werehog or wielding a sword, with the additional problem of lacking Black Knight's saving graces of Sonic's characterization and its Hard Truth Aesop; and the release of more universally-liked home console entries like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations meant prior 3D games were now held up to even greater scrutiny.
Contested Sequel: General consensus is that this game is much better than its predecessor, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), due to having more polish on the whole, along with a more tightly-written story. It's controversial as a standalone game in the series, though, primarily due to the motion-based control scheme. Nearly the entire game is controlled by tilting or shaking the Wii Remote, save for jumping, sliding, and Time and Speed Break. The Homing Attack, moving left or right, and interacting with objects is all done with motion controls. Combined with how fast Sonic can get going later in the game, and it becomes nigh-impossible to control the little guy. The controls have a steep learning curve that turned off a lot of casual players to the game, and even the game's fans have a hard time defending them, despite otherwise enjoying the atmosphere and plot the game has to offer. To this day, Sonic fans are divided as to whether it's mediocre and forgettable, or an overlooked breath of fresh air.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: The game's controls are extremely infamous among Sonic fans for being incredibly unresponsive and questionably designed, making them an incredibly frustrating case of Fake Difficulty. However, fans of the game who otherwise agree that the gameplay isn't fun consider the story to be one of the strongest in the franchise, largely owing to its badass, yet compassionate portrayal of Sonic, having a strong Love to Hate villain with Erazor Djinn, and the Arabian Nights theme being incredibly unique. While Sonic and the Black Knight is usually considered better from a story perspective, Secret Rings' story still enjoys a devoted cult following in spite of the gameplay.
Fanon: Unlike Sonic and the Black Knight, where his counterpart is King Arthur, Sonic doesn't have an equivalent from the Arabian Nights in this game — though he draws obvious parallels to Aladdin. However, fans usually consider Sonic's equivalent in this world to be Uhu the Wind Genie, given that both of them are associated with speed, wind, and the color blue.
Game-Breaker: The Aegis Slider skill. This skill renders you invincible while sliding, which allows you to bypass entire sections of levels without taking damage. Pair this with any of the Skimmer skills, and entire levels become cakewalks.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- From Sonic the Hedgehog The Screen Saver, one of the screensavers featured◊ a genie lamp. Then, over 10 years later...
- The magical flame arrow that has cursed Sonic is a stark reminder that Your Days Are Numbered no matter what he does, has a visual indicator to show how much time is left, and forces him to carry out specific tasks as a result. One might even say Sonic is under the effects of a Flame Clock from Xenoblade Chronicles 3!
Iron Woobie: Sonic, natch. Throughout the entire game, he has to deal with a magical flame arrow jutting out of his heart which continually saps his energy as a result of his selflessness, has a time limit to fulfill the request of retrieving the World Rings or the curse will kill him, experiences fatigue from the curse occasionally, has to juggle with the idea that he'll be killed whether he does it or not, and then is faced by Shahra's death and his rather painful-looking forced transformation into Darkspine Sonic, and even worse, the poor guy is suffering with a cold throughout the game as well. Bearing all that in mind, Sonic still doesn't miss a beat and is having the time of his life through the majority of the adventure. It's not until the very end when he's very close to death and Erazor has pretty much smashed every Berserk Button he has that Sonic's mood drops, and even then, he just gets pissed off by the situation more than anything.
Love to Hate: Voice acting notwithstanding, Erazor Djinn is a fairly popular villain among Sonic fans for both his quick planning and unrepentant jerkassery, which makes his defeat all the cathartic.
Memetic Mutation:
- Evil Foundry's music. All together now: "WHO'S GONNA ROCK THE PLACE?! PLACE?! PLACE?!"
- The lyrics to "Seven Rings In Hand", especially the chorus, are often parodied. TieTuesday and crew especially took the piss out of it during his playthrough of the game.
  MAAAKE BELIEEEVE REBOOOORN—
- "First of all, your Jordans are completely fake." ^Explanation
Moral Event Horizon: Erazor crosses it when he manipulates Shahra's feelings for him to get the World Rings, and then scoffs at her death when she takes a hit intended for Sonic.
Most Wonderful Sound:
- The sound Pearls make when they are collected.
- The sound for collecting Super Rings in this game is probably the most cathartic it's ever been.
Narm:
- Erazor Djinn's voice acting is... not very good, to say the least. It's most egregious during the final cutscene, where it sounds like he's drunk half the time.
- Erazor's vocalizations during the ending scenes are themselves rather hilarious, as what should sound like him going through great pain sounds more like he's belting out and holding a very impressive operatic note.
Narm Charm: Sonic's final wish from Shahra, to grant her a mountain of handkerchiefs, might be a corny Book Ends, but the sheer compassion Sonic holds for the grieving genie after her Trauma Conga Line is sweet.
Nightmare Fuel:
- Erazor's very gruesome and agonizing-sounding transformation into Alf Layla wa-Layla. Also, the appearance of Alf Layla wa-Layla in general. Sonic himself lampshades it:
  Sonic: This is awful. You're just some incomplete monster...
- Taking place directly after Erazor's transformation, Sonic's transformation into Darkspine Sonic is also rather horrifying. For starters, hearing Sonic outright scream in pain is already distressing enough, but then you consider the fact that he's only 15 years old. He's a child.
Nightmare Retardant: Alf Layla wa-Layla may look scary (provided you don't look at the face as some type of mutant Mike Wazowski), but the voice work for him just kills the scare factor. It tries to make him sound booming and powerful, but it just sounds like he inhaled a tank of helium, which has the unintended effect of making him sound like a petulant man child, or alternatively a very cheap Chakravartin soundalike. Just try to listen to him say "The stories of this world are MINE!" without laughing.
Nintendo Hard: The later missions are all insanely hard, and mostly consist of the Avoid the Pearls/No Damage/X Ring Chain variety with crazy obstacles. They're optional, though.
Signature Line: After defeating and utterly humiliating Erazor Djinn as payback for everything he's done, Sonic delivers this cheesy line that manages to sound incredibly badass thanks to Jason Griffith's delivery:
Erazor: I cannot be denied by that filthy rat! Whyyyyy?
Sonic: I told you, I'm not a RAT! I'm a HEDGEHOG! (blows out lamp)
Signature Scene: The cutscene following the Final Boss, during which Sonic forces Erazor Djinn into a Humiliation Conga before trapping him in his lamp for eternity, capped off with the Signature Line above. Despite the game's middling quality, many have cited this scene one of Sonic's most badass moments to date, which is really saying something.
Tear Jerker: Shahra's death. This is one of the few times Sonic actually breaks his optimistic demeanor, desperately wishing for her to live, and when that fails, he focuses all of his anger on to Erazor in the form of Darkspine Sonic. Thank goodness he is able to wish her back to life using Erazor's lamp.
That One Level: Dinosaur Jungle — Mission 10: "Get the Pterosaur Egg!". You must find four dinosaur eggs scattered throughout a small course and take them to their nests. One problem: each egg belongs in a specific nest and the eggs' locations are all randomized. Combine all this with controls that are more tuned for going forwards than anything related to exploration, and you got a mission that will wear out its welcome in no time flat.

YMMV / Sonic and the Secret Rings

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