The most common complaint that critics cited against previous 3D Sonic games, most famously Sonic Adventure, was that the camera often didn’t point in the direction that they were going. The game was lambasted for this, and now it’s not uncommon to see new games with wonky camera systems to be mockingly compared to Sonic’s Dreamcast debut. But was the problem the game, or the critics themselves?

Some fans argue that the camera is generally supposed to act like a compass, pointing in the direction that you’re supposed to be going, apart from in certain situations where it’s blatantly obvious. Such as when you have to flee from a rampaging orca in the first level. According to this theory, you’ll have to play the game as though it’s on rails if you want to see what you’re doing most of the time: go in the direction the camera points unless it’s clear that you shouldn’t, don’t double back on yourself, and don’t wander off path. And then, these fans say, the camera woes are largely alleviated.

But whether or not that’s true, Sonic and the Secret Rings has to be played like it’s on rails - because it is. And the camera almost always stays right behind Sonic’s back. Suffice it to say, if you enjoy free roaming romps you could well feel constricted by the game’s design. On the other hand, if you appreciate the incredible focus that a more streamlined experience can bring, you may enjoy Sonic and the Secret Rings.

I say “may”, because it’s a wild departure from the rest of the series. In fact, being on rails is one of the smaller changes! And as with other games that made a drastic overhaul to a series’ established formula, it’s somewhat controversial.

Anyway, the game begins with a slumbering Sonic, who’s fallen asleep reading The Arabian Nights. He’s woken from his nap by the voice of a young woman calling for him, which is odd because there doesn’t appear to be anybody else around. Assuming that it was just the last remnants of a dream, he reaches for his alarm clock to see what the time is, but in doing so accidentally brushes against a mysterious ring that’s appeared next to it. He picks it up, upon which it erupts with flames that turn into a floating female! She explains that she’s Shara, a genie from the world of the Arabian Nights. The universe inside the book is being destroyed from within by another genie, wittily named Erazor Djinn. Unsurprisingly, Shara has come to seek help, and Sonic is required to save the day as usual. So without further ado, Shara takes Sonic into the book in order to put things right.

Once inside the novel you’ll be treated to eight unique locations in which to quash evil, some of which are clearly inspired by settings from stories within the Arabian Nights, whilst others obviously aren’t. Or maybe I just missed the yarn involving dinosaurs:

You can’t access them all from the beginning, though - you have to complete certain levels in one place before you’re allowed to move onto the next. Initially, the only one locale available is Lost Prologue, which is really just a tutorial, each stage introducing a new ability in order to gradually acquaint you with Sonic’s starting set of moves:

The first thing of note is that Sonic now accelerates automatically without you having to do anything, and you can steer him left and right manually like in Excite Truck by tilting the Wii Remote in the desired direction. Also, you can make him reverse by tilting it backwards - which really is reversing, by the way - he’ll back away from the direction he’s facing without turning around. The only problem with this is that the camera stays behind his back, so you can’t see where you’re going. But thankfully, reversing is virtually never required, so I rarely had any trouble with this.

A more significant problem is that there’s very slight lag between tilting the controller and Sonic’s response, which is fine on the easier levels, but can cause unnecessary crashes on the more challenging ones. Especially if you’re going quickly. In order to prevent painful incidents, you can repeatedly tap Button 1 to make Sonic slow down in order to get out of the way of obstacles in time. The faster you tap it, the slower he’ll go, and if you hold it, he’ll stop altogether. But although this can be used to prevent pain, the controls still ought to be more responsive. You simply shouldn’t have to cater for them by slowing to a crawl, and sometimes actually having to halt, especially in a game that’s supposed to be focussed on speed.

On the other hand, it doesn’t matter much if you do get hurt: in previous Sonic games, you’d lose all the Rings you’d collected if you were hit, and if you were then wounded without any Rings you’d die. But now you only lose a portion of them at a time (the amount depending on what you bumped into), and also have an infinite number of lives. Checkpoints are plentiful as well. Due to these factors, a lot of people won’t mind taking the occasional cheap hit - or even death - due to the controls at high speed. You can, after all, have as many tries as you like. And if you remember where the hazards are, you can start getting out of the way early in order to avoid them if you’re going quickly.

But others will be annoyed by the trial and error, as well as memorisation, necessary to do some levels quickly, and will want to slow down in order to avoid taking any unfair damage. However, the majority of the game is still extremely speedy, so many will be willing to tolerate this.

If you think you fall into either of the above categories, you’ll probably enjoy Sonic and the Secret Rings a great deal. But if you’re looking for a consistently high-octane experience, you’d be better off looking elsewhere.