Sonic and the Secret Rings: An Important Lesson

I am smack in the middle of the first real (self-inflicted) struggle in my 2012 Sonic Extravaganza Challenge. It goes by the name Sonic and the Secret Rings. I was hoping that it couldn't get worse than the Miles AKA Tails levels in Sonic Adventure 2. Oh what a fool I was...

However, that is not the point of this blog posting. It is fun to read, write, and talk about how crappy a game is, but I'm sure you have already read, written, or talked about plenty of crappy games, as I know that I have. I am writing right now, during my lunch break, because I was thinking deep thoughts while doing the dishes after today's Sonic session before heading to work, and developing them throughout the first half of my shift, to the point that I had to start typing.

Someone (or a group of someones), who is in the job that I hope to be in one day, came up with this game. Not only did they dream up the idea, they believed in it so passionately that they took it to someone else, who also believed in it, to the point that this game was picked up, developed, and released. Lots of people spent lots of hours creating Sonic and the Secret Rings, and a publisher spent lots of money on that development.

I've read plenty of articles that talk about this in the past, but the concept has never really hit me until today. I want to make video games for a living. I want to come up with an idea that I believe in so much that when I tell other people about it, they will want to give me money so we can take it from my head and turn it into a real video game. I want to be like the guy who thought up Sonic and the Secret Rings.

My brain exploded when I came to that realization. What would inspire someone to create a game Sonic and the Secret Rings? What is the redeeming quality? There has to be one. If there wasn't, it should never have been released! And just the character Sonic is not enough for any sane company to spend money on development.

So, my important lesson that I have learned through all of this. As a aspiring game designer, I am going to look for what is good about a game, and try to figure out why it is good and how it makes the game work, because for the most part, there has to be some redeeming quality that allowed the game to make it all the way from someone's brain to the shelf. And I want my future games to be able to do that too. It is far to easy to find what is bad in a game, or to point out what doesn't work. The real challenge, and something that will help in my career goal, is identifying and defining the good.

Still searching for what is good in Sonic and the Secret Rings. Keep reading and following me on Twitter, and I will share it with you if I can find it.

Sonic Progress Update and Amazing Discovery!

Time for a progress update on my gaming goal of the year! So far, lots of fun playing and finally beating some old Sonic games. It only took me 20 years to finally beat Sonic 1! Since beginning my challenge, I have beaten Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 from the Sega Genesis. As you may have noticed on Twitter, I chose to play the Xbox Live Arcade versions. There are several reasons for this. I don't have a Genesis anymore, and in order to retain my sanity, I wanted the save and load anywhere feature that the XBLA version offered. If I had been playing without that ability, I probably would have punched a couple of babies after dying over and over and over in Sonic 1.

I have also been making some progress on a couple of other Sonic titles, namely Sonic Advance and Sonic Adventure 2. Sonic Advance has been fun, but is apparently very short. I actually just started it today, and after playing on my breaks at work, am already mostly done. Good thing there are plenty more Sonic games! Playing Sonic Adventure 2 is not quite as enjoyable though... I like getting the Dreamcast out, I love the feel of that controller, and I love the Dreamcast start up noise, so I was really excited to start playing a Dreamcast Sonic game again. But Sonic Adventure 2 hasn't really held up that much over time to me. I recently played the re-release of Sonic Adventure on XBLA and had a blast. But there is just something about Sonic Adventure 2 that just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it is the fact that the rails system was new at the time, and they hadn't figured out how to do it right. Or maybe it is because the Miles (I'm not calling him Tails anymore) sections of the game are really dumb.

Before I update the list, I have an amazing announcement to make! During the search for my Sonic Adventure 2 disc, I found Sonic Shuffle. I decided to throw it in and see how far I had gotten back in the day. Thank science my Dreamcast VMU still had a living battery and retained some of my old game saves! After seeing that Sonic Shuffle was still saved, I booted it up. Much to my surprise, I found that (wait for it.........................) I have already beaten Sonic Shuffle!!! Yeauh!!

So, without further ado, here is the updated list o' Sonic games:

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 

Sonic Spinball 

Sonic & Knuckles 

Sonic CD 

Sonic Chaos 

Sonic Triple Trouble 

Sonic 3D 

Sonic R 

Sonic Adventure 

Sonic Shuffle

Sonic Adventure 2 

Sonic Advance

Sonic Advance 2 

Sonic Heroes 

Sonic Advance 3

Sonic Rush 

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Sonic Rivals

Sonic and the Secret Rings 

Sonic Rush Adventure 

Sonic Rivals 2 

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Sonic Unleashed 

Sonic and the Black Knight 

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Sonic Colors 

Sonic Generations 

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (coming this year!)

Keep checking this blog and my Twitter feed for more updates, and to send some encouragement this direction. I may need it as I get into some of the less desirables on the list... Thanks for reading!! 

This year's gaming goal.

This year, I have come up with a goal to pursue thanks to a recent observation from Mrs. NinjaPatBeck (NinjaRiahBeck). This is actually something that she has mentioned to me on several occasions, but the most recent incident has inspired me to action. First, some back story.


I don't have any tattoos (this goal doesn't involve me getting one either). I have kicked the idea of getting one or several for many years now. It is something that we talk about when laying in bed trying to go to sleep. "What would you get?" "Where would you get it?" Things like that. Being the gamer that I am, some of the tats that I would want are, of course, video game characters. #1 on my list would be Megaman. Old Megaman to be precise. 8-bit, jumping, gun pointed forward, maybe a Mega Buster bullet. When I have told Uriah this, she laughs, but understands because I have played all the old Megaman games, and have beaten 1-6, 9, and 10. It is obvious to her that I like Megaman enough to want to have an image of the Blue Bomber on my person for the rest of my life.


My #2 choice is much less obvious to her though. I love Sonic the Hedgehog. Ever since I was little. Even though I didn't own my own Genesis until I was 18. When a Genesis was around, I played Sonic if it was available. One of the driving forces to getting a Dreamcast was seeing videos of Sonic Adventure. Hell, I even watched the crappy cartoon with Erkle as Sonic! So for me, Sonic would be another awesome video game tattoo. I have a dark and embarrassing secret when it comes to Sonic games though, which my wife knows and reminds me of fairly regularly, and is the basis of my gaming goal for 2012. 


I have only ever beaten 2 Sonic games, ever.


Pretty bad, I know. But it gets worse. The only 2 Sonic games that I have ever beaten are Sonic Adventure and Sonic Generations. That means that until about 2 weeks ago, I only had 1 Sonic game under my belt.


"If you are such a big Sonic fan, how come you haven't beaten more Sonic games?" -Uriah


So if you haven't already figured it out, my goal this year is to beat as many Sonic the Hedgehog games that I can. Now, if I just went with every Sonic game every made, I would probably want to beat my head against a wall playing both the 8-bit and 16-bit and Game Gear Sonic 1, 2, etc. so I am going to cut the list down a bit. Here are the games that I am going to try to play throughout the year:

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 
• Sonic Spinball 
• Sonic & Knuckles 
• Sonic CD 
• Sonic Chaos 
• Sonic Triple Trouble 
• Sonic 3D 
• Sonic R 
• Sonic Adventure 
• Sonic Shuffle
• Sonic Adventure 2 
• Sonic Advance
• Sonic Advance 2 
• Sonic Heroes 
• Sonic Advance 3
• Sonic Rush 
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
• Sonic Rivals
• Sonic and the Secret Rings 
• Sonic Rush Adventure 
• Sonic Rivals 2 
• Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
• Sonic Unleashed 
• Sonic and the Black Knight 
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
• Sonic Colors 
• Sonic Generations 
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (coming this year!)

That's a pretty decent list I think! If you have any other suggestions or games that I missed, please let me know via comments or Twitter. Part of the fun of this will be telling you all about my progress, so check back regularly for updates on how this is going!