The self sabotage of Sonic and the Secret Rings

[stof]

Alright, so I rented Sonic and the Secret Rings. The reviews sounded intriguing (if mixed) so I thought I'd give it a go.

After spending some time with it, I think I'm ready to take a guess at how this game was produced. Someone at Sega decided to rethink the Sonic strategy and managed to make the best 3D sonic of all time. It was fast, intense, smooth and looked gorgeous. But I'm thinking that some office politics got involved, and near the end, it was decided that they'd mercilessly sabotage their own game.

First up was the cosmetic. "Lets add the worst story we could possibly think of" said one Sega exec. "Alright replied the other, but only if we can use wretched voice acting in it". "Deal, and you know what the arabian nights story really needs? a bad punk rock soundtrack"

And it only goes downhill from there. The tacked on RPG elements are more of a nuisence than annything else. Especially wnen you look at what most of the gained abilities are. Moving from side to side smoother, backing up easier, jumping smoother. Yes, you actually have to earn the chance to not have crappy controls.

you're constantly having to replay the levels with different and awful objectives. "Don't break any jars" is the worst so far. That and Don't kill any enemies. 

But by far, the worst part is what they've done to the gameplay. Jumping and backing up is so unfluid that it almost feels broken at times. And I'm not even going to touch the party games, as I actually refuse to try them out.

So in all, Sonic and the Secret Rings is the most frustrating game I've ever played. But the reason is because it's such an awesome game at it's core. When it works, it just plain works. I've had intense rounds and I just can't wait to play more. The problem is that when I do play it, I just get mad at what Sega did to their masterpiece.

Had they  scrapped the stupid story, music,  minigames, rpg elements and some of the repeat missions, tightened up jumping and added some more levels, It'd easily rival the 2D sonics in the awesome department. As it is, I'm completely torn right now. I don't know whether to buy the game and play it regularilly or smash the rental copy and suffer the consequences at Microplay.

Discuss.