Via Joystiq, So, we agree then. In speaking to Newsweek's N'Gai Croal about the Olympic pairing of Sonic and Mario, Sega of America president, Simon Jeffery, echoes a widespread sentiment that it's time to give Sonic a bit of a reboot. "We are actually undergoing a fairly considerable refresh of Sonic as an intellectual property, as a character," says Jeffery. "Sonic on the Wii is probably the first product that's come to market that reflects that. We're not going to be bringing another game out on the other platforms for quite some time, because we feel that it is time to reinvent Sonic, to make Sonic contemporary again." If Sonic and the Secret Rings was the first step in revitalizing a franchise gone astray, it certainly wasn't a very good one. In fact, it turned out to be more like a drunken waddle out of bed before careening down a flight of stairs. Still, it's reassuring to see that Sega is, at the very least, attempting to reestablish their fallen mascot as a character that could convince you to buy his game. Unless, of course, that's still happening... "At the same time, even the recent 360 and Playstation 3 games have sold extremely well," continues Jeffery. "Sonic is still an extremely endearing character; there's still a lot of love for Sonic out there in consumerland." If gamers are trying to send Sega a message, it's getting garbled in consumerland's confusing postal network. If we truly want a Sonic reboot, we'll have to stay away from the hedgehog until he gets his 3D act together. Perhaps a little help from Mario and Miyamoto will set him back on track by the time the 2008 Olympics arrive.

Didn't Sonic Wii get pretty decent score for a Sonic 3d game?

Sonic and The Secret Rings is a good but not great game. If they can take Secret Rings and fix its flaws it could turn out great for the Sonic franchise.

Yeah, it had alot of people saying it was the best 3d Sonic since Sonic Adventure!

It sold 88k in the US in the first week can't be all to bad.......

Sonic and the Secret Rings wasn't too bad. I liked the blazing fast race through the level mechanic of the 2D Sonic's but the RPG elements, horrible rock music and voices, and a generally poor method of attacking enemies dragged it down. I liked using the Wiimote to navigate so if they would emphasize the first part (i.e. the traditional Sonic elements that made Sonic games great) and drop the last three they'd have a good-great game. I'd say it was a bit more of an improvement than the article claims, they got rid of guns, Dreamcast quality graphics, and terrible 3D cameras. 3 down, 3 to go.

If Sonic Rush is any indication, Sonic is actually strongest in "others" territories nowadays. So nearly 90K in Feb for Secret Rings might not be so bad. It could work its way to 300 or 400K from there. The game seems to still be popping up in top 5 Wii sales lists for some PAL territories, too, though there's no indication of sales there. Of course it was just a few years ago that many different 3D Sonic games were pulling 2 mil + on multiple systems... Sonic Adventure on DC, Sonic Adventure 2 on GC, Sonic Heroes on PS2... Now 1 million isn't in the bag for any Sonic title... Ouch...