Prerelease:Sonic and the Secret Rings

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Sonic and the Secret Rings.

When Sonic Team was in the process of conceiving Sonic '06, in addition to developing the game for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, they had a port to the Nintendo Wii in mind. However, upon receiving the development kits from Nintendo, the developers realized that it would take too long to port the game to the underpowered hardware. Due to still wanting a new Sonic game to release for the system, director Yojiro Ogawa left the project with a group of developers to create a new Sonic game for the Wii, also taking advantage of the motion controls.

Developed under the working titles of Sonic Wildfire, Hyper Sonic, and Sonic and the Secret of the Rings. They eventually decided on Sonic and the Secret Rings as the title, in spite of Sega preferring the Wildfire name. The game released worldwide in February/March 2007 to mixed reviews, generally cited as an improvement over its predecessor, although its reputation would decline greatly during the 2010s. A commercial success, Sonic and the Black Knight would follow-up Secret Rings two years later.

Timeline

2004

• Fall - Development on Sonic '06 begins with Yojiro Ogawa as director, conceived for next-generation consoles and PC.

2005

• September-November - Sonic Team receives Wii development kits and realizes that a port cannot be completed in time for the Wii's launch. Ogawa leaves the project and takes some staff with him to start Sonic Wildfire.
• November - Sonic Wildfire enters full production according to an anonymous source.

2006

• January 16 - News of a new Sonic game for the Wii (then called the Revolution) reaches IGN.
• May 9 - Sonic Wildfire is officially announced at E3 2006. A Nintendo press conference also names the game Hyper Sonic.
• July-August - Sonic Wildfire is renamed to Sonic and the Secret of the Rings, and finally to Sonic and the Secret Rings due to the developers feeling it better fit the Arabian Nights setting.

2007

• February 20 - Sonic and the Secret Rings is released in North America.
• March 2 - Sonic and the Secret Rings is released in Europe.
• March 8 - Sonic and the Secret Rings is released in Australia.
• March 15 - Sonic and the Secret Rings is released in Japan.

E3 2006 Demo

The game was shown off at E3 2006. Surprisingly, despite it only showing Sand Oasis, the game is already close to the final game, although there are still many differences:

• The title screen is completely different to the final game. Rather than the game's logo on a burned paper background, it was instead a closeup of a 3D book where the player shook the Wiimote to release Sonic from the lamp. Afterwards the player gets a quick tutorial on the controls before being thrown into an early version of Sand Oasis.
• None of Sonic's and Sharha's conversations are present in Sand Oasis.
• The countdown at the beginning of the stage use simpler shading on the numbers.
• Sonic's flame on his chest does not cast light on the rest of his body.
• The HUD is different; there is no limit shown for how many rings Sonic can hold (likely due to the Skill system not being present in the demo), and the Soul Gauge uses a circular design rather than a rectangular design. The numbers used also have a different look to the final.
• The pearl collection sound raises in pitch slower than the final game.
• There is no marker indicating the end of the stage, although Sand Oasis does end at the same point as the final.
• The end-of-level results are once again completely different from the final game, with no medallion. In addition, rather than having an Action, Enemy and Technical bonuses, it instead tracks Pearls. The final game also plays a short snippet of the main theme, Seven Rings in Hand, which is not present in the demo.
• Rather than a pan of the level, the results instead cut to Sonic giving a thumbs up to the camera with saying "See ya!". It is quite similar to the Sonic DS tech demo shown at E3 2004
• (1:39) A button that spawns rings is present that is missing in the final.