Metareview: Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)

Does The Secret Rings for Wii usher in fresh Sonic mojo? Mmm, not so much, at least according to several early reviews. Granted, critics aren't slamming this hedgehog outing quite like they did the PS3 and 360 game before it, but in short, reviews are mixed. Like all over the place from the low 50 to the higher 83. What is it with the extreme variation of Wii reviews? Whatever the reason, here's a sampling:

• Gaming Age (83%) - "An encouraging sign that good Sonic games can still be made. I had a tremendous time exploring the different stages and the skill points add a bit of depth to an otherwise straightforward game."

• GameBrink (81%) - "Sonic Team has taken Sonic, put him on rails, added a ton of variety, and made something that is definitely worth a rental. Some might find it too short to be a purchase, while others may just enjoy playing the levels over and over again with different setups in order to unlock the many goals available."

• 1UP (75%) - "Although Sega deserves praise for Secret Rings' innovative single-player adventure, the less said about the four-player party mode, the better. It's another low-budget Mario Party rip-off that stretches out a few weak gameplay concepts into multiple multiplayer contests."

• IGN (69%) - "Sonic and the Secret Rings offers moments of greatness where I find myself caught up in the intensity of the experience and, oppositely, moments where I want to pull my hair out or throw the Wii remote down because of imprecise control or insulting design choices."

• GameDaily (50%) - "Sega delivers inaccurate Wii controls, ridiculous objectives and a bad guy named Erazor. On top of that, it somehow screws up fixed camera angles while attempting to convince the gaming public that a group of rampaging triceratops runs faster than Sonic."

Sonic and the Secret Rings has a current average review score of 74%.