This game is very easy not to like. It has one of the craziest motion control mechanics grazed on a platformer and Sonic's movement at the beginning course of the game is not great. Slow acceleration, slow jumps, and over sensitive maneuvering becomes intially apparent and it doesn't help that you have to slowly keep unlocking better maneuvering mechanics as well as other beneficial abilities that you won't get until at least midgame unless you decide to replay levels over and over and over, or grind out through exciting filler stages like clear this stage with 0 rings and kill 1 enemy etc.

Once past that treshold it can be a lot more fun to control Sonic, with some fun mechanical depth and a nice sense of flow from your movements. That is to say whenever the level design is up to par, which unfortunately the game leaves a lot to be desired for outside the 7 main stages.

The draw distance also rears its ugly head especially with enemies spawning in a spare centimetres in front of you. There's often not enough time to react or align to what's infront of you, and what's worse is that jumping requires charge up which completely contradicts fast reactions. This and also the fact that you can only slowly walk backwards without any camera aid just makes the entire mechanic trip over itself.

It's just too bad those issues take such a huge precedence, since the motion controls and the flow of the game can be so good when the game gets it right.

There's merits to Sonic and the Secret Rings novelty and sense of style, not to mention the gloriously catchy OST, but that doesn't aid the experience any better when such a huge potential flair lies buried beneath inconsistent design choices.