If you asked most people what their favourite Sonic game is, we're guessing that the majority of them probably wouldn't say Sonic and the Secret Rings.
Released in 2007 for the Nintendo Wii, the game didn't set the world on fire on its original launch, with most critics at the time suggesting it was an improvement over other more recent Sonic entries (namely the previous year's Sonic 06), while also acknowledging various issues related to the camera and controls.
As a result, it doesn't typically top many lists of the series's best games today, with most of these rankings usually placing other 3D Sonic games like Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colours, and Sonic Generations above it.
Despite that, though, it does seems that there are some out there who do still care about the game enough to want to give it another chance in the sun, with a group of fan developers currently being hard at work on a promising fan project, called Project Reignition.
This is a fan remake for PC that aims to introduce various changes to the create a more enjoyable experience for players, while remaining "largely faithful" to the original title's ideas.
Here are some of the changes you can expect:
- Controls will be remapped for a traditional controller.
- Level Select will have an indication for story-critical missions.
- "Seven Rings in Hand" will no longer be the menu theme.
- Equipping Skill Rings before a mission will be skipped by default.
- Skills that improve control will be equipped by default.
- Skills that are weaker versions of other skills will be removed.
- Time Break will maintain a smooth framerate.
Project Reignition got a playable demo as part of Sonic Fan Fest 5 last month, but as of this month has now got yet another update, with the developers releasing a new v0.4.2 build as part of this year's SAGE 2025 event, which you can download now.
Here are its key features, according to the developers:
- Native Controller Support: Keyboard, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck
- Multi-lingual Support
- Voice Dub: English, Japanese, and Spanish (WIP)
- Subtitles: English, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, and Chinese
- Adjustable Aspect Ratio Support: 16:9, 16:10, 21:9, and 4:3
- 6 Playable Worlds: Sand Oasis, Dinosaur Jungle, Evil Foundry, Levitated Ruin, Pirate Storm, and Skeleton Dome
- Brand-new Environments
- 15+ Remixes and Original Compositions
- 50+ Skills and Augments
You can find the links to download the project here.