Sonic and the Secret Rings is a three-dimensional platform and action game featuring an on-rails style of movement. Sonic the Hedgehog, the series' main character, is the game's only player character. He is controlled exclusively with the Wii Remote, which is held horizontally like a traditional gamepad.

A genie named Shahra summon Sonic the Hedgehog to the world of the Arabian Nights on a mission to prevent the stories of this fantastical world from being destroyed by evil genie Erazor Djinn. Inflicted with a curse, Sonic and Shahra must gather the rumored Seven World Rings, imbued with different emotions or desires, to save the 1,001 Nights from being erased forever.