Weird that we're getting into a discussion about Secret Rings of all games.
Yeah, I liked it to an extent back when it came out. It took a couple months for me to take in just how awful Sonic 2006 was (I was 14 at the time and in denial for a bit) so Secret Rings was a breath of fresh air in comparison. I actually went back and replayed Secret Rings (and 100% for the first time) back in 2012 and overall I think it's one of the lesser fun 3D Sonic games (Black Knight and Lost World are probably the least enjoyable for me) and I'm not talking about objective quality. Just how much fun I, personally, can get out of them. Sonic 2006 is a buggy mess and that leads to some fun goofing around and breaking the game and for as much shit as Shadow (rightfully) gets, I still find most of the base game to be entertaining in short bursts.
Secret Rings just isn't much fun because once the novelty of the Wiimote wore out, the game had little to back it up. It's overly restrictive, full of filler missions, and isn't quite consistent enough control-wise. The Arabian themed levels just aren't a great fit for the Sonic series for the most part and most of the environments are too bleak looking. I do
really love the unique look of Levitated Ruins and
the music there is
beautiful, but most of the environments are underwhelming to me. The less said about the weird-ass plot, the better. It's not so-bad-it's-amazing, like Shadow or 06, it's just... odd.
At least it's better than Black Knight...? ¯_(ツ
_/¯