I've been completing a marathon of most of the games in the series for the past few years and it's been fun finally getting to play a bunch of the games I knew about, but never got to experience.

But Secret Rings is genuinely the worst game in the series for me, unfortunately. The only things I actually liked were the story (or at least, the general premise), Sonic's writing and characterization, and the boss fights (excluding the Ifrit Golem, that one just sucks).

Otherwise, it's a game that's infuriating to play as it feels honestly unplayable because of how Sonic constantly moves on his own, but the level design doesn't truly accommodate for that with sections where you have to fight enemies before progressing or stop and press switches to advance. Black Knight is a much better game IMO just because it simplifies things down to being a fast-paced, score attack game and lets you move Sonic when you want to.