Moving Sonic
To play the game, you tilt the Remote on its side and grip it with both hands, holding it much like a NES controller with the buttons and D-Pad (directional pad) facing up. You only need to use one button on the remote, the '2' button (where the A button would be on a NES controller), which is the jump button. There are two types of jumps. If you simply tap '2' Sonic will make a small jump and will lose no speed in the air. To clear larger objects though, you can hold down '2'. This makes Sonic slide to a stop and, depending on how long you've held the button, he'll jump much higher (a sort of super jump). You end up sacrificing speed for height with this maneuver. Aside from jumping, every one of Sonic's actions is motion controlled.
Since Sonic is always moving forward on a rollercoaster-like track, you only have to worry about steering him side to side and backward. To sway left and right, all one has to do is tilt the controller left or right. To clarify, to move right you'd tilt the left side of the controller up, thus pushing the right side down. In this manner, the game is controlled very similarly to Excite Truck. Unlike Excite Truck though, Sonic never actually turns right or left, he just runs forward, but he'll run more toward the right or left side of the track, enabling you to dodge obstacles and such. Sonic runs through the level at such a high speed that your main objective is to avoid incoming obstacles. Falling pillars, spikes, and floating enemies were the most popular in the demo. And since Sonic follows a linear path, the player only has to concentrate on avoiding said obstacles. It's a peculiar balance of freedom and automation, but concentrates the gameplay solely on the player's ability to time attacks and jumps right. In this respect, it feels remarkably similar to the golden sidescrolling days of Sonic's youth.
To slow down, the player must rotate (twist) the controller backwards. This movement is kind of like twisting a kite spool (or spindle) backward to pull in more string. If you twist it almost 180 degrees (nearly upside down) Sonic will brake to a complete stop. Steering and braking came fairly naturally. The only move we had some initial trouble with was Sonic's spin attack. To perform the attack, you must first make Sonic jump with the '2' button. While in the air, you then rotate and thrust Remote forward (opposite of braking) at the same time. When executed, this attack resembles the flying spinning attacks in previous Sonic games. Where multiple enemies are present, you can easily chain the attack as well -- an efficient way to take out a small group of robots. You can continue to jump and combo off enemies as long as another enemy is in range.
Similarly, by flicking the controller forward, you can initiate a speed boost. This can be done in the air or on the ground and propels Sonic at very impressive speeds. You move so fast that Sonic is actually on fire. The sense of speed and urgency in this mode is on par with some of the fastest titles out there, like Burnout 3 and F-Zero GX. (There was no noticeable drop in frame rate at any time in the demo.) However, to perform any speed boost, you must first fill up your Wild Gauge. Filling up the Wild Gauge is relatively simple: you just collect enough small fire orbs, which are scattered throughout each level. The Wild Gauge is what allows Sonic to fly forward at an incredibly fast speed, while on fire, which makes him impervious to some of the dangers before him.
Overall, the motion-controlled movements were fairly easy to perform. The initial learning curve, like any game with a completely new style of play, was a bit high, but within a minute or two of playing, we quickly caught on and on our second play-through we were starting to get pretty awesome.