Story: The Genie of the Ring named Shahra interrupts Sonic's nap to ask for his help. She explains that a genie named Erazor is erasing the world of the Arabian Nights. If he becomes powerful enough, he could threaten the safety of the real world and the stories would be lost forever. Sonic decides to help Shahra, places the Ring on his finger, and enters the world of the Arabian Nights.

Levels: There are seven levels in Sonic and the Secret Rings (eight if you count Lost Prologue, which is a world that allows Sonic to practice techniques). Each world has several missions, and clearing certain missions advances the story. The levels are as follows:

Lost Prologue
Sand Oasis
Dinosaur Jungle
Evil Foundry
Levitated Ruin
Pirate Storm
Skeleton Dome
Night Palace

Missions are not unlocked in order (e.g. mission four of Sand Oasis is unlocked after you beat the game), so you can beat the levels out of order.

Chaos Emeralds: There are no Chaos Emeralds in this game. Instead of Chaos Emeralds, there are seven World Rings. Sonic collects World Rings as he advances in the story.

Miscellaneous: When Sonic completes a mission, he earns experience points. Earning experience allows Sonic to gain levels, which in turn allow him to gain new skills and the skill points needed to equip skills. Sonic can equip one of four rings; customizing a ring by adding skills allows Sonic to perform these skills. There are 104 skills that can be equipped. The same skill can be equipped on more than one ring, making it easier to customize each ring for handling a certain type of mission.

Sonic is the only playable character, although Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman appear as characters in the Arabian Nights story.

This game contains a Party game mode, where the player and up to three friends (or up to three computers) can play party games against each other. The playable characters are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. When a certain number of Fire Souls (an emblem resembling a red ring that appears in missions during Adventure mode) are collected, the following characters can be unlocked to play in Party mode: Shadow, Cream, Silver, and Blaze. There are a total of 40 party games, and they involve surviving/outlasting the other players, earning the most points, or finishing first. Sonic and friends do many things in these games that you never thought you would see them do, for example: playing the violin.

In Target® Stores, if you bought a specially marked copy of "Sonic and the Secret Rings," an interactive comic was included with the game. It is on a separate disc and it is a short comic that coincides with the beginning of the game.