Just like any game franchise, there are bound to be bad games among the popular ones. Mario and Sonic have more than a few disgraces to their namesakes, and to some people this game is one of them. A controversial title that pleased some and angered many, Sonic and the Black Knight arrives on the Wii.
The game is a sequel to Sonic and the Secret Rings which was the blue hedgehog's debut on the Wii. It proved to be a mixed bag in terms of style and gameplay. Both games don't really follow the same stories, so it isn't a direct sequel in any shape or form. Instead of having an arabian setting, this game adopts a medieval setting. The story starts off with a mysterious girl running away from an evil looking knight (king Arthur) on horseback. While the girl runs in fear, the knight casts a spell that unleashes an army of creatures, block the girls path. Too scared to fight them alone, she performs a ritual to summon Sonic from the sky in order to help her. After falling to the ground, Sonic is confused as to where he is, but then realizes what's going on around him, and he then sees the evil knight. After killing all of the enemies in sight, Sonic aims for the knight, but the girl stops him in his tracks. The knight then tells three masked soldiers (Lancelot, Gwaine and Percival), who are watching from above, to slay the pair on sight, before galloping away. After all this happens, your journey begins. The storyline does a wonderful job at keeping the game interesting, and throughout the game, you'll want to know what happens next.
While playing through the first few levels of the game, you'll notice that Sonic doesn't rely on speed to defeat his enemies in the game, despite doing so to kill everything in the opening cinematic. Instead, he uses a sharply edged sword called Caliburn, who has the power to talk to him and guide him through his quest. This is the main reason why a lot of Sonic fans complained, as the sword that Sonic carries is highly annoying, spouting out shallow exposition as you play. The gameplay is also on rails, just like in Sonic and the Secret Rings as well as Sonic 06. As far as controls go, this isn't your standard Sonic game. You'll be swinging your sword, blocking attacks, double jumping, and in the first stages, collecting fruit instead of the traditional rings, but they can be found in the later levels. Each action controls quite well, with hardly any delay or slow down between them. Attacking with your sword can be a pain, however, because you'll need to perform sword slashing motions with your Wiimote. It's intuitive and fun at first, but after awhile your wrist will begin to ache. On the whole, the controls are fine.
This won't come as a shock to many people, but the visuals are beautiful. Wherever you go, you will be greeted with charming habitats, sugarcoated with high resolution textures and great detail. You will travel to many different locations such as castles, fields, villages, forests and even a compound, and not a single one looks bad in any way. Even the cutscenes look incredible, and this on on the Wii. They look so immaculate that I'd even go as far to say that they compare with Xbox360 and PS3 quality. What will come as a shock to many people is the sense of speed. When you're engaged in combat with somebody or you're wandering an area, you do so at a rather slow pace. There is an ability called a soul surge that you can activate when you kill enough enemies, but the effect is only temporary. Trust me though, there have been slower Sonic games in the past. The fighting isn't really worth mentioning. It works but it's anything but different, all you do is swing your arm aimlessly. You can't unlock new combos either, so you'd better get used to the repetitious nature.
I wouldn't say that the game had a lot of enemy types, but there are a few of them present. You have standard enemies as well as ranged ones, but you can do battle with spear wielding gladiators, which I found fun. For the most part, the game just doesn't have enough variety with the disputants. There aren't many boss fights either, apart from the occasional duel with the knights of the round table. From the top of my head, I can recall only five boss fights, two of which are the same person, but in different locations. They aren't that good if I'm totally honest, often requiring similar attack patterns for each encounter, and the pattern is as simplistic as a sequence can possibly get. You either slice up the boss whenever it lets its guard down, or you hit projectiles back in the bosses direction before engaging in a face off. During these face offs, you waggle your Wiimote when an on screen indication shows up. It gets old very quickly. Because there are only five bosses, the game is short in length, only offering a small helping of missions, and it clocks in at about five hours. It's unfortunate, because almost every level is thoroughly enjoyable, with very little annoyances to come between them.
Each level you go to has a lot of variation, having a lot of surprises included in them. You could be riding on a wagon through an orchard one minute, then you could be avoiding traps and sliding along ropes the next. Had they of put more dedication into the enemies, then the levels would of been even more fun. Something that the entire series is known for is the brilliant soundtrack, and this game does not disappoint. With it being a 3D Sonic game in the late noughties, the music is comprised mostly of the punk genre. I can't remember a single piece of music that is even remotely bad, you'll like at least one song. A gimmick that comes with the game that didn't stir up the fanbase was the ability to play as Shadow, Knuckles and Blaze late in the game. They aren't just re-skins of Sonic either, they each have different ways of fighting and moving, but the best thing about them are weapons they carry. Sonic is limited to three swords, Clarent, Caliburn and Excalibur after you defeat king Arthur. Shadow, Knuckles and Blaze wield all kinds of uncommon swords, axes and foils. The key to unlocking them is to forge collected items with Tails, the blacksmith. The game is mainly offline, but you can check online leaderboards to see your score on a particular level, but there's no online play with other people. Local multiplayer is present, but it lacks spark.
Sonic and the Black Knight is a love-hate scenario. The boring combat, the feeble minded bosses, the criminally short length and the half baked local multiplayer try their very best to make the game suffer. At the end of the day, the lovely graphics, easy controls, joyful missions, vast level and weapon variety as well as the banging soundtrack makes the brief game a wicked ride.