Normally, I'd say a Sonic game released around this time isn't that bad, but I have to agree with everyone here.
The story goes that Sonic is taken to the legendary realm of Camalot where the evil Knight has to be defeated. Pretty simple, has a very interesting and well done plot twist which I won't spoil. Like the prequel Secret Rings, the game doesn't use fully animated cutscenes for the vast najority of the time. The game uses cartoony comic strip like cutscenes. They were much better here, I can actually watch them without falling asleep. They now have more animation and movement and are more colourful. The game's story is actually split into two halves, but is very short, you can complete the whole game in under two hours if you wanted to.
The game play really isn't Black Knights strong point. It's true they did fix problems with Secret Rings, but they also took away the fun somehow. The gane uses the Wiimote and nunchuck and is no longer controlled on rails, however the game is very linear so you can't really take advantage and explore. You swing the sword using the Wiimote - most people hate the game for this gimmick, for me however, this gimmick saved it getting an even lower score. On a posetive note, it really can be fun to plow through a group of enemies slicing them all in half.
There are a fair amount of levels, though all of which (apart from four) have the same theme and don't really give off vibes unique to the level - however that would just be a novelty to have and does not contribute to the game's score either way. The game still uses the mission based gameplay. One mission will require you to get to the end, another will require you to kill a certain amount of enemies, some will require you to give rings to villagers. There are more level specific missions in this game. One involves saving all the prisoners from the castle and another involves shining light on crystals. A lot of the game is optional, and there are more missions unlocked upon completion.
In the second half of the game, you also get to play as Lancelot, Gawain and Percival who take on the forms of Shadow, Knuckles and Blaze respectively. However, you can only use them in the levels which appear in the second half of the game. So you can't take Blaze and do Misty Lake, which is the first level for example. All four of the player characters play differently. Sonic is by far the best to use. Shadow is similar but much more overpowered. Knuckles uses two blades and is very power oriented being much slower during attacking. Blaze is by far the hardest to use, she has an up close and personal fencing style of fighting, each attack she does seems to follow on, and she is easily the hardest to get the hang of.
The game is just boring for the most part. It has fun spurts and the boss battles are fun, but overall, it's really quite boring.
The graphics are really nice, the effects of the grass are great and the proper animated CG cutscenes are outstandingly beautiful.
The music ranges from decent to amazing. There are some great lyrical peices present and some songs from the older games are used! This includes, Throw it All Away - Shadow's Theme. Vela Nove from Sonic Rush and even What I'm Made Of from Sonic Heroes. Aside from this some tunes are remixed from the older games, this includes two versions of It Doesn't Matter and the original Adventure 1 version of Beleive in Myself - Tails' Theme. The level music is decent, some tracks are cool, others I don't think too much of either way. The music uses a Celtic medievil style mixed with Sonic rock.
The motion controls work fine, but left and right movement with the nunchuck stick is just really stiff at times - it's not that bad at high speeds, but really an issue at slower speeds.
Overall, Sonic and the Black Knight, for me, is very boring. It has bursts of fun gameplay where you can slice through a mass of enemies, and the boss battles are pretty fun. I don't dislike the game as such, but I'm not too thrilled with it either. The reasons are not because Sonic had a sword - the sword fighting actually works well enough to prevent a much lower score being awarded. If you are a true hard core Sonic fan, by all means, borrow it off a friend. Everyone else, stay clear from this one.
Milesprower2K9 Original Reviews