Sonic and the Black Knight

Sonic and the Black Knight is a game within the Sonic the Hedgehog series, released exclusively on Wii as the second entry in the Storybook series, following on from Sonic and the Secret Rings. also it is the 4th Sonic game with an rating of E+10 (5th if counting SEGA Super Stars Tennis) Set in the world of King Arthur, the game combines Sonic's trademark speed with a new swordfighting system, making use of the Wii Remote's motion-sensing functionality in a style similar to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Soul Calibur Legends.

Plot
A sorceress named Merlina, granddaughter of the original Merlin, summons Sonic to help free the mystical realm of King Arthur, who has been possessed by an unknown evil that comes from Excalibur's scabbard, and is now ruling the realm as the tyrannical Black Knight. Sonic's speed alone will not end The Black Knight's reign, so he must take up the talking sword, Caliburn, in order to break Arthur's curse and save the kingdom.

Part 1
While on the run from the Black Knight and his demonic minions, Merlina is cornered and, before she is taken, performs a summoning ritual that brings Sonic to her world. Sonic defeats the Black Knight's minions before Merlina teleports them both away. The Black Knight sends out three Knights of the Round Table, who are still loyal to the Black Knight despite his corruption, to find and kill Sonic and Merlina on sight. Merlina explains that the Black Knight, once King Arthur, is invincible, as he possesses the scabbard of Excalibur. After training Sonic in the art of swordsmanship, Merlina explains that King Arthur was once a wise and just ruler, but became corrupted by the power of immortality granted by having possession of Excalibur's scabbard. Sonic acquires Caliburn, a sentient talking sword who is highly skeptical of Sonic's abilities, and they head off on their quest while Merlina goes into hiding. They first find the blacksmith in the Camelot Castle Town, in order to scrape off the rust that Caliburn has. The blacksmith recognizes Caliburn, but cannot remember where he has heard of it before.

Sonic heads off to see Nimue, the Lady of the Lake and previous owner of the scabbard, to find out how to stop the Black Knight; on his way, he encounters and defeats Lancelot, and claims his sword. The Lady reveals that she will only assist Sonic when he becomes a true knight and presents him with three tests to complete in three days. After completing them, Sonic soon encounters a crying child whose parents were abducted by a dragon and decides to help her. Sonic soon encounters and defeats Gawain, and stops him before he can kill himself out of shame, telling him that there is more to being a knight than serving a king. After the townsfolk are saved, Nimue reveals that she was testing Sonic, and that he can seal the scabbard's power by using the sacred swords used by the Knights of the Round Table. Finally, Sonic meets Percival and defeats her before saving her from falling from a cliff, an act that finally earns him Caliburn's respect. Merlina arrives to inform Sonic that the Black Knight is on Avalon Island. Sonic and Caliburn pursue and defeat the Black Knight.

Part 2
Having fought and defeated him by using the four Sacred Swords, Merlina reveals that King Arthur was an illusion conjured by her grandfather, Merlin. She then takes Excalibur's scabbard to become all-powerful, so she can be the new queen.

Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table are forced to flee and, with Nimue's help, set off to use the sacred swords to defeat Merlina by putting up a barrier around the kingdom. After the four swords form a barrier around the castle, Sonic confronts Merlina, who explains that she knows the kingdom will soon come to an end, and wants to make it last forever. Sonic battles her, but is outmatched; in the process, Caliburn is broken in half, and Sonic takes a severe beating. Nimue and the Knights watch Sonic's efforts, and shout at him to run; Sonic refuses, resolving to stop Merlina no matter what. Sonic's determination, combined with the power of the sacred swords, repairs Caliburn, and the duo transform into Excalibur-Sonic and the true Excalibur, respectively, while Merlina transforms into a monstrous creature known as "the Dark Queen". After a long battle, Sonic and Caliburn manage to defeat Merlina. Though Merlina continues to lament the fate of the kingdom, Sonic gives her a flower and tells her that, while all worlds have to end, they merely need to live life to the fullest in the time that they have; reminiscing about her grandfather, Merlina takes his advice to heart.

Afterwards, Lancelot notes that the Knights of the Round Table will have to disband now that King Arthur is gone, but Caliburn reminds them that it is the one who chooses the king; thus, Sonic is the true King Arthur. After the credits roll, Sonic, who has been taken back to his world, explains his journey to Amy Rose, who then complains that he is lying and forgot about their date, then proceeding to attack him with her hammer. The game then shows a book titled "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" change into "Sonic and the Black Knight", akin to what happened in the previous game, Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Characters
Sonic is the main playable character. While Knuckles, Blaze and Shadow are playable characters, they will be optional. Other non-playable characters include Merlina and Caliburn the Sword. Like Ali Baba and Sinbad in Secret Rings, Sonic's friends will assume Arthurian personas in the game. In the latest issue of Nintendo Power, it has been revealed that Knuckles, Shadow, and Blaze are Knights of the Round Table. Amy appears as Lady of The Lake while Tails appears as a local blacksmith. Images of Silver as a knight have been seen on the official website.

Gameplay


Gameplay for Sonic and the Black Knight differs from traditional games in the Sonic series by mixing in the new element of swordplay, along with the traditional Sonic platforming and speed. Swordplay is implemented through the Wii Remote and hence, similar to Sonic and the Secret Rings, however players will no longer control Sonic's movement on rails as the team say they have learned from the biggest criticisms about it. The gameplay will mainly be 3D, but occasionally the camera will shift to a side-scrolling perspective for traditional 2D gameplay.

Swordplay will be implemented so that players can slice through enemies without slowing down, but when faced with more formidable enemies, players will engage in advanced swordsplay, able to thrust, parry, and even perform a buzz-saw maneuver mid-jump. The sword will not be only used for combat; players may thrust it through a wall while falling to slow their descent.

The stages will feature civilians that the player can choose to help or smite; these actions and the player's deeds will be judged at the end of each stage, updating the player's "knight ranking" accordingly. By helping out grateful citizens, players will be able to purchase new items from them, acquiring items such as gauntlets, magical tomes, and new swords. There will be about two hundred items in the game, some of which can be gained by opening treasure chests in the stages. An online mode will allow treasures to be traded.

The game changes the traditional level items, such as springs and speed pads, into "elements". These elements look similar to Chao symbols, and come in varying colors; red elements will be used as springs, yellow elements will be used as speed boosts, and purple elements will be used to fill up the "special gauge". This gauge, replacing the previous entry's "soul gauge", is filled by defeating enemies, and is used to unleash a powerful combination attack. Additionally, instead of the rails from previous games, players will fire a ballista and then grind across its rope. There are also unlockable abilities that you can acquire through different missions.

The mission-based system from Sonic and the Secret Rings will also return, but the missions will be easier to complete. Each stage will consist of multiple missions which feature different stipulations. The skill system from the aforementioned game also returns, but will be reviewed to adjust any problems that were present in that game; the skill system is also being designed so as not to interfere with the game's tempo.

Multiplayer
It was announced that there were to be 12 playable characters. There are various mulitplayer battle modes in the game; playable characters include:

Sonic the Hedgehog, Sir Lancelot & Shadow, Sir Gawain & Knuckles, Sir Percival & Blaze, The Blacksmith, Amy Rose, Sir Galahad, Sir Lamorak & King Arthur

Music


Veteran composer Jun Senoue returns to compose music for this installment, mixing familiar Sonic themes with a Celtic style. In addition, his band, Crush 40, will be returning to perform the main theme of the game, "Knight of the Wind".

British J-pop recording artist Bentley Jones (aka Lee Brotherton), who previously worked on Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Rivals and other series contributions, is confirmed to be producing and performing a track for the game's soundtrack.

Tommy Tallarico has the game listed on his website as one of the games he is working on. Richard Jacques is confirmed to be making the music for the cutscenes according to Official Nintendo Magazine. Howard Drossin has also listed the game as one is is working on on his ReverbNation profile.

The song, With Me is the final boss song composed by All Ends. This song can be known as Excalibur-Sonic's theme or the Dark Queen's theme.

The ending theme for Sonic and the Black Knight is Live Life, which can be known as Merlina's theme and Crush 40 is the one to be performing for this song. This song gives what a romantic edge rather than a rock style to it, other than other Sonic Songs.

The character themes from Sonic Adventure 2 will be featured in the game, as well.

According to CDJapan, two soundtracks are in production. The first, Face to Faith will contain 10 songs from the game, while Tales of Knighthood will feature over 70 songs. Both are slated for a release of April 8, 2009.

Reviews
Sonic and the Black Knight has received generally mixed reactions from game critics, with a Metacritic average of 55 out of 100, based on 45 reviews, and a GameRankings average of 55.91%, based on 34 reviews.

Nintendo Power gave the game a 8/10, stating the gameplay is "pulled off in a fine fashion", but also said the main story is "fairly short". IGN gave the game a 3.9/10, praising the game's visuals and the overall presentation, but went on to state that the gameplay was "broken" and cited the controls as "unresponsive". Famitsu gave the game a 26/40, comprised of two sevens and two sixes.[citation needed] GameDaily gave the game a 7/10, citing that "repetitive combat, easy missions and limited controls keep it from greatness," but acknowledged its "attractive presentation, decent combat and bonus content." The British Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game 78%, praising the games visuals and soundtrack, but criticizing the sword play mechanics and multiplayer element. GameSpot also notes that while the sword is useful slashing through enemies, there is a noticeable delay from the time swinging the Wii Remote and the time Sonic actually swings.

Artwork Contest
Sega of America held a competition for fan artwork of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Blaze, and other favorites. The top 20 of each the US, Europe, and Japan will be placed in Sonic and the Black Knight, and their artists will win a free copy of the game. Artists had to be a registered user on Sega's website to submit art. The contest is closed.

Merchandise
Several toy websites appear to have pre-orders ready to go for Sonic and the Black Knight action figures, with a June-July 2009 release date.

According to CDJapan, two soundtracks are in production. The first, Face to Faith will contain 10 songs from the game, while Tales of Knighthood will feature over 70 songs. Both are slated for a release of April 8, 2009.

Australlian EBGames are currently offering toy swords along with pre-orders of the game.

Trivia

 * In Westopolis in Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic says that he would never use a weapon in his life, although he probably means firearms.
 * During some scenes, certain character songs from Sonic Adventure (Knuckles/Gawain, Amy, and the Blacksmith/Tails), Sonic Adventure 2 (Shadow/Lancelot), or Sonic Rush (Blaze/Percival) play in the background.
 * Merlina the Sorceress is the first female villain in the video game series - unless one counts Rouge, who is pretty self-serving.