Sonic and the Black Knight Nintendo Wii review

Introduction
Sonic's back and as always he refuses to settle for that traditional Sonic gameplay that the fans scream for.
Sonic and the Black Knight are the 3rd Sonic adventure game on Wii and the 2nd game in what is called the storybook series (The last storybook game was the Secret Rings).
This game see's Sonic using a weapon for the first time in his career, a sword.


Single Player
The game takes place in the medieval world of Camelot, a world made famous by the tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
But all is not well in Camelot as it has been taken over by the Black Knight and his Underworld Army. The only thing that can save Camelot is a brave hero who is as fast as the wind.
Enter Sonic.
After been brought to Camelot by a sorceress named Merlina Sonic discovers that the Black Knight is actually King Arthur and that he has to defeat him in order to save Camelot.
Wielding the scared Caliburn it's up to Sonic to defeat the Knights of the Round Table and save Camelot.


MultiPlayer
The multiplayer mode lets you and your friend's battle for the title of best knight.
This mode is alright but it does have its flaws, like not playing anything like the single player mode and at times being a complete mess.

GamePlay
Sonic and the Black Knights game play is like a mix between Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic Unleashed, what I mean by this is that you are still using that back view of Sonic but with improvements like 2-D sections and a lack of On-Rails.
Game has the same jump controls as Sonic Unleashed and the same Wiimote Nunchuk set up, and that's about it for old features.
The game is focused on the idea of cutting through foes with your sword while at the same time maintaining a high speed and I will admit the games does this quite well, the wiimote responds quite well to when you attack, some would call these waggle controls and I will admit that is true but if you do just waggle and not put any effort into your swings then you might as well not bother playing this game as you will just find it to be a bore.

As you would have guessed sword attacks are done by swinging the wiimote, not anything amazing but effective none the less.
The developers have decided to keep the speed break feature from the Secret Rings and improve on it turning it into the soul surge a move that allows you to do fatal blows against the enemies. To use the soul surge you have to hold down the B button and swing the wiimote, if there are no enemies nearby then you will do a speed break but if there are enemies near by then Sonic will use the soul surge attack, what you need to do is slash while using the soul surge, this will do massive damage to any foe.
Another new ability is the block; this one speaks for its self. To do the block you have to hold down the Z button, be warned the block only lasts a few seconds.
The game also has boss fights against the knights of the Round Table, these fights are hard at first but they get easier once you get used to the sword combat in the game.
The games other boss battles vary, some are fun while others are slightly dodgy and badly put together.

The game gives you the ability to change your sword style if you not happy with your current style. You have 3 sword styles to choose from, Knight which is balanced, Paladin which is offensive and Cavalier which is focused on speed.
The game also has a few other features such as item collecting, unlock able characters.
If you have Nintendo wi-fi you can take part in the online ranking, this mode is great because it gives the game replay value after you have compleated the story.


Graphics
The graphics haven't really gotten any better or worse since Unleashed.
The music loses out when compared to Unleashed and Secret Rings, it's not as catchy or as memorable as the music in those games, it's good but not as memorable. The game does gain points though for having something that Unleashed lacked language settings. I'll be honest the voice acting has been a bit poor in the last 7 years so its great that the game lets you have the voices set to Japanese.

Summary
It's not the best idea for a Sonic game but does what it set out to do.

+ Combat and speed are equally balanced
+ Sword combat does work
+ Art style is awesome
+ Online ranking gives the game new life

- Multiplayer is bit rubbish
- Few bad boss battles
- Bad voice acting
- Bit on the short side.

8/10