It's not a disaster game as many thought it would be, it's a great experience, but not a long lasting one.
This time Sonic travels to the world and medieval story of King Arthur. King Arthur has suddenly become an evil king that is ruining the lives of his villagers. And when there is no possible hero to save them, a magician called Merlina casts a spell for aid of a hero. Bringing then forth our favorite blue hedgehog Sonic to the rescue! Sonic then will take on his quest in finding the King to stop him with the help of his trusty talking sword that will make him become the legendary knight. Along the way he will confront the greatest knights of the king including Lancelot who will be represented by other sonic characters such as knuckles, shadow and blaze. The story is actually really unique compared to the previous ones of Sonic, because this one does not have Eggman in it at all not even as a short cameo. The story is really well presented with different type of cinemas from realistic 3-d, to storybook looking but this time the storybook ones are in much better quality then the previous game with more animation and the script is pretty decent written with some nice plot twists in it.
The game includes quite a variety of places to go through and each feature quite a lot of missions but, unlike sonic and the secret rings, this time around you only do the story missions. No need to do any extra missions to get a specific amount of stages done to proceed in the story. The gameplay still shares it's similarities to Sonic and The Secret Rings with the perspective of only running forward and moving to the sides. Yes, you can move backwards but not as freely as a Sonic Adventure title would. Now, since we have Sonic with a sword, the gameplay is more action oriented rather than just platformer jumping and avoiding obstacles. You might say, well then the game is not as fast a sonic game should be, but don't be fooled.
While you will get interruptions when running around with Sonic, attacking can be really quick or even avoiding the enemies. Unfortunately, for that you will need to learn more of precision and getting to know the speed of the game to be able to get the hang of it. Yet, sometimes the gameplay can get a little bit repetitive as the game focuses in throwing you so many enemies on your way, and while it has his obstacles to complete, they are not as exciting as you might expect. They are a few basic sonic elements removed in the game like the crazy loops, which might turn down some of the fans.
The sword allows you to perform many different moves even when jumping in the air or running at the same time. There is also a special attack where you freeze the enemy and you can make a perfect hit with great precision and eliminate each enemy one by one with some really amazing precision. However, even if the homing attack is featured in the game, it's completely useless as the enemy never gets hurt by it or dies with it. So, all your moves are basically with the sword and you feet to run.
All of the moves you can perform with the sword can be done easily by just moving the controller around. You don't really need to perform the move with great precision or anything to make sonic swing his sword in a specific way, you can swing slow or fast and Sonic will swing the same way. So, the motion abilities here are not quite as exciting but still deliver something fun besides a little bit of pain of swinging so much. You can however upgrade sonic abilities with items you win after beating a mission or buying at Tail's shop.
The boss fights in the game are quite exciting and pretty intense than expected but a little incomplete at the same time. For example, when battling one of the great knights of King Arthur, you don't get any tutorial or help on how to really defeat them. You have to analyze their moves and make your own strategy of how to swing, but then again its better that way as it makes the battle quite more intense and surprising. They are other fights that may include a chase or reaching a dragon but avoiding all the obstacles that really provide quite a lot of challenge and pressure. The worst boss fight is one with a dragon on the tutorial stages, so again, don't be fooled with that really badly done first boss fight, the other ones are so much better.
In terms of the visuals, this is by far the best looking Sonic game on the Wii yet, beating Sonic Unleashed. The graphics are outstanding with really well done vibrant colors, spectacular level design, great combination of realistic with cartoon graphics and a pretty good looking framerate too. The cut scenes are really exciting and some beautiful work of art the storybook sections and the 3-D realistic ones really do look very spectacular too like all the previous Sonic games. The camera can sometimes get on the way at some sections, not that much but noticeable.
When it comes to the sound, Sonic Team finally returns to their great sonic soundtracks with this title. While Sonic Unleashed took a regular basic soundtrack, Sonic and the Black Knight maintain that unique soundtrack of sonic like his predecessor Sonic and the Secret Rings. You get some nice tracks with the band Crush 40 who returns once again to create the official song of the game that is a really great one. The other musical pieces really fit in well with the epic story of King Arthur and also give you that sense of speed mixed in with action. The voiceovers are all pretty well done, none way too strange from their character. And the sound effects do their job with the theme of King Arthur with those classic sword clashing sound effects.
The game features a lot of missions after you finish it that will definitely make you comeback. Plus, if you want to keep upgrading Sonic's skills then might as well do them too. You can also play some of the stages with the other three knights: knuckles, shadow and Blaze in which each of them has their own unique sword or swords and different way to attack, some faster or stronger than others. There is also a multiplayer, which is poorly executed as the stage is really small to play around but it's playable and features other characters including Amy and Tails. And it features an online ranking system of the top scores in each mission of the many players of the game worldwide. Again, not really an exciting online feature, but it adds something to it.
Overall, Sonic and the Black Knight is a game that has been taken the wrong way due to the fact of being quite a bit in terms of its gameplay style to other Sonic titles. However, this game is clearly a spin off exclusively for the Wii and not an official canon title like Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes or Sonic the Hedgehog. For those who want some of the classic sonic gameplay style there is Sonic Unleashed in which unfortunately also features the werehog that takes most stages of the game, and for those who are looking for a different take on sonic but that maintains some of its original style then there is Sonic and the Black Knight. If you liked the changes done to sonic in Sonic and the Secret Rings then you should give this title at least a rent and it's also for those looking for a game focused on fast paced action, particularly one that involves a sword. It's not a disaster game as many thought it would be when they heard Sonic was going to have a sword, it's a great title to spent some time with but one that may not last you as long than expected.