This kinda sounds like it would be in an Elder Scrolls game xD
[link]Gameplay
Gameplay differs from traditional games in the Sonic series cause duh, Sonic has a big talking sword in his hand. The game is controlled by both the Nunchuk and the Wiimote. Wiimote is for sword swings, Nunchuk is for moving about.
A lot of criticism of this game comes from the continuous swinging of the sometimes unresponsive Wiimote. Which is an unknown problem to me. I played Black Knight on an emulator, and I had no problems with controls or response times. It might be a hardware problem. Perhaps their Wii wasn't set up correctly or something. Or their hands grow out of their asses xD
Unlike other Sonic games the ranking system isn't with letters (SABCDE), but with stars. The score is divided into two parts: Total Score and Knight's Honor Bonus. Total Score as usual is dependent on time, defeating enemies, getting rings and not getting hit. Knight's Honor Bonus is earned by performing honorable behavior, such as not attacking foes from behind, not harming the townspeople and performing Acts of Chivalry (giving townspeople rings via QTEs and stuff like that).
There are 242 items in the game, some of which can be gained by opening treasure chests in the stages, random drops from enemies, or gotten from townspeople when you give them rings. Any items collected during a stage must be identified at the end of the stage by using Sonic's "ID points". The better your ranking at the end of the stage, the more points you get. Rarer items cost more ID points than others. An online mode allows treasures to be traded between registered friends.
The game changes the traditional level items, such as springs and speed pads, into fairies, which look like Chao heads. These fairies come in varying colors; Yellow are rings, Blue fairies are speed boosts and springs, and Red are used to fill the Soul Gauge. This gauge is also filled by defeating enemies and is used to unleash a powerful lock-on attack, Soul Surge.
Sonic has three combat styles to choose from. At first, only the balanced Knight style is available, but later, Cavalier and Paladin styles are unlocked. They deal with the aspects of speed and power, respectively. As levels are completed, the player gains a number of Followers that are used as EXP points and as the number of followers goes up, the number of skills the player has in a certain style are increased. The "styles" of characters beside Sonic are not increased; rather, their swords' abilities and skills are enhanced.
Once the Knight's Quest part of the story is reached, Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, and Sir Percival will be playable from that point on. Each has their own characteristics; for instance, Knuckles wields dual swords that double as boomerangs and has the ability to glide, Blaze can surround herself with fire and use more lunge attacks than Sonic, and Shadow can use Chaos Powers. In story mode, they can use different swords than their own swords, unlike Sonic, who can only wield Caliburn. Those swords can be crafted from items you get on stages.
Up to four players can play in the game's multiplayer, choosing between one of 12 characters to partake in a number of different kinds of battles. It ain't no Mario Party. Characters include Sonic, Lancelot, Gawain, Percival, Blacksmith (Tails), Lady of the Lake (Amy Rose), Galahad (Silver), Lamorak (Jet), regular Shadow, regular Knuckles, regular Blaze and King Arthur.
Random stuff
Can't do a review on DA without featuring some related art, of course.
There's a great let's play of SatBK I really liked by ClementJ642 on Youtube:
[link]Sonic and the Black Knight was featured in
issue 232 of Nintendo Power. I wasn't able to find scans unfortunately, but here's an awesome poster I did find:
[link]If you are wondering where to get SatBK I did find an
Amazon page, but I'm sure if you do a quick search you can find it in plenty of other places. Or, if you are a pirrrrrate, the ROM of the game is easy to find too.
The game has official papercrafts and desktop backgrounds. To download them go
here and
here.
There are also official SatBK action figures by
Jazwares. I found some on Amazon if you want to get them.
If you want me to add anything else here, just leave a comment and I'll consider it.