Topic: Sonic and the Black Knight

[Phi]

Sonic and the Black Knight NYCC gameplay

[Gaia]

Sonic and the Black Knight NYCC gameplay

Wow, aside from dying from the first boss, he made the game look easy!

[HyperSonicEXE]

Is that ACTUALLY the Hedgehog engine slowed down?

That actually looks pretty fun. How he died on the Mist Dragon, I don't know.

[Satoryu]

i dunno. i'm more curious as to what everyone is cheering about in the background.

[STM]

It's not the Hedgehog Engine. It's the Secret Rings engine modified.

The game itself? I should smack anyone who calls Unleashed on-rails but applauds this title. The sword still doesn't sell any benefit whatsoever aside from the game's flavored gimmick. Ideally, I hope this tanks hard. Realistically, Wii owners will eat it up. (sigh)

...May as well throw this out there for those who are too busy with rose-tinted glasses. On Sega's Blog, there's an entry with some details of the game. I figured I may as well set your hype meters off since there's no hope in deterring people from this title:

"In the beginning we get a big cut scene in which Sonic is summoned by Merlina, we don't see Sonic prior to this so the first we actually see him he's plummeting to earth bellowing in terror. Before face-planting. Sonic then has to do some acrobatics in order to save his two Chili Dogs that he'd obviously just bought. Confronted by the evil warriors of the Black Knight and the frightened girl who pleads with him for help Sonic shrugs and, after eating one of the Chili Dogs (yes, he coolly makes everyone wait for him to do something) admits he's rather familiar with the drill and proceeds to kick some booty. There are various things that will seem familiar to you but as Sonic himself remarks during the tutorial (yes, there is a tutorial process but it is MUCH better than the one on Secret Rings) “The rules seem a bit different this time.” Indeed, there's actually a slight twist in the plot as Sonic is essentially starting as the bad guy trying to stop the legitimate, if corrupted, King. As such he is quickly dubbed a naive. Now, as you go through stages you'll spot lots of fairies (they look like chao heads) about the place.

Yellow Fairies - These give you rings so collect them, you can also get rings through other means such as smashing pots.

Red Fairies - These give a significant boost to your soul gauge, which makes a return from SatSR. The long lines of pearls are replaced by juicy red apples this time around.

Blue Fairies - You'll find these in strings across your path and they will give you a significant speed boost - they are your dash pads.

Missions

Stages increase in length as you go through unsurprisingly, some are simple races through whilst others will see you doing various “heroic deeds” which range from simply helping you to master certain techniques to specific tasks to please the Lady of the Lake, who look remarkably like Amy - which leads to some awkwardness!

In one mission you will have to give the townspeople rings, this involves firstly doing away with any foes around that are terrorising them then pressing the Z button to instigate a conversation. You'll then have to do a little QTE which I assure you is a lot easier and quicker than a certain flying level in Unleashed. Success will give them 20 rings and will make them very happy. Failure will leave them disappointed and you won't be able to try again with them, so beware. If you overshoot you can do a quick sommersault backwards by the way.

Once you've done this the first time you'll soon spot the odd villager in other stages who has a speech bubble over their head. Talking to them will start another QTE for ring and success will gain you a mystery present.

Unlockables, Collectables & The Art Contest

As you pass through the game you'll find and gain all sorts of little collectables that you will have to identify outside of levels. There are 200 in all to collect and include special badges of rank should you defeat a lot of foes, etc. You'll be able to trade these with friends over Nintendo Wi-Fi.

You'll also unlock special media as you go in a vault similar to the book from SatSR, I've seen character art, cut scenes, music and art all mentioned as well as one tab for “character voices” hmmmm…. But one of the first things you'll get is three videos. These videos contain the European/Australian, American/Canadian and Japanese winners of the Sonic & The Black Knight art contest with their names emblazoned across the bottom!

Versus The Knights

I played through until I got passed Knuckles (Gawain), who is the second of the triumvirate (great word that) of Knights you will face on your way up to fighting the Black Knight himself. Knuckles is very honourable naturally enough and has grave doubts about his King's actions which deeply trouble him whilst Shadow (Lancelot) shows unwavering loyalty despite the Black Knight's meanings.

The 1-on-1 duels are fast, furious and intense!

Also during cutscenes where you encounter the Knight of the Round table in the back ground you'll here instrumental versions of musical themes associated with them. Shadow had “Throw It All Away” whilst Knuckles, who was not dozing in the dusk, has his instrumental of “Unknown from M.E.”. I didn't get to Blaze (Percival) so I'll be very interested as to what hers might be… because she's never really had a ‘theme’ as such."

Well... at least they finally ditched "All Fail Shadow".

[Gaia]

Bringing his TRUE theme? it's much more suiting to the theme than All Hail Shadow. You know, I was thinking Vela-Nova for Blaze, a recreation of Sonic Rush's 7th Boss fight. If not, then Silver's theme then for her.

[Jericho]

Sonic and the Black Knight NYCC gameplay

You know, I just don't get it, how is it that SEGA can perfectly nail a stable Sonic engine, tease the [tornado fang] out of us with gameplay that looks good, but still flood the game with unnecessary design choices?

EDIT - What the [tornado fang]? Momentum based platforming, is that you? Weird thing is, the sword swings will break the flow so quickly while he's on foot.

I want to try this one before I criticize it from a gameplay video, but damn, it just seems like this is the first 3D Sonic that looks like if it removed the sword based gameplay and was given a different coat of paint similar to let's say the creativity of Unleashed's day stages, would be completely amazing. And on Wii no less.

[Solar]

Weird thing is, the sword swings will break the flow so quickly while he's on foot.

Well, if Nintendo Power is to be trusted, the sword fighting doesn't interrupt the flow too much.

[STM]

The Nintendo Power review sounded way too kiss-ass. I'm not surprised, though. Nintendo Power rating a Nintendo Wii title well is as shocking as Game Informer giving out 10s to over-hyped titles. Neither should be taken seriously at all.

IGN's seemed to say the sword controls were annoying, almost clumsy because of the lag time between firing the attack and actually damaging the enemy... time which the enemy can quickly counterattack you. The video really did not help the game look any more amusing. This would be the part where someone makes a slideshow for Sega saying [Unleashed Day Levels and Music: Good!] [Unleashed Night Levels: Okay! Needed more Knuckles!] [Werehog gimmick: NO!] [Sword gimmick: NO!][Any other useless gameplay addition to Unleashed Day play style: NO!]

[Satoryu]

IGN's seemed to say the sword controls were annoying, almost clumsy because of the lag time between firing the attack and actually damaging the enemy... time which the enemy can quickly counterattack you.

to play devil's advocate, they could just be hating on Sonic cause it's what everyone's used to doing.

the bit about chili dogs caught my eye, but the mention of a tutorial made me cringe.

[STM]

to play devil's advocate, they could just be hating on Sonic cause it's what everyone's used to doing.

I don't know... the same people were against the media flow in their review of Sonic Unleashed Wii.

[Solar]

And on the other hand they were the ones to review the superior 360 version of Unleashed worse than Sonic the Hedgehog. One just can't know what IGN's thinking.

[Jericho]

Then there's also the fact that IGN Nintendo (mainly Matt & Bozon) desperately want Sonic to return to glory, but are also two of the biggest persecutors of bad design choices in the Sonic games as of late.

[Satoryu]

then there's the fact that all game mag reviews suck and should not be trusted, and most certainly not be used as the determining factor if you buy a game or not.

[Jericho]

then there's the fact that all game mag reviews suck and should not be trusted, and most certainly not be used as the determining factor if you buy a game or not.

Oh, of course. I was just tacking on an extra bit for thought digestion.

[Solar]

then there's the fact that all game mag reviews suck and should not be trusted, and most certainly not be used as the determining factor if you buy a game or not.

I thought that went without saying.

[Satoryu]

Oh, of course.

I thought that went without saying.

it's obvious to us. but in the greater gaming population, i believe we're the minority.

[Legendary]

Eh. Game might rock, it might not.

Still don't know why Sonic would ever need a sword. Or WHY they haven't made a game modeled after the comics yet. Bean, Bark, and the Destructix need an appearance. >>

[Protoman Blues]

Captain's Log - Supplemental.

I...wasabletoplay Sonic AND THE Black Knight ay the Comic Con forrrrrrrr...a little bit.  SO FAR, my impressions of the game are...

LoL, I don't feel like typing Shatner-ish for the rest of this!

Anyway, I did have a chance to play this and I gotta say, my impressions of the game are mixed.  I think the game has potential, but the demo is very lackluster.  However, the issue at hand is that the Demo is just the practice level it seems like, and if Secret Rings is any judge, the practice level makes for a lackluster demo.  But, like Secret Rings, you can update the sword and such, so I'm assuming the same power ups are in the game, so feasibly he can get more moves, greater speed, and all that jazz.  Sadly, due to the loudness of other games, I couldn't hear the music for the level.  The controls seemed fine to me and the sword didn't bother me at all.  However, I also keep in mind that this is a demo, and some demos just plain suck or aren't calibrated very well.

As of now, I'll probably do what I did with Sonic Unleashed and have the Ninja of Lou rent it so I can try it out before I decide whether or not to purchase it.  I'm still looking forward to the game, but also, I'm [tornado fang]ing poor!   

[STM]

Eh. Game might rock, it might not.

Still don't know why Sonic would ever need a sword. Or WHY they haven't made a game modeled after the comics yet. Bean, Bark, and the Destructix need an appearance. >>

There's been a large motion from the dumber part of the fanbase to do the recent Scourge storyline in the comics into a game.

[Solar]

Hmm, yeah, I can agree with you there on the demo part, Blues.

Which reminds me, did you get your chance to meet Herr Frederick Von Twirlenkiller in a match to the death? And by that I'm asking if you got to play Madworld.

[Protoman Blues]

Hmm, yeah, I can agree with you there on the demo part, Blues.

Which reminds me, did you get your chance to meet Herr Frederick Von Twirlenkiller in a match to the death? And by that I'm asking if you got to play Madworld.

Oh, I'll be posting about Madworld in a second... 

[STM]

http://wii.ign.com/dor/objects/14268379/sonic-the-black-knight-/videos/sonicblkknght_020609_nycc2.html

Added videos of gameplay at the Con. This one is Vs. Arthur. Good to see the shaking is still as unresponsive as ever.

[Waifu]

Where is my dual wielding Knux?! 

[Hypershell]

I don't know... the same people were against the media flow in their review of Sonic Unleashed Wii.

Matt Cassamasina is also the same guy who claimed Heroes was an improvement over the Adventures, and a frequent basher of their soundtrack style.  I NEVER trust IGN when it comes to Sonic, least of all Matt.  He usually writes well but his Sonic reviews are highly opinionated.