Sonic continues his gimmicky journey into the current generation this March with Sonic and the Black Knight, the second in the "Sonic Storybook" series of games. In this series Sonic is pasted into a classic storybook environment -- Arabian Nights in Sonic and the Secret Rings and the Arthurian legends in Black Knight. "Pasted into" is definitely the right phrase, too. At times it's not clear why this is a Sonic game at all.In case you haven't heard, Sonic now has a sword. Those spines on his back? Pretty pointless. Swinging that sword requires you to shake the Wiimote, which we're sure you're already aware, gets pretty tired after a while. Despite that, Black Knight isn't a terrible game. It's definitely an improvement over Secret Rings, though you'd expect that considering the two and a half year gap between the titles.The horizontal Wiimote-only control system of Secret Rings has been replaced with the far superior Wiimote + Nunchuck system. As a result Sonic is no longer on rails and you can move him forwards and backwards as you please, though the levels have remained largely linear, with the exception of some arena-style duels. There are plenty of levels to explore, with incentives to go back to each of them and complete specific tasks and collect more followers.
Continue reading Joystiq hands-on: Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii)
