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Sonic and the Black Knight

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Sonic and the Black Knight
System(s): Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Genre: Action/Adventure

Sonic and the Black Knight (ソニックと暗黒の騎士, Sonikku to Ankoku no Kishi) is a title within the Sonic the Hedgehog series, released exclusively on Nintendo Wii as the second entry in the Storybook series, following Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Set in the world of King Arthur, the game combines Sonic's trademark speed with a new swordfighting system, making use of the Wii Remote's motion-sensing functionality.

Plot

The game begins in the story "King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table" when the granddaughter of the legendary Merlin, Merlina, is trying to escape pursuit from a mysterious evil band of knights. Seeing no escape, she summons out a Chosen Hero to save her. This ends up being Sonic the Hedgehog, and, after a sloppy entering, easily dispatches most of the evil creatures. When preparing to face off the Big One, he is pulled back by Merlina and warped to another location. When Sonic asks why she stopped him and who that guy was, Merlina explains that it was King Arthur who, after being corrupted by the power of the Scabbard of Excalibur , transformed into The Black Knight, turning his own blade into Deathcalibur and nefariously rules the world. Sonic's speed alone will not put an end to The Black Knight's reign, so he must take on a talking, "ancient" sword known as Caliburn. After facing King Arthur another time and fails to defeat him, Sonic must prove himself as a knight and in order to do that, he must get help from the Local Blacksmith (portrayed by Tails), complete tasks from Nimue, Lady of the Lake (portrayed by Amy), and defeat King Arthur's Knights Of The Round Table: Sir Lancelot (portrayed by Shadow the Hedgehog), Sir Gawain portrayed by (Knuckles the Echidna), and Sir Percival (portrayed by Blaze the Cat).

After overthrowing all of the Knights Of The Round Table and obtaining their Sacred Swords, Sonic confronts King Arthur in Avalon for a final confrontation. With the power of the Sacred Swords, Sonic overcomes Arthur's immortality and finally defeats him. Once defeated, the King disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving behind his scabbard. He then meets up with Merlina and the Knights Of The Round Table, where Merlina reveals that King Arthur was an illusion conjured by her grandfather Merlin. Merlina then takes King Arthur's scabbard and reveals her true intentions: to make the Kingdom eternal. After escaping the Kingdom, Sonic and the Knights Of The Round Table set off to find the Barrier Stones in order to create a barrier that is supposed to stop Merlina. Before the barrier is created, Sonic confronts Merlina about why she is doing this but. Sonic still refuses to give up and challenges her, only to be beaten mercilessly with Caliburn being severed in the process. Despite the barrier being released, it isn't powerful enough to stop Merlina. All hope seems lost, but the Sacred Swords, along with Sonic's courage, revives and transforms Caliburn into Excalibur, turning Sonic into a Golden Knight. Excalibur Sonic battles the Dark Queen in the final showdown and Sonic is victorious with the power of the Excalibur Blade. After the battle, Sonic confronts and comforts Merlina, telling her to live life to the fullest. The Knights Of The Round Table arrive and with King Arthur no more, they prepare to disband. Caliburn, however, decides otherwise and reveals that the true King Arthur is in fact Sonic.

After the credits roll, it seems that Sonic told this tale to Amy as an excuse for leaving her behind. Amy, though, doesn't believe it and it is implied that she went chasing Sonic with her Piko-Piko Hammer. As this happens, the book "King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table" turns into "Sonic and the Black Knight".

Gameplay

Gameplay for Sonic and the Black Knight differs from traditional games in the Sonic series by mixing in the new element of swordplay, along with the traditional Sonic platforming and speed. Swordplay is implemented through the Wii Remote. Gameplay will be more similar to Sonic Unleashed than Sonic and the Secret Rings; Sonic's movement will be controlled with the analog stick, and gameplay will mainly be 3D, but occasionally the camera will shift to a side-scrolling perspective for traditional 2D gameplay.

Swordplay will be implemented so that players can slice through enemies without slowing down, but when faced with more formidable enemies, players will engage in advanced swordplay, able to thrust, parry, and perform other maneuvers. The sword will not be used just for combat; players may thrust it through a wall while falling to slow their descent.

The stages will feature civilians that the player can choose to help or smite; these actions and the player's deeds will be judged at the end of each stage, updating the player's "knight ranking" accordingly. By helping out citizens, players will be able to purchase new items from them, such as gauntlets, magical tomes, and new swords. There will be about 200 items in the game, some of which can be gained by opening treasure chests in the stages. An online mode will allow treasures to be traded.

The game changes the traditional level items, such as springs and speed pads, into "elements". These elements come in varying colors; blue elements will be used as springs, blue elements will be used as speed boosts, and red elements will be used to fill up the "Soul Gauge". This gauge is filled by defeating enemies and collecting red fairies, and is used to unleash a speed boost that, when reaching enemies, will inflict a powerful ombination attack, Soul Surge. Additionally, instead of rails from previous games, players will fire a ballista and then grind across its rope.

The mission-based system from Sonic and the Secret Rings will also return, but the missions will be easier to complete. Each stage will consist of multiple missions which feature different stipulations. The skill system from the aforementioned game also returns, but will be reviewed to adjust any problems that were present in that game; the skill system is also being designed so as not to interfere with the game's tempo.

Music

Veteran composer Jun Senoue returned to compose music for this installment, mixing familiar Sonic themes with a Celtic style.[5] In addition, his band, Crush 40, has returned to perform the main theme of the game, "Knight of the Wind" (As heard in the Tokyo Game Show trailer.), as well as three additional songs. Tommy Tallarico had the game listed on his website as one of the games he has worked on. Finally, Richard Jacques made the music for the cutscenes, as previously confirmed by Official Nintendo Magazine.

Production Credits

Executive Supervisors: Takayuki Kawagoe, Naoya Tsurumi, Masanao Maeda
Executive Producer: Okitane Usui
Chief Producers: Akinori Nishiyama, Toshihiro Nagoshi, Hiroyuki Miyazaki
Producer/Director: Tetsu Katano
Lead Game Designer: Morio Kishimoto
Art Director: Yoshitaka Miura
Lead Programmer: Makiko Nishimura
Sound Director: Jun Senoue
Game Designers: Harumasa Nakajima, Shintaro Kai, Takahiro Ono, Midori Iwabuchi, Kanano Yamaguchi
Character Artists: Yoshinari Amaike, Masao Tsunoda, Masashi Ichino
Motion Artist: Tohru Honda
Level Artists: Yuki Takahashi, Michio Abe, Hisae Jibiki, Sho Kunieda, Masako Hamada, Keiji Takada, Miho Furuse
Art Support: Kenichi Minamizawa, Chiaki Omote, Akane Hayashi, Kazuhiro Saito, Hideaki Hakozaki
Effect CG Artists: Haruka Yoshida
Interface CG Artists: Rieko Muramatsu
Visual Art Support: Taro Hino
Cut Scene Artists: Yoshitaka Miura, Yuji Uekawa
Technical Programmers: Yoshitaka Kawabata, Takahiro Sekiguchi, Dennis Sachio Imabeppu
Character Programmers: Makiko Nishimura, Yoshitaka Kawabata, Yuji Nakayama, Taichi Machino
Level Programmers: Naoko Shimura, Shuhei Ono, Hideyuki Atarashi
Interface Programmers: Yoshihiko Toyoshima, Mikio Kume
Development Support: Yojiro Ogawa, Sachiko Kawamura, Masatoshi Nakamura
Promotional Visuals: Yuji Uekawa, Yoshitaka Miura
Web Designers: Mayumi Moro, Yuichi Kikuchi
Concept Art Support: Akira Mikame, Wataru Watanabe
Technical Support: Hiroto Hayashi, Satoshi Tsuda, Akira Kanasugi, Yoichi Uchida, Yuki Yamanaka, Takashi Ando, Takashi Shoji
Game Sound Department: Masaru Setsumaru, Naofumi Hataya, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tadashi Kinukawa
Music Composers & Arrangers: Richard Jacques, Tommy Tallarico, Howard Drossin, Yutaka Minobe (Delfi Sound Inc.), Lennie Moore, Hikaru Tanimoto
Musicians: Crush 40 (Johnny Gioeli & Jun Senoue), Emma & Tinna From All Ends, Marty Frideman, Bobby Jarzombek, Takeshi Taneda, Toru Kawamura, Katsuji, Kazuto Baba, Yutaka Minobe (Delfi Sound Inc.), Hikaru Tanimoto, Yosihiro Tsukahara, Yusaku Tsuchiya, Lisa Lisa
Strings: Kimiko Nakagawa, Akihiro Iwamura, Osamu Iyoku, Jyo Osawa, Takashi Fukumori, Hiromichi Hara, Aya Yokomizo, Makiko Tomokiyo, Aiko Hosokawa, Kaoru Hagiwara, Nakito Nishiya, Youko Ara
Recording Coordinators: Kiyoshi Yoshida (Attic Arcde Inc.), Yukifumi Makino (Delfi Sound Inc.), Stan Katayama
Recording Engineers: Masahiro Fukuhara, Yu Yamamoto (Attic Arcde Inc.), Nobushige Masahiko (Delfi Sound Inc.)
Recording Studio: Towerside Studio, ABS Studio, Sound Crew Studio, Attic Arcade Studio, Sound City Studio, Omnibus Japan
Mastering Engineer: Isao Kikuchi (Mixer's Lab)
Mastering Engineer: Warner Music Mastering
Movie Sound Department: Delfi Sound Inc.
Sound Editor: Shinpei Yamashita
Mixing Engineer: Toshihiro Hayano
Game Tuning Support: Naoya Kojima, Masayuki Uesugi, Atsushi Ota, Hiroki Kumehara
CG Movie Production: Anima Inc.
CG Movie Producer: Haruyasu Akagi
CG Movie Production Manager: Kenji Nishino
CG Movie Director: Yuki Nakamura
Composite/Effect Chief: Kazuo Mitsuyama
Composite/Effect: Katsuyoshi Yoshizawa, Akihito Ohta, Masaki Suyama
Animation Chief: Kentarou Narimatsu
Animation: Naoki Terada, Hiroyuki Matsubayashi, Kazuki Eigen, Misaki Higuchi, Masashi Matsumoto
Character Modeling Chief: Masakazu Taira
Character Modeling: Daisuke Suzuki, Nozomi Ishii, Tomohiro Kagawa, Akira Nakamura, Toru Okishima, Takanori Urakawa
Background Modeling Chief: Naoki Kumazawa
Background Modeling: Akiro Ono, Asuka Ogiwara, Nobunao Ono
Real Time Background Modeling Chief: Jun Arai
Real Time Background Modeling: Takayuki Nakashima, Yuichirou Otsuka, Shinbu Ueki, Kioka Nimi, Yoshimi HiroTA, Shinji Tamano
Cut Scenes Production: Media Vision Entertainment Inc.
Cut Scenes General Manager: Tetsuya Okubo
Cut Scenes Product Managers: Ai Yoshida, Akira Ono
Cut Scenes Artists: Hiromi Furuhara, Daiju Honma, Michihiro Satou, Singo Nozawa, Koujirou Matuyama, Megumi Shirai, Eriko Fujiwara, Hiusashi Wada, Yuta Juncho, Satoshi Oikawa, Naoko Awaya
Level Art Support: Bauhaus Entertainment Co. Ltd.
Level Art Producer: Kazuhisa Nishimura
Level Art Director: Takumi Mizuno
Level Artists: Hideki Nagai, Kaori Kiano, Ryo Inomata, Minoru Koga
Voice Recording Studio: Tohokushinsha Film Corporation
Japanese Character Voices: Jun'ichi Kanemaru, Koji Yusa, Nobutoshi Kanna, Nao Takamori, Taeko Kawata, Ryo Hirohashi, Hiroaki Hirata, Mamiko Noto, Hidekatsu Shibata
Voice Recording Director: Eriko Kimura
Voice Recording Producer: Takuya Ohno
Recording Engineer: Kazunari Tanaka
Recording Studio: 4kids Studio
Producer: Salvatore Oppedisano
Voice Directors: Chirs Collet, Julie Rath
Audio Engineers: Brice Pullam, Ron London
English Character Voices: Jason Griffith, Dan Green, Bella Hudson, Amy Palant, Lisa Ortiz
Recording Studio: Webtone Inc.
Producer & Voice Director: Greg Weber
Audio Engineer: Ben Trapp
Character Voices: Casey Robertson, Gavin Hammon, Melissa Hutchison
Translation: Keith Dwyer, Osamu Shibamiya (Inbound Games Inc.), Jason Franzman (Inbound Games Inc.)

Sega Corporation

Sales Promotion: Mitsuru Takahashi, Takafumi Ueoro, Nobuaki Oamoto, Yasushi Nagumo, Reiko Chiba
Project Management: Seijiro Sannabe, Takashi Shimizu, Hideki Yohkaichiya
Sales: Akira Nomoto, Koji Nagata, Takayuki Murata, Nobuhiro Tanaka, Haruo Imastsu, Hiroki Ota, Yoshihiro Enomoto, Tomoaki Ishidao, Tetsuo Sasaki, Teruyuki Kaida, Sho Nanmoku, Yoshihito Endo, Katsutoshi Memezawa, Teruyuki Awaji, Toru Ysuda, Toshiyuki Tanaka, Masahiro Tanaka, Tomohiko Hayashi, Shinya Osaki, Yasunobu Masahiro, Seiji Aoyagi, Masanobu Ito, Field Crew Service Corp.
Design Production Team: Yoshihiro Sakuta, Hiroki Osawa, Ayako Sakai, Tetsuya Honda
Product Test: Junichi Shimzu, Akira Nishikawa, Osamu Sato, Tomoki Matsura, Hidaka Ogasawara, Akitoshi Nishida, Yusuke Aoki, Daigo Kuriyama, Miyuki Shibata, Chiharu Yoshida, Yutaka Ikegami, Kazuyoshi Onuki, Seiji Hasegawa, Kazuhiko Morii, Sunao Murayama
Overseas Comsumer Business: Tatsuya Shikata, Aya Takeuchi, Ryo Urushibata

Sega Of America Inc.

CEO: Naoya Tsurumi
President/COO: Simon Jeffery
Executive VP Of Corporate Planning: Hitoshi Okuno
VP Of Product Development: Bret Berry
VP Of Marketing: Sue Hughes-Taigen
VP Of Conetent: John Whitmore
Supervising Producer: Patruck Riley
Localization Producer: Keith Dwyer
Director Of Marketing: Rick Naylor
Senior Brand Manager: Judy Gilbertson
Senior Public Relations Manager: Tali Fischer
Associate PR Manager: Elvin Gee
Senior Creative Services Manager: Jen Groeling
Associate Production Manager: Heather Lucchetti
Director Of Development Operations: John Merlino
QA Manager: Mark Cartwright
QA Supervisors: Shawn Dobbins, Demetrius Griffin
QA Testers: Nick Rocha, Raymond Clark, German Roverso, Eric Ballelos, Kenny Robinson, Aaron Ard
Standards Supervisor: Stephen Akana
Standards Lead: Junior Sison
Standards Assistant Lead: Christine Letheby, Niroth Keo
Standards Testers: Anthony Willams, Jayson Cook, Lisa Bonifacino, Tim Erbil, Don Berger, Matt Thompson
Mastering Lab Supervisor: Rey Casto Buzon
Mastering Lab Technicians: Christopher Rilles, Keith Alorro, Kenneth Nacua

Sega Europe Ltd.

CEO: Naoya Tsurumi
President & COO: Mike Hayes
Development Director: Gary Dunn
Director Of European Marketing: Gary Knight
Head Of Studio, Localisation: Kuniyo Matsumoto
Producer: Ayano Murofushi
Publishing Manager: Nathalie Ranson
European PR: Jumana Rizwan
Brand Manager: Michele Dix
Creative Services: Alison Peat, Tom Bingle, Morgan Gibbons, Akane Hiraoka, Arnoud Trmpelaere
Director Of Business Planning And Operations: Yusuke Suai
Purchasing Manager: Caroline Searle
Production Manager: Natalie Cooke
Legal Counsel: Nicky Boxall, Mark Bennett
Licensing Manager: Nivine Emeran
Head Of Developement Services: Mark Le Breton
Localisation Manager: Marta Lois Gonzalez
Localisation Coordinator: Giuseppe Rizzo
Translators: Antonella Marras, Antonio Catanese, Carole Kunzelmann, Brigitte Nadesan, Jean-Loup Lansac, Jesus Alvarez, Marco Borrelli, Nicole Thomer, Daniela Kaynert Jay Bannmuller, Sebastian Perez Salguero, Luis J. Paredes
Mastering Equipment And Submissons Manager: David Pither
Senior Mastering Tech: John Hegarty
Senior Mastering Engineer: Jigar Patel
Mastering Engineers: Phil Adams, Arian Braviez, Cary Vidal
Equipment Coordinator: Roy Boateng
Production Managers: George Cover, Ben Howell
Resource Manager: Dominic Berzins
Functionality Supervisor: Julie Metior
Shift Monitor: Tony Langan
Project Lead: Gabriel Ralls
Project Monitors: David Tyler, Paul Sedgmore
Functionality Testers: Adam Nicholls, Catherine Gouriou, Kelly Schonau, Ricky Lovavge, Errol Burke
Standards Supervisor: Martin Sibley
Standards Coordinator: Mohammed Ajaib
Senior Standards Tester: Hiroki Saito
Standards Technicians: Aaron Wright, Cornell Walker
Language Senior Team Lead: Alessandro Irranca, Stephan Wolschon
Language Team Lead: Ruggero Varisco
Language Testers: Alessio Nesi, Jan Domke, Jorge Vilches, Mathieu Gobeil
Special Thanks: Yoshiharu Honda, Kazunori Yagi, Nobuyki Inoue, Yukihiro Taguchi, Junichiro Takahashi, Eishin Miura, Masakazu Kobayashi, Satoshi Sakai, Shinobu Yokota, Tomoyo Mogi, Yoko Arai, Ai Miura, Yuichiro Yamamoto, Tatsuya Kumagai, David Allen, Keith Palmer, Kip Bunyea, Rick Ramey, Teressa Guest, Marcella Churchill, Tomas Jenberg (Seratone Management AB. Sweden), Kinya Takano (Howmic), Mirei Teramura (BMG Japan), Hiroki Hayashi (ESP Guitars), Toshiro Nakayama, Akiko Kuroda, Hisao Oguchi, Takashi Iizuka, Kazuyuki Hoshino, Atsutoshi Takahashi And All Of The Fans.
Game Engine: Phys X
Created by: Sonic Team
Presented by: Sega

Resources

Scans

Artwork

Trivia

  • Besides Tails' solo outings, this is the only non-pirated Sonic game where Dr. Robotnik made no appearance whatsoever, aside from pieces of fan art that were featured in the game.
  • Caliburn, the sword Sonic wields in the game, is in fact the fabled Sword in the Stone. According to the legend, whomever drew Caliburn from the anvil it was embedded in would be crowned King of England.

External links


Sonic and the Black Knight
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Main page
Cheat codes
Credits


Promotional material
Magazine articles
Reception
Merchandise


Development
Hidden content
Technical information

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems
Nintendo Wii
 2007  Sonic and the Secret Rings | Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games     2008  Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity | Sonic Unleashed     2009  Sonic and the Black Knight | Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games | Sega Fun Pack: Sonic and the Secret Rings & Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz     2010  Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing | Sonic Colours     2011  Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games