Sonic and the Black Knight and the debut trailer

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 11th 2008 at 8:00PM }

On July 19, 2008, seismologists across the globe experienced a strange phenomenon -- the needles on their trusty seismographs began to bounce ever so slightly. Some would blame it on tiny movements in our Earth's tectonic plates. Others would attribute it to faulty equipment. Those with an active internet connection and a penchant for gaming news, however, quickly discovered the cause of the activity -- simultaneous, powerful groans, uttered in response to an image of Sonic the Hedgehog, brandishing a broadsword.

If you were among those who were hesitant towards yet another Sonic title in which the protagonist vanquishes foes, not with speed and well-timed jumps, but with weaponry, you might want to check out the debut trailer for Sonic and the Black Knight we've considerately posted after the jump. It looks quite similar to other post-Dreamcast games featuring the hyperactive hedgehog, only with, you know, a sword. We're a little puzzled by the trailer's complete lack of Martin Lawrence, but we're sure he'll make an appearance in future media for the title.

Tags: martin-lawrence, sega, sonic-and-the-black-knight, trailer

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

MowDownJoe @ Oct 11th 2008 8:12PM

Well, it LOOKS good, but I'm still doubtful.

Demaar @ Oct 12th 2008 10:05AM

Apparently it's by the Secret Rings team, so if you liked that it's probably safe to get your hopes up. Even if you didn't, it sounds different enough that it'll be worth a look.

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Oct 12th 2008 9:45AM

A part of me wants to play it and for it to be good, but another part of me wants to beat the former part of me up and take his money. Another part of me wants to make a sandwhich...

Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 11th 2008 8:12PM

eh, Swords > Guns. There were swords in Shadow also, and they were much more satisfying to use (though not as efficient by far)

Either way, based on the trailer, it seems as though its a lot like mounted sword-fighting was in Zelda, where you just kinda lash out at stuff as you blow by.

I could be wrong, but i have faith in this branch of Sonic Team, that brought us the glory of Secret Rings. Though i'm saddened to learn this will have a more traditional control scheme (Nunchuk control stick to move, waggle to attack)

But on the plus side, Knuckles is back, and can apparently dual-wield.

VaultICEE @ Oct 12th 2008 7:10PM

Uhh.

To be honest, I loved Sonic Adventure 2. I played the hell out of it, and I realize it was far from a masterpiece, but I just loved it and it was perhaps my favorite Dreamcast game that I owned (I didn't have a lot, but still...)

I think the newer games are horrible, but I think even if they went back to SA2 or even SA1 mechanics and gameplay the series would be going in at least a better direction. Still, I want a Mega Man 9 to give off a little on Sega at least for a Sonic 4 or something similar.

Dave @ Oct 11th 2008 8:14PM

Why can't Sega simply develop a game that is faithful to Sonic 1 & 2? Less work would be required as there wouldn't be all these stupid gimmicks AND people would actually enjoy it.

They should try to get a 3D sonic right before they add all these other mechanics in there with it.

~ Dave
http://www.h3recon.com

Andy @ Oct 11th 2008 8:29PM

Because then they might have a successful game on their hands. And we can't have that, now, can we? ;)

CaramelZappa @ Oct 11th 2008 8:31PM

What about Sonic 3 and Knuckles?

Also, no one cares about your website.

Nap @ Oct 11th 2008 9:26PM

uhmm. Hi? Are for getting the masterpieces that were Sonic Adventure 1 AND 2? Just use those engines, create a new story line add a character or two and there we go

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 9:29PM

"Are for getting the masterpieces that were Sonic Adventure 1 AND 2?"

I enjoyed them (well, Sonic Adventure 1 at least) but they're far from masterpieces.

Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 11th 2008 9:37PM

Sonic Adventure 2 is the 2nd best game of all time, after Metroid Prime

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 9:53PM

"Sonic Adventure 2 is the 2nd best game of all time, after Metroid Prime."

Nuh-uh. I'm not saying this to get into a flame war or anything, but I thought Sonic Adventure 2 was decent at best. I enjoyed it the first time around, and it has a decent amount of replay value if you enjoy the core gameplay, but the amount of bugs, the bad camera, the second worst voice acting in the industry behind, well, any Tales game, dated visuals (at least in the GC port), and decidedly un-Sonic gameplay with fairly clunky controls made it, uh, not stand out in my mind. I used to hate on the soundtrack too but Live and Learn grew on me. Anywhos, yeah, that's all IMO of course, but I've played plenty of games in my time and Sonic Adventure 2 doesn't do much to stand out.

HitNRun @ Oct 11th 2008 10:55PM

"What about Sonic 3 and Knuckles?"

Knuckles wasn't Sonic's first Furry Friend, but he was probably the one where people started to realize it was getting a little crowded.

"Sonic Adventure 2 is the 2nd best game of all time, after Metroid Prime"

It was almost playable if you muted your TV.

Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 11th 2008 11:04PM

I thought it was obvious that that was an opinion. Just like when i said i thought that the Q4 PS360 lineup was "bad" i meant that from MY perspective

From an objective standpoint, i see the excellence of this Q4's lineup, but few of those games interest me personally

Personally my top five games of all time are Metroid Prime, Sonic Adventure 2, Super Smash Bros Melee, Super Mario Galaxy, and Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II

From an objective viewpoint, the top five is Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII, Super Metroid, Halo 2, and GTA III.

Which also could be debated, but isn't as obviously opinion-based (I don't care for GTA or FF7).

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Oct 12th 2008 9:55AM

You can't say you have a subjective top 5 and an objective top 5... That's just... Fucking strange.

Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 12th 2008 11:26AM

Not strange. Considering i have never had a non-Nintendo system, my personal top 5 would include nothing but games that have been on those systems (although two of them are enhanced Dreamcast ports)

Thus i have an objective top 5, one that considers games based on their merits and is console agnostic

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 8:31PM

It doesn't look AWFUL, in that they're using the sword as I hoped they would - as a way to dispatch enemies without a drastic loss in speed. And it is looking pretty good (visually) for a Wii game... much better than the Sonic Unleashed Wii footage we've seen so far, which looks like an early generation PS2 game.

I enjoyed Sonic and the Secret Rings, and I'm fairly confident I'll enjoy this.

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 8:32PM

Joystiq, wouldn't it have been better to have embedded a Gametrailers vid? Youtube quality is just horrid.

Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 11th 2008 8:56PM

You've said that Sonic Unleashed Wii looked bad before

I'm not seeing it.

That being said, this WILL be better than Unleashed, by a good shot.

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 9:02PM

"I'm not seeing it."

Watch the video again. See the blurry textures? The clipping issues? On the sidescrolling areas, pay attention to the environments and just how blocky/jaggy they are. The camera (when in behind-view) seems just as awful as in every single 3D Sonic game to date ('cept for Secret Rings, which didn't have all that bad a camera). It looks awful - it'll be more noticeable when we're given a clearer video to look at.

I wouldn't be so jaded about it if there weren't so many people and sites claiming that it looks 'amazing' when it's just the same, standard (and by that I mean substandard) Wii port fare.

Dovi @ Oct 11th 2008 9:10PM

Yeah but Gametrailers takes forever to load

#28 @ Oct 11th 2008 9:56PM

How, why what???? You liked secret rings?!??! Secret fucking rings???

Oh dear god...

Remember that awful title music?

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 9:59PM

Yeah, but bad music is the staple of the 3D Sonic series so I just ignored it. The gameplay was pretty damn nice (at least once you've progressed a bit) and the visuals were the slickest on the Wii at the time.

samfish @ Oct 11th 2008 11:10PM

Secret Rings freakin' rocked out loud. I know you ain't be dissin' on it.
Sure, it had it's faults, but, as noted, once you managed to progress a bit in it, MOST of the flaws fell by the wayside.

The music wasn't ALL bad, either. At least two levels I found the songs fairly enjoyable.

Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 11th 2008 11:10PM

If you didn't have the patience to get far enough in the game to where the controls showed their excellence, i don't blame you. Deliberately dumbing down controls and making it a requirement to unlock them was possibly the dumbest thing they could have done

However, optimized, the game is a thrill. The first step back on the path of pure Sonic gameplay. Speed, but with enough platforming in the mix.

bvhj @ Oct 11th 2008 8:32PM

Ugh.

Superstar90 @ Oct 11th 2008 8:37PM

What kind of magical sword chooses a blue talking hedgehog as it's wielder?

Sora @ Oct 11th 2008 8:54PM

What kind of blue, superspeedy talking hedgehog needs a sword?

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 8:55PM

At least there aren't any guns or vehicles in this game.

Just Mr ESC. @ Oct 11th 2008 9:56PM

At least it didn't choose some teen with attitude.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q0YkXmebAGM

Henry @ Oct 11th 2008 8:40PM

You seriously have to wonder what the hell Sonic Team are thinking.
I mean...are they crazy? Who is in charge of their department? Why haven't they been made redundant?

Playace @ Oct 12th 2008 5:35AM

Here here.

Here's a thought chaps:

Make a new Sonic game. Make it about Sonic running and bouncing around the environment really fast. Give the player some decent control over where he can go. Hire someone who knows how to code a camera that doesn't have the attention span of a dead goldfish.

That's at least a start if you ask me.

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 12th 2008 10:33AM

"Make a new Sonic game. Make it about Sonic running and bouncing around the environment really fast. Give the player some decent control over where he can go. Hire someone who knows how to code a camera that doesn't have the attention span of a dead goldfish."

They did that. It was called Sonic Heroes, and everyone hated it. Except for reviewers, and myself.

GearSecond!! (a.k.a AwesomeStuff) @ Oct 11th 2008 8:43PM

I'm interested.

Tiptup300 @ Oct 11th 2008 8:58PM

For some reason it's taking a reaaaaaally long time to load. I don't know if youtube did that on purpose though.

JimeneX @ Oct 11th 2008 9:00PM

someone is CLEARLY buying these games though...

so people have no problem spending $60 on the latest sonic crapfest, and yet they complain about Braid being $15.

PSN: Erdie @ Oct 11th 2008 9:14PM

That's just classic Internet exclusive-hate. Any game, no matter how good it is will get dumped on if it's an exclusive.

Moptimus Slime @ Oct 11th 2008 9:24PM

for Christ's sake, are we REALLY gonna go through this shit again? Braid is not worth $15. $10 maybe, $8 definitely, but not $15. Get over it

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 9:26PM

for Christ's sake, are we REALLY gonna go through this shit again? My opinion is the only one that matters, as I am obviously always right, and you are wrong because this is the internet and that's how it works. If you have a differing viewpoint, bugger off because you're wrong. Get over it, hurrr

Just Mr ESC. @ Oct 11th 2008 10:04PM

Remember Kids buying Braid makes you Super cool!

Maybe Braid is worth 15$ but to be honest I didn’t like it so much I would spend on MS points when the game shows its best stuff in the demo also that is quite short for 15$. Exit is better than Braid and is one of the most underrated games of all time.

But the question here is ¿What the f*ck does braid have to do with anything? Also Sonic and the Secret rings was good and it wasn't at 60$.

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 11th 2008 10:06PM

OH MAH GAWD ITS ESC

Sup mang? I enjoyed the hell out of Braid, although you're definitely right in that Exit is underrated. Maybe it'll see more exposure with the DS port. Anywhos, in the case of Braid, yeah, it's short - but it's just as short as some games that I've payed $60 for, and it challenged the hell out of me - not something most games do these days.