These followers act as experience points in what seems to be a pretty deep RPG system. There are different proficiencies to learn, items that require identifying (though, for the most part, these seemed to do very little) and a knight ranking system. Sound like a Sonic game to you? Nor us.

Instead of picking up rings throughout the level you'll pick up yellow fairies, which will then be immediately converted into rings. Seems completely arbitrary to us, but maintains the feeling that the developers might've wanted to try something new, remembered they were called "Sonic Team" and shoehorned the blue hedgehog and his friends in at the last minute. That's probably not what happened, though. Probably.

Sonic's pals all make appearances under various Arthurian guises, with some being playable later in the game. There's also a multiplayer battle mode, though we didn't try it out. As you progress through the game you'll unlock more content for this mode, along with other bonus extras such as background music. So it looks like there'll be plenty to keep you busy.

We're not sure how many people buy Sonic games for the story, but in case you're one of them we'll suggest that you look elsewhere. Black Knight's target demographic is skewed towards the younger end of the spectrum and this is obvious from the story. Cutscenes range from Final Fantasy-esque FMVs (thought these seemed rare) to pretty ink-and-paint images, which fade between each other to give the impression of animation where there is none.

Sonic and the Black Knight may feel at times like it's having a bit of an identity crisis but it looks like there's a pretty playable game once you get past the whole "why am I Sonic again?" thing. It looks reasonably pretty and the controls work fairly well, even despite waggle-to-attack. It may be worth picking up this March -- and don't worry, there's not a Werehog in sight.