| Sonic and the Black Knight | |
|---|---|
 North American Wii box art | |
| Developer(s) | Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Director(s) | Tetsu Katano |
| Producer(s) | Tetsu Katano |
| Designer(s) | Morio Kishimoto |
| Programmer(s) | Makiko Nishimura |
| Artist(s) | Yoshitaka Miura |
| Writer(s) | Shiro Maekawa |
| Composer(s) | Jun Senoue Yutaka Minobe Richard Jacques Howard Drossin Tommy Tallarico |
| Series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
| Platform(s) | Wii |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Platform, hack and slash |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Sonic and the Black Knight[a] is a 2009 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega as part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Wii. It is the second and final entry in the Sonic Storybook series, following Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007),[3] and involves Sonic being transported to the story of King Arthur by wizard Merlina, under the pretense that they are attempting to stop a corrupted Arthur (the Black Knight); however, it is later revealed that there was no corruption and that Merlina had secretly wanted to become the Dark Queen to prevent the legend's fate from occurring. Gameplay involves controlling Sonic around with the Wii Remote's motion-sensing functionality, particularly swinging around the sword to attack enemies and to move forward.
Development on Sonic and the Black Knight began in 2007, shortly after the completion of Secret Rings and heavily involved the designers of both Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and Sonic Heroes (2003), led by producer Tetsu Katano. Black Knight was conceived as a way to attract new audiences to both the series and the legends of Knights of the Round Table among console users, with Sega holding focus groups to choose which characters would appear in the game. Visually, the game was stylized after Sonic Unleashed (2008) and uses the PhysX engine. Black Knight was revealed in July 2008, and released in March 2009 in all regions. Various composers from the series, particularly Jun Senoue, Richard Jacques and Howard Drossin returned to write the soundtrack.
Sonic and the Black Knight received mixed reviews. Reviewers praised the graphics, presentation, story, and large amounts of bonus content, but criticized the controls, swordplay mechanics, and multiplayer aspects. Sonic and the Black Knight was de-listed from retailers in 2010, following Sega's decision to remove all Sonic series titles with sub-average Metacritic scores in order to increase the value of the brand. Black Knight would be among the final games in the series to feature the English voice cast from the Sonic X anime, whom would be mostly replaced starting with Sonic Free Riders (2010).
- ^ (C) SEGA. "SEGA - ソニックと暗黒の騎士". Sonic.sega.jp. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
- ^ "Sonic and the Black Knight". IGN. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
- ^ a b "SEGA Announces Sonic and the Black Knight for Spring 2009" (Press release). Sega UK. 2008-07-21. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
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