Sonic and the Black Knight is a 2009 platform game for the Wii, and the sequel to 2007's Sonic and the Secret Rings.
Following the success of Sonic and the Secret Rings, Japanese developer Sonic Team, a division of Sega, decided to build another Sonic series game using a storybook theme. [1] [2] Sonic Team's Tetsu Katano, who previously worked on the Sonic Adventure games, led the effort to create Sonic and the Black Knight. [1] [3] Katano conceived a sequel to Secret Rings in January 2007, shortly before that game was completed. [3] Like its predecessor, Black Knight was developed for Nintendo's Wii. Sonic Team chose to develop on the Wii again because the game was a sequel to Secret Rings, and because it hoped to make the most of internal resources. [4] Black Knight was revealed in the July 2008 issue of Nintendo Power magazine, followed by a Sega press release confirming an early 2009 release date. [2] Sega also showcased it at Nintendo's pre- Tokyo Game Show press conference in October and at New York Comic Con in February 2009. [5] [6]
While Secret Rings takes place in the world of Arabian Nights, Katano chose to set the new game in the world of King Arthur; he wanted its setting to be one of swords and magic. [3] He also hoped to include more playable characters, as Secret Rings only featured Sonic. [3] Katano gave some ideas to writer Shiro Maekawa to start. The initial story featured appearances from Big the Cat and E-123 Omega, both of whom were cut from the final game. [3] During development, Sega did a focus test in the United States to determine the most popular Knights of the Round Table to include in the game; Sir Gawain and Sir Lancelot were the ones Sonic Team deemed most popular. They used recurring Sonic characters Shadow and Knuckles to fill their respective roles. The game also features Percival, whose role is taken by Blaze. Sonic Team faced a minor problem with this; as Blaze is female, they could not refer to the character as "Sir". [3] Unlike Sonic Unleashed, which primarily focused on level design and speed, Sonic Team prioritized combat and a cinematic presentation for Black Knight. [1] As the swordplay concept was new, creating the game without a model challenged them. [3] Black Knight uses PhysX, [7] the physics engine Secret Rings also uses. [8]
Jun Senoue composed the soundtrack with assistance from Yutaka Minobe, Richard Jacques, Howard Drossin, and Tommy Tallarico. [7] [9] For Black Knight, Senoue wanted to work with composers who worked on previous Sonic games rather than the other Sega composers he usually collaborated with. He first contacted Jacques and Drossin; although Tallarico had never composed a Sonic soundtrack before, Senoue also brought him on because they had been good friends for years. [9] Two soundtrack albums were released under Sega's Wave Master label on April 8, 2009: Face to Faith: Sonic and the Black Knight - Vocal Trax and Tales of Knighthood: Sonic and the Black Knight Original Soundtrax. [10]
Sega released Black Knight in North America on March 3, 2009. [11] Prior to release, Sega held a contest in which fans in the West over the age of 13 could submit their own art of Sonic or other franchise characters. 20 individuals won a free copy of the game and got their art featured in it. [12] [13] In Japan, Sega released it on March 12 and in Europe the following day. [14] [15] Sega delisted Black Knight from retailers in October 2010, following its decision to remove all Sonic games with average or below-average scores on Metacritic, a video game review aggregator, to increase the value of the brand. [16]
According to Metacritic, Black Knight received "mixed or average reviews". [17] Media Create reported that the game entered the Japanese sales at 30th place, [18] while the NPD Group said it was one of the top 10 bestselling Wii games of March 2009. [19] The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association gave Black Knight a "Silver" sales award, indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. [20] Many reviewers felt that Black Knight represented another missed opportunity for a franchise increasingly defined by disappointment. [11] [15] [21]
Sonic and the Black Knight is a 2009 platform game for the Wii, and the sequel to 2007's Sonic and the Secret Rings.
Following the success of Sonic and the Secret Rings, Japanese developer Sonic Team, a division of Sega, decided to build another Sonic series game using a storybook theme. [1] [2] Sonic Team's Tetsu Katano, who previously worked on the Sonic Adventure games, led the effort to create Sonic and the Black Knight. [1] [3] Katano conceived a sequel to Secret Rings in January 2007, shortly before that game was completed. [3] Like its predecessor, Black Knight was developed for Nintendo's Wii. Sonic Team chose to develop on the Wii again because the game was a sequel to Secret Rings, and because it hoped to make the most of internal resources. [4] Black Knight was revealed in the July 2008 issue of Nintendo Power magazine, followed by a Sega press release confirming an early 2009 release date. [2] Sega also showcased it at Nintendo's pre- Tokyo Game Show press conference in October and at New York Comic Con in February 2009. [5] [6]
While Secret Rings takes place in the world of Arabian Nights, Katano chose to set the new game in the world of King Arthur; he wanted its setting to be one of swords and magic. [3] He also hoped to include more playable characters, as Secret Rings only featured Sonic. [3] Katano gave some ideas to writer Shiro Maekawa to start. The initial story featured appearances from Big the Cat and E-123 Omega, both of whom were cut from the final game. [3] During development, Sega did a focus test in the United States to determine the most popular Knights of the Round Table to include in the game; Sir Gawain and Sir Lancelot were the ones Sonic Team deemed most popular. They used recurring Sonic characters Shadow and Knuckles to fill their respective roles. The game also features Percival, whose role is taken by Blaze. Sonic Team faced a minor problem with this; as Blaze is female, they could not refer to the character as "Sir". [3] Unlike Sonic Unleashed, which primarily focused on level design and speed, Sonic Team prioritized combat and a cinematic presentation for Black Knight. [1] As the swordplay concept was new, creating the game without a model challenged them. [3] Black Knight uses PhysX, [7] the physics engine Secret Rings also uses. [8]
Jun Senoue composed the soundtrack with assistance from Yutaka Minobe, Richard Jacques, Howard Drossin, and Tommy Tallarico. [7] [9] For Black Knight, Senoue wanted to work with composers who worked on previous Sonic games rather than the other Sega composers he usually collaborated with. He first contacted Jacques and Drossin; although Tallarico had never composed a Sonic soundtrack before, Senoue also brought him on because they had been good friends for years. [9] Two soundtrack albums were released under Sega's Wave Master label on April 8, 2009: Face to Faith: Sonic and the Black Knight - Vocal Trax and Tales of Knighthood: Sonic and the Black Knight Original Soundtrax. [10]
Sega released Black Knight in North America on March 3, 2009. [11] Prior to release, Sega held a contest in which fans in the West over the age of 13 could submit their own art of Sonic or other franchise characters. 20 individuals won a free copy of the game and got their art featured in it. [12] [13] In Japan, Sega released it on March 12 and in Europe the following day. [14] [15] Sega delisted Black Knight from retailers in October 2010, following its decision to remove all Sonic games with average or below-average scores on Metacritic, a video game review aggregator, to increase the value of the brand. [16]
According to Metacritic, Black Knight received "mixed or average reviews". [17] Media Create reported that the game entered the Japanese sales at 30th place, [18] while the NPD Group said it was one of the top 10 bestselling Wii games of March 2009. [19] The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association gave Black Knight a "Silver" sales award, indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. [20] Many reviewers felt that Black Knight represented another missed opportunity for a franchise increasingly defined by disappointment. [11] [15] [21]