Three More SBK Press Reviews

By
Tristan Oliver
– March 16, 2009

blackknightNone are Particularly Positive

The onslaught of negativity toward Sonic and the Black Knight–and, perhaps, the Sonic franchise in its current state–continues to permeate through more mainstream outlets, with three additional reviews coming in over the weekend.  All of them give the game mediocre praise and scores, at best.

First, from GameTrailers, their video review, like so many other opinions, begs for Sonic’s days of yore, and chastizes the game’s control mechanics.  Overall, their score was a 5.7 out of 10.  You can watch the six minute review below.

Next, CVG offshoot magazine NGamer hit along the same lines, awarding SBK a 5.6 out of 10.  While the review says the idea had promise, they also blame poor controls and poor variety as accessories to the game’s apparent freefall:

Speed is cumulative and if you don’t manage to dodge or destroy obstacles in time you’ll find yourself slowing to a crawl. A fair enough punishment in a Sonic game, but most of the times you crash won’t be your fault; it’s the stupid controls that are to blame. It’s also a bit weird how the game insists on making you stop every so often to donate rings to a villager or wall-hug your way around a lava pit. It’s totally at odds with the rest of the action and, more importantly, it’s just not Sonic.

Combat, too, proves to be an annoying distraction from the run-faster-grab-the-rings core. It’s not duelling or anything remotely similar; it’s shaking the remote at random until everything drops dead and you’re hopefully still in one piece. It’s possible to block and take a slightly more tactical approach, but the game doesn’t exactly encourage you, prioritising speed over combat and then punishing you for not battling more carefully.

TotalVideoGames.com is the most harsh of the three, only doling a 4 out of 10.  A more detailed score breakdown reveals every subcomponent aside from graphics received a score of less than 50%.  Unlike most other reviews, their criticism isn’t focused on the replay value so much as wonder why there is so much extra, when so much of the core appears broken:

Sonic games have traditionally been on the short side with an underlying replay value, but sadly there’s not much of this to be found in The Black Knight (perhaps it’s a good thing).  The typical array of scores is rewarded upon the completion of each stage and there’s a considerable horde of questionable goodies to unlock.  A die-hard Sonic fanatic could possibly point towards the bonuses awarded for Perfect Hits and chaining together attacks, and admittedly, whilst it’s possible to run through the main story in a few short hours there does remain a handful of additional side challenges to return to.  But when the gameplay is as unrefined as Sonic and the Black Knight’s you ultimately have to ask: what’s the point? The premise of several multiplayer modes played out in a static arena only serves to extend the sense of, ‘Why Sonic Team, Why?’

We have a poll running right now asking if you think much of the mainstream press is biased against the Sonic franchise, and we invite you to vote.  And for those wondering where our review of SBK is–I’m still collecting my thoughts on the game, and you will see something toward the middle of this week.

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