Halverson: “Like old Sonic, minus the loops”
While a grade of B- may not sound good on the surface, Play Magazine’s Dave Halverson delivers relatively glowing praise of Sonic and the Black Knight in his online review.
Some may notice a major discrepancy between the letter grade and the numerical score given at the end of the review, which adds up to 17/25…the equivalent of a 6.8 out of 10. Beyond an explanation in Halverson’s online profile that only tersely explains the conversion, it’s unclear how one goes from a 6.8 to a B-.
But if you just look at the numbers, one of the most positive voices for SBK isn’t heard. Halverson actually believes it’s the closest, truest classic Sonic experience yet in 3D:
Ironic that it’s the closest Sonic Team has come to emulating vintage Sonic in 3D yet. All the usual haters will trounce it hardily, and hardly play it, but if you’re a Sonic survivor, Black Knight’s soothing ointment is just the thing for the Wiihog that ales you.
Unlike the clumsy Sonic and the Secret Rings, Black Knight relies on a healthy dose of level objectives over gimmicky control, obstacle courses and ring collection. That’s right, no rings! There are no visible rings in Black Knight. Rings still equal health but they only exist within chests, vases and yellow vapor. In fact, Game director Tetsu Katano has scrapped most of Sonic’s Trademark (3D) gameplay. Aside from moving Sonic forward down a set path, nearly every other aspect of the gameplay has seen some level of revision. For one, Sonic doesn’t turn around. He can walk or leap backwards, but no u-turns. Not like in Secret Rings where he backed up like a semi truck while you sat their tilting your Wii Remote like a noob; back flips are an effective tactic now against charging knights or to forage for rings. By tethering Sonic to three lanes and eliminating ring collection Katano has done away with Sonic’s buggiest bits, at the expense of freedom and speed—two things I don’t think Sonic ever needed. The original game was start and stop. It didn’t shoot Sonic through the levels at breakneck speeds. Remember the Marble Zone? There were speed sections.
Black Knight moves like old Sonic, minus the loops. There are no talky towns either. They call Black Knight the second installment in the storybook series but it looks and feels nothing like Secret Rings and it certainly has nothing in common with any 3D Sonic. Nothing’s broken. It’s just straight ahead rails Sonic with a combat system, RPG elements, mission objectives, a story that’s actually not fruity, online Battle Modes out the whazoo, and an enormous stash of bonus content to amass.
Halverson, the publisher of Play, and previous publisher of classic magazines like GameFan, has been criticized in the past for writing reviews that do not fall in line with the rest of the mainstream gaming media’s opinion. While hedid give the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog a mediocre score (as did most everyone else), other less celebrated titles have seen Halverson’s critical acclaim, sometimes with accusations toward other organizations tacked on.
Still, with such written praise from Play, one has to wonder why the overall score doesn’t seem to match. We welcome your thoughts on the matter in the comments below. TSSZ News will continue to bring you perspectives from all around relating to Sonic and the Black Knight, and my personal review is on the way.
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Halverson’s reviews are often way out of place among other reviews.
this review is somewhat ok because its like close to a 7 so ya so good so far…
I like how he says;
“All the usual haters will trounce it hardily, and _hardly play it_ (emphasis)”
Yet later on then guesses what’s in the game;
“Playing as armored versions of Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, and perhaps _Silver (not sure yet)_”
I’m not against a good game review, but this guy clearly contradicts himself.
I just trust a review with the word noob in it.
what is this guy talking about Yellow Vapor… no doesnt he mean Yellow Fairies for the Rings and Sonic and the Black Knight doesnt have to be like Secret Rings just how Sonic Adventure had better gameplay while Sonic Adventure 2 had a better storyline and ya some good gameplay
The review but i’d wish he commented on the combat system alittle, but hell its alot better than the other scores.
B- is great you know so maybe we should ignore the 6.8 and look at the B-
How much is B -?
Werehog: 8.5
B- = 8-8.3.
wow, these reviews are going up and down like a yoyo, I mean, I thought SU had pretty crazy scores, ranging from 9 to some unspeakable number that would better be applied to the site itself (I’ll get over the bitterness eventually). Similiarly BK also has a pretty strange range of scores, mayb that suggests critics aren’t doing their jobs right, they’re certainly not painting a very clear picture for somebody who is unsure whether to buy the game or not
Did anyone ever notice that despite the fact that Unleashed isn’t on rails, and Black Knight is, Unleashed’s controls and stages are very ‘go forward’? Just about everything pushes you forward, it’s a little irritating with how much time was put into the environments.