SBK Labeled Worst Wii Game of Year by ScrewAttack
Tristan Oliver | December 23, 2009
An Unsavory Honor, Voted on by Readers
Upon first announcement, Sonic and the Black Knight wasn’t well received, and in reflection, it appears the same holds true.
For 2009, the Wii exclusive picked up an award Sega probably didn’t want: Worst Wii Game of the year, as chosen by the readers–and not the staff–of ScrewAttack. The decision apparently wasn’t even close, with SBK getting more than 60 percent of reader votes.
Not helping matters was the fact that Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games was also nominated, perhaps only because of Sonic’s presence. But if it helps soften the blow, first-party Wii Sports Resort–which had been selling like hotcakes over the Summer–was also in the mix.
So, in retrospect, do you think SBK deserved all the slams it got? Tell us in the comments section. Thanks to TimmiT for sending the information in via our News Tips system.
Filed Under Sonic Scene
Everyone most likely voted for it just because it was a Sonic game. >.<
Yeah, probably did.
SEGA’s just treading on thin ice with people’s patience concerning Sonic. You’ve gotta wonder just how many people are sick of Sonic after all these years, whether they used to be fans or not. Even though I do think whining about Sonic being in a car in a kart racing game is spoiled and asinine and the werehog is ok at best for now, he’s been stretched far too widely with 60% of his stretch into much shit.
@RabidSonicFan: Likely not. Most likely voted for it either because it was Sonic with a sword and in a storybook adaptation of the legend of King Arthur, it being a really bad game, or both.
I’ve heard the winter olympics game, though, did suffer because Sonic was in it, but then let’s also let the sales speak for themselves.
I understand that SBK was far from what you would expect in most Sonic games, but certainly not the worst. I thought it was okay, the story was quite interesting, though this is one that seemed to appeal to kids the most. I mean, my youngest brother who’s only seven years old considers Sonic and the Black Knight to be his favorite Wii game of all.
What could be cooler than a supersonic hedgehog swinging a talking sword wildly like a idiot while being called “Fool” every few seconds and… Oh, wait, nevermind.
As I recall, three Sonic games were nominated (if you include Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games), but to be honest, I’m not surprised that Black Knight was the top on here. And really, based on what I’ve heard, it IS the worst of the ones nominated. I probably wouldn’t mind it so much if I got a chance to play it myself, though. It actually looks fun, and includes the ability to play as three other characters.
Wasn’t at least one version of Sonic Unleashed nominated, as well? It is ridiculous that three Sonic-based games were nominated. But again, though, I’m not surprised that Black Knight was the one that won this thing.
I’m not gonna take ScrewAttack seriously for these kinds of things, because if you say people bought Mario & Sonic just because they bought it for Mario, not Mario AND Sonic, and only play the multiplayer of Sonic and the Black Knight then give up on the whole franchise altogether right afterward (Stuttering Craig…), and go off to say that Black Knight is the worst game of the year, then quite frankly you don’t think your audience is that smart.
And Black Knight isn’t a good game, but not the worst, and it does have alot of good qualities to it.
Black Knight isn’t a great game. It isn’t a terrible game either. It has some good qualities, and some bad qualities. It’s nowhere close to the worst Wii game this year.
As everyone already knows, the only reason it was voted as the worst Wii game this year is because it’s a Sonic game. Oh well. =/ It’s not discouraging me.
Sonic’s current state should get no mercy. No one should accept where he is today. Accepting it will only let SEGA see that they don’t have to try to win the fan’s hearts, and we’ll continue to receive the same BS as we’ve been getting since Sonic 06/Shadow the Hedgehog.
I did not deserve a slam like that.
No sonic game should be rate less than 7.0.
Haters gonna hate.
Worst game of the Year? Dozens of pieces of shovelware are released each month, and they decided this is the worst?!?
Honest, you’ve got to love reviewers. They all think they know exactly how to make a great game, but if you asked them to make one, it would probably suck.
I don`t a crap about the reviewers as long I have fun with the game I`m happy
The guys at Screwattack open up notepad type in “fanboy” in a giant font and jerk it to it. Don’t trust or care about any drivel they produce.
I doesn’t deserve it. Okay, the was bad in some places but overall it’s at least an okay game. They should put the real bad games on that list instead!
Anyway, I don’t care. I got the game. I enjoyed it. And now I’m happy!
… OK, fine. I give. I’m selling my copy of Black Knight. Obviously my opinion is wrong. Unleashed all the fucking way.
It’s a sad, sad day when a person has to change just to be acceptable.
This is a really good lesson for SEGA. SEGA are great developers who have also made one of the best action games for the Wii (MadWorld) but they are not Nintendo and can not really branch out in the same sort of experimentation that the little Italian plumber indulges in with being put under stricter scrutiny.
Compare the consensus opinion of Sonic Chronicles compared to Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story for example. When it comes to Sonic it appears people just want tried and true.
That really sucks because black knight was better than secret rings
Man they don’t know what they are talking about ! who’s got the game like the Werehog said “Anyway, I don’t care. I got the game. I enjoyed it. And now I’m happy!
”
I don’t have the game but I know it one of the best sellers of the Wii, if you go to the ReplayZone or Game site you’ll see that there!!!
I don’t care what that kind of people said “I’m just a guy who loves Adventure” (SA2) hehe
WTF???(sorry for that). The worst game? XD what a jokeXD. Even my friend(he is not the fan of Sonic games) loved that game. This isn´t the worst game ever. I don´t care what other people think. I still love this game.
I hated this game. I really did, there were very few things I liked about it. But what it the worst Wii game of the year, especially with all of that shovelware garbage on Wii shelves? Most certainly not.
Its one freaking joke. speedracer is much worse. XD
@ RabidSonicFan
No it was voted because 1. Every Wii game aside from the secret rings and NSMB and Mario galaxy sucks(in my oppinion)
and 2. This and Zero gravity are likely the worst things sega will ever release
I think this list is a bit harsh and you would have to have a perfect game to be higher up in the ranks.
Hi Yvar, Long time no see!
Who cares? I don’t. Is it really so important with games, life has so much more to offer. So why should we care so much about this? But well, might be good cus SEGA might skip to make a game that is like SBK. It wasn’t so good. Sonic Unleashed all the way!
Don’t think of this award as a bias against Sonic.
Instead, think about it as a call out to Sega that says “We’re tired of your rushed and mediocre crap.”
please NOT more storybook series!!
Secret Rings is a little bit more fun than Black Knight
but…both are really boring…x_X
Main series ->OK
Rush series->OK
Riders series ->OK
but only riders 1
StoryBook series-> NOT!! ok
What? Unbelivable!
It was a great game, my fave since sonic 06!
Screwattack is a bunch of total morons…
(EDIT – Vulgarity -T)
Unjustified haters can go suck a fat one. I’d bet my entire game collection 50%-60% of the idiots who voted for one of those Sonic games (and for that matter, WSR) never played the damn game for more than the hour the Wii requires them to play to vote it down in the Nintendo Channel. There were all of three things (not counting my opinion on VAs) I found wrong with SatBK. The multiplayer, the level-up-to-better-control (it’s faster than in SatSR, but still dumb), and the VS Character fights (you can normally bypass the problem, but you shouldn’t HAVE to). There are so few problems with this game. If you’re hellbent on making it a Sega game, didn’t Samba release this year? THAT was bad. Or like others said, what about the metric shit ton of shovel-ware? That new Ringling Bros. game is pretty terrible. This same crap happened to Mario Sunshine and Halo Wars (and to varying extents all new Sonic games), “Oh my God! This game plays diffently, and doesn’t feel like the old games. I hate it with all my soul even though I never played it!” Get over it, and yourselves you whiney little nostalgic bitches.
Look I’m not a fan of this game either. I rented it and quite frankly I should have pirated it and deleted it after realizing that being better than “Secret Rings” is hardly an achievement.
But worst game this year? Fuck off. ScrewAttack blows. The only reason why anybody cares about them is because of the AVGN.
It seems like half the people here didn’t even read the article…
The ScrewAttack community voted for this game, not the staff. Also, one of the rules of the awards was that people need to have played the game before nominating it, which is probably why none of the shovelware that came out in 2009 wasn’t nominated.
Also, I was one of the people that nominated Black Knight because it was the only bad Wii game I played that year.
@RabidSonicFan : No, it’s not just because it has Sonic in the game, it ‘s because this game truly was a piece of crap. Just looking at the footage told me that it was a piece of crap without even touching the game disc. They don’t hate Sonic because of the character, they hate the game because of the quality of the over-all product. Hopefully, when Project NeedleMouse comes along, they won’t be so harsh.
I COMPLETELY agree with them! I didn’t even play the game, but I knew it was crap from all the reviews and footage I’ve seen.
@ ALL THe PEOPLE WHO AGREE WITH THE POLL
……………….Blasphemy! >:(
*How about a boycott of the site?
It had potential, just didn’t execute the concept right.
I’m pretty sure there are worse wii games than this…
The game was all right.
There, I said it.
The swordplay was wonky, but otherwise, it was a decent game. I enjoyed it, I played it through, and I still play it from time to time for fun.
Anyone who says it’s the worst Wii game this year needs to lighten up. There were dozens of shovelware titles released. Why not add some of them to the list?
Sky Cyer has a point. There’s a difference between seeing reviews for a game, deciding not to get it, and then bitching about it and actually PLAYING the game and giving your opininion on it. I, personally, hated black knight. It was just so boring to me, literally.
http://screwattack.com/videos/SAGY-Awards-2009-Worst-Game-of-the-Decade-Winner
Seems like sonic won another worse game catatgory as well.
seriously?…..
You kidding right? I enjoyed Sonic and the Black Knight a crap ton more than Astro Boy: The Video Game for the Wii. Heck, I played SatBK more/longer the majority of my Wii library.
Voting it as a bad game just because it contains Sonic is the traits of someone who needs to get run over by a steam roller plated with kinves.
Black Knight was a fun game as soon as you got the hang of it and its rather cheap rules. I couldn’t put it down, until I beat it 100% (5 star every mission, fill up the treasury, etc.). After that, I left it alone for months.
It definately wasn’t what we wanted, but it was better than Secret Rings, Riders, Rivals, and ’06. There are a multiplicity of worse games out there; all this vote proves is that Sonic is disliked across the gaming world simply because he’s got some rough years behind him that haven’t been proven to be over yet.
In other words, if Unleashed was the reboot that it was meant to be (which it wasn’t), Black Knight wouldn’t even be on the ballot for Worst Game.
@Jrc1120:
[ I COMPLETELY agree with them! I didn’t even play the game, but I knew it was crap from all the reviews and footage I’ve seen. ]
…
If you hate a game that you never played, I wonder why you even call yourself a “fan” when you clearly aren’t.
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games got nominated for it just because of Sonic’s appearance? What’s wrong with Sonic?
I do agree it’s definitely not the WORST, but it was definitely one of the worse wii games this year. SATBK’s gameplay shows that “don’t run with scissors” is good advice. It felt like they tried to mix combat with the speed gameplay (opposite of SU) and it resulted in having to keep stopping and backtracking, since you’d always be running into enemies. It also felt really bad after SU, which was actually a pretty good game.
The way I see it, it’s a decent-pretty good game to get if you can find it cheap.
In Canada, The Source is selling it for $25, I’ll be getting it soon. Other places have it for #35.
Just like NiGHTS: JOD is obviously not that sequel fans always wanted, but it’s surely a good investment when you can find it for as low as $10 these days!
Wii Sports Resort was one of the best reviewed games of the year, for any console.
Why is that game there?
But alas, the Sonic games will be there because Sonic is in them. Heck, there are tons of games out there worse than Sonic and the Black Knight.
Lol, I hardly see any voice of reason here besides a few people (serpx in particular).
The game was bad. It stunk. It was linear. It was a chore. Felt more like a minigame than a real game.
We don’t hate because it’s Sonic. We hate it because it really is a bad game.
It deserves the honor. If you’re seriously defending SEGA’s ass right now, then you really don’t understand what makes Sonic Sonic. The only redeeming qualities was the amount of fan service (the fan art and music from the games of past), the absolutely beautiful graphics (Very impressive lighting and detail… Looks like a low end 360 game), and…. Huh… There was nothing else to praise… The linear gameplay is offputting (I’ve played through the entire game… It was a friggin chore!), the storyline comes out of nowhere (Oh, the hero had to be Sonic, eh? For all I care, she would’ve summoned the Flash for all we care), and while I haven’t played the multiplayer mode, I do get the feeling that I won’t like it.
It deserves the award. The game itself is shovelware. Gorgeous and rewarding to fans for service… but still shovelware. Stop defending this game.
I honestly haven’t played the game, so my vote neither goes for or against this nomination.
However, I will say Sonic was and still is a very iconic character. Hype only builds with critical disappointment both by the media and gamers alike. It’s easy to say that such a once well-received mascot deserves nothing less than a AAA title, and not a B or C.
My point is, I highly doubt SBK is a D or F. There are -so- many horribly developed, less appealing titles for the Wii than SBK.
Again, I haven’t played the game to know if it’s even worthy of receiving a B or C, so my opinion isn’t very valid. My main point is that people will be more -disappointed- in another average Sonic game rather than Diner Dash 2009: Extra Special Fall Edition. The award should have been the Most Disappointing, not Worst. =/
Greg: People can defend the game if they want. Its there oppinion and there own option to like this game.
This game was actually pretty damn good! But so many couldn’t swallow the fact that it wasn’t a traditional Sonic game.
No one of you deserve a medal !
(Soldier)
Oh come on, all the awful shovelware and THIS gets voted worst Wii game of the year? I’m willing to bet most of the voters never even played the game, they just went “RAWROMG Sonic has a sword, TERRIBLE!”
I mean I’m no fanboy or anything, the game certainly has problems but it isn’t THAT bad.