In North America, that is. You Europeans and Japanese have another week to wait. In the meantime, I’ve started putting up pages of various aspects of the game. It’ll be  a while before it’s all up, but I’m constantly working on it! Now that it’s out I’m moved the Sonic and the Black Knight subforum out of upcoming Sonic games and into current Sonic games. Head over to the forums, register, and start talking about the game!

With the game coming out to a majority of American retailers tomorrow, the excitement is high! As I’ve done with the past few games to be released, I’ll start putting up pages of info about the various items and features in the game tomorrow afternoon/night when I start playing. (Hopefully, unlike the other games, I won’t stop after about a week and leave everything partially completed). Let’s do it to it!

Showing part of the intro movie this time! I’ve loved the opening and closing movies that they’ve done since Shadow the Hedgehog. They’ve been amazing. A blast to watch! These videos also contain gameplay! Woo! Once again we’ve got an instrumental/vocal video. The first one is more gameplay involved while the second has more of the movie.

Sources Gamekyo & IGN

The Feb. 2009 Nintendo Power has a small bit about the Black Knight in it. A couple interesting facts from it:

It uses woodcut-esque cut-scenes aside from the opening movie (like Sonic and the Secret Rings did with storybook scenes).

Shadow is Sir Lancelot, Knuckles is Sir Gawain, and Amy Rose is the Lady of the Lake.

Shadow and Knuckles are playable in the multiplayer battles after you’ve defeated them in the one-on-one duels in single player mode.

The multiplayer mode lets you either go sword-to-sword against up to three others in a free-for-all or you team up together to defeat a giant baddie as quickly as possible.

This time around I’ve scanned the entire article instead of just the images for you guys. Aren’t I nice? I suggest you still go out and buy the Feb 2009 issue of Nintendo Power to see the article for yourselves. It also has an interesting reader question. The reader mentions that Sonic X-Treme (the cancelled Sega Saturn game) kind of has a Super Mario Galaxy feeling to it. Chris Slate responds saying that he wrote a cover story on Sonic X-Treme for Game Players back in the day and does see a small resemblence now that he looks back. I wonder if Chris has any other inside info about the game from the press side of things…

Source Nintendo Power #238, February 2009

The official Japanese site for Sonic and the Black Knight has updated with a trailer from the Tokyo Game Show 2008 showing some actual movement from the game. You remember the screenshots from Nintendo Power? They’re back, in video form! The official site also has the main theme playing over the video, so you should go take a listen and watch it.

Here’s the video from YouTube, but it doesn’t have the lyrics of the main theme. Just an instrumental version. Hit up the main link for a higher quality, lyrical version of the movie.

Source Sonic City Blognik & Sonic Channel Blog

The Sonic Channel blog posted the link to the preview page of Sonic and the Black Knight. It doesn’t really give anything but the logo, the release date, the platform, and a couple other facts. The page is in Japanese, so I can’t read anything but the numbers. Check it out!

Source Sonic Channel Blog

I’ve received my issue of the Issue #232 September 2008 Nintendo Power with Sonic and the Black Knight as the cover story. Some of the key points that I think should be worth mentioning with direct NP text put in quotes:

-Developed by the same people as Sonic and the Secret Rings

-”This time, a sorceress named Merlina summons Sonic to the mythical realm of King Arthur, but it seems the fabled monarch has somehow been corrupted and now rules the land as the tyranical Black Knight.”

-Uses a similar storybook device as Secret Rings

-”As Sonic runs along, a simple flick of the Wii remote will execute a basic slash, which is enough to dispatch most low-level grunts.”

-More advanced swordplay consists of the ability to thrust, parry, and even pull off a buzz-saw maneuver midjump.

-”During out demo, we saw the hedgehog leap from a high precipice, then thrust the blade into a wall to slow his decent, sparks flying impressivly as steel cut through brick”

-”Combat is integrated in such a way that most of the time you can slice through any who stand in your path without even slowing down”

-Sonic is controlled with the Control Stick.

-”Our hero begins his quest as a mere knave. Only by becoming a full-fledged knight will he have any hope of defeating King Arthur.”

-”his sword, a talking blade named Calibur, serves as a mentor”

-If you help civilian townfolk in need of assistance, you’ll earn points toward knighthood. If you smite one of those civilians, your reputation will take a hit.

-”At the end of each stage, the game tallies your good and not-so-good deeds and updates your rank accordingly.

-You can purchase items from residents. “Sonic can aquire everything from gauntlets to magical tomes to new swords, and when equipped, each article bestows him with a unique benefit.”

-About 200 items in all, with some being able to be combined with others to make new ones.

-You have the option to go online and trade items with friends.

-Rings come in burlap sacks instead of monitors.

-Sonic uses magic elementals to help him do various things, such as a bounce pad or a speed boost. They look like chao heads. The red ones give him a jump and the blue give Sonic a speed boost.

-Sonic can cross large gaps by firing a ballista and grinding the rope to the other side.

-”On the audio side, veteran composer Jen Senoue is taking a smiliar approach, injecting familiar Sonic themes with a Celtic flavor.”

-”Each stage has multiple branching paths and searching for townsfolk and treasure chests provides an element of exploration that recalls Sonic’s early Genesis days.”

-”the camera will occasionally pan to a side-scrolling perspective for a quick dose of classic 2-D action”

-SBK Bringing back the skill system from Secret Rings, but they’re trying not to have the skill system interfere with the game’s tempo this time around.

-The mission structure also returns but the developers hope to make it less arduous.

-”And there will be no dinosaur eggs!”

-”Just as they subbed in for such characters as Ali Baba and Aladdin in Sonic and the Secret Rings, a number of familiar faces will assume Arthurian personas in SBK.”

-”This time, however, some of Sonic’s friends will be playable. Each hero will boast unique abilities, and though the team isn’t ready to divulge the full cast just yet, we do know the identities of two playable comrades: Knuckles, who brandishes two swords at once, and Shadow.”

-Playing as these other characters is entirely optional. You will be able to play through game as Sonic, or switch to the other characters if you choose.

-”When people see that Sonic is wielding a sword, they’ll probably have certain expectations of the multiplayer mode. And all I can say is that we’re thinking along those same lines.”

-While the old guages from Secret Rings are gone, a new special guage will “bestow him with similarly impressive powers. The meter fills gradually whenever Sonic vanquishes an enemy or snags a purple elemental, and when it reaches a certain point you can unleash a powerful combination attack capable of tearing through multiple foes in quick succession. You simply press the B button to lock onto the nearest enemy, flick the remote to strike him down, then press B again to move onto the next unfortunate soul. If you chain together enough smitings before the guage is depleted, Sonic will receive a speed burst at the end of the string.”

-”the team behind Sonic and the Black Knight is keenly aware of the franchise’s past missteps, and their enthusiasm for doing right by the series is infections”

Those are some key things I pulled out. If you want more, I suggest you pick up the September 2008 issue. It’s number 232 of Nintendo Power.

EDIT: I’ve thrown up some scans from the magazine to hold you over until some official images are put up.

An image posted online of the September 2008 issue of Nintendo Power has Sonic & the Black Knight as a Wii-exclusive game. The “Sonic swings cold steel” line most likely means swordplay is a part of the gameplay. While it hasn’t been confirmed yet, the image is too good for someone to put out a fake a couple of days before the actual issue of Nintendo Power comes out.

I went ahead and created a game page for it already. Nothing there, but it will be updated as soon as more information becomes available. That’s the update for today.