Sonic is in a rather bad position at the moment, while Sonic Unleashed created the uneasy choice of decent speed platforming versus stretchy armed mediocre fighting with no clear decision on whether to like the game or hate it, Sonic & the Black Knight acted like a Matador by placing the red sheet right in front of the fan base bulls by introducing a game based entirely on swordplay, so expectations were edging towards extreme hatred & anger that Sonic Team were releasing yet another Sonic game with a pointless gimmick. So allow me to calm everyone down and say that the game is actually really fun.
Don't get me wrong there are some bad design decisions and they are as follows.
1.) Giving rings away (the very life force you need to survive) in order to complete certain missions.
2.) Items you either can't use or need to wait till the last chapter for any use.
3.) The fact that you can't use other characters till the last chapter and that two characters were… more »

Sonic is in a rather bad position at the moment, while Sonic Unleashed created the uneasy choice of decent speed platforming versus stretchy armed mediocre fighting with no clear decision on whether to like the game or hate it, Sonic & the Black Knight acted like a Matador by placing the red sheet right in front of the fan base bulls by introducing a game based entirely on swordplay, so expectations were edging towards extreme hatred & anger that Sonic Team were releasing yet another Sonic game with a pointless gimmick. So allow me to calm everyone down and say that the game is actually really fun.
Don't get me wrong there are some bad design decisions and they are as follows.
1.) Giving rings away (the very life force you need to survive) in order to complete certain missions.
2.) Items you either can't use or need to wait till the last chapter for any use.
3.) The fact that you can't use other characters till the last chapter and that two characters were scrapped from the main story.
4.) A horrible multiplayer mode.
But the major flaw is that it's barely three hours long which is the same length as the average loading time on Sonic 2006, the entire tutorial for Secret of the Rings and One Werehog level in Unleashed. I suppose if you really didn't like it you'll feel you wasted less time than other games but if you did enjoy it you'll be left disappointed.
But I do remember mentioning it was fun so allow me to tell you why
1.) The speed of the game is good and levels don't take too long to complete
2.) The swordplay is responsive, looks awesome in gameplay and really simple to use. (Even if there are quick timing events)
3.) Game Presentation is superb. Graphics, Story and I'll even comment that the voice acting has improved.
4.) I know people miss springs, speed runners and robots but remember that Sonic is thrown into a Medieval world so such things wouldn't make sense so I'm willing to overlook that.
But most of all it's fun. Remember that word "Fun" so overall you'll get your moneys worth in the end you just have to be patient with it.