My first impression of Sega's latest Sonic game, Sonic and the Black Knight, was that it is very similar to Sega's 2007 release Sonic and the Secret Rings. Personally, I liked Secret Rings a lot and Black Knight seems to correct a few of the issues I had with it, such as the fact that you could never stop.

The level I played from Sonic and the Black Knight was set in a generic woods environment and involved Sonic deftly moving through a short level while he wields an oversized sword, which is supposedly Excalibur. Unlike Sonic and the Secret Rings, you use the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk. Regardless, the basics are very simple and intuitive. You use the analog stick on the Nunchuk to move, you swing the sword with a gesture of the Wii Remote, and you jump with the A button. In addition, the Z button is used to block and you can do a lock-on attack with the B button.

My main complaint with the controls is that the sword attacks seem to be a bit laggy, but I think that had more to do with the sword attack animation than the actual in-game attack. I was never injured from what appeared to be a late sword attack, but it was very annoying to see my sword attacks go through after the target was vanquished.

The block attack adds a new move to Sonic's arsenal as it allows him to defend against larger enemies, like the warthogs in the level. At a few points warthogs begin to charge at Sonic as he moves forward, and if you hold the Z button Sonic slides and uses his sword to defend himself, harmlessly knocking the enemies away. The only downside to this attack is that it kills your momentum and the overall flow of the game.

Outside of this hiccup, the game is very fast paced and I breezed through the demo level very quickly. At its conclusion I found myself in a fight with a large dragon. While the boss was laughably easy because every one of his attacks could be blocked by holding the Z button, the battle was still fun and didn't last long enough to become an annoyance.

I think that its fun factor is Sonic and the Black Knight's saving grace. It's not going to be an overly challenging game, but if it can be entertaining, it will be a fun experience.