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It's already time for a new "Sonic" game, which MTV Multiplayer got a hands-on demo with in New York City today. This time, Sonic's got a sword and his Wii-exclusive game, "Sonic And The Black Knight" has surprising controls.

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What was that Wii game in the corner of Sega's big New York City event today?

It was "Sonic and the Black Knight," the Wii-only successor to 2007's Wii-only "Sonic and the Secret Rings," aka the best-received "Sonic" game in recent years and yet one that seems to have been forgotten.

"Black Knight" was revealed last Summer and has been featured on the cover of Nintendo Power, but Sega kept quiet about the game most of last year, leaving the Sonic promotional spotlight to the console game "Sonic Unleashed" and the DS game "Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood."

Those games have come and gone, so bring on "Black Knight," which will be out in America in just two months. It's hook: Sonic is in the King Arthur legend and wields a sword.

The first thing I noticed about "Sonic and the Black Knight" today was how much more conventional its controls are than its predecessor's. "Sonic and the Secret Rings" was an early showcase of Wii motion control. That game was played with the Wii remote only, held on its short ends. Sonic perpetually moved forward in a pre-determined path, but rocking the Wii remote made him steer within his lane. Hoisting the controller up made Sonic jump and slamming it down made him attack. "Black Knight," however, is controlled with the remote and nunchuk. Sonic advances when the nunchuk's analog stick is pressed forward; he jumps with a tap of the A button and he swings his sword with a shake of the remote.

Sonic wielding a sword is an odd gimmick, though arguably less odd than Sonic turning into a were-hog as he did in last fall's "Sonic Unleashed." In one level I played of the new game, I had to run Sonic down a path dotted with apples (instead of rings). I had to time swings of Sonic's sword to knock down targets propped up along the path. A stampede of cows charged toward Sonic. Pressing Z generated a shield that bounced them back. As with "Secret Rings," Sonic will earn powers, but I only saw these basic abilities in my brief time with the game.

Sonic appears to gain experience points for completing levels in a skillful manner. This earns Sonic extra "followers" who manifest themselves in the game's town, a feature I was told about but didn't see. Sonic's "friends" also appear in the game, though I didn't see Knuckles or any of the rest.

I did get to fight King Arthur. Arthur is the game's first boss. The level where I encountered him forced me to run Sonic up to an armor-clad Arthur who sat upon an idle horse. Sonic and Arthur faced off. Arthur prepared to attack. An on-screen prompt directed me to swing the Wii remote. With proper timing I did and hurt Arthur. After a couple more strikes I was prompted to press the A button for a bigger attack. That worked and Arthur fled. More running followed, then another standstill for an Arthur showdown... but I ran out of time. I had to go see another game.

So what to make of my limited time with "Sonic and the Black Knight"?

As I told a Sega rep before I departed the event, it's a bit confusing to have another "Sonic" game to cover and play so soon after "Unleashed" was released. And even though "Secret Rings" was one of the best-looking Wii games upon its release, I've now seen enough of Sonic on higher-end systems that it's a little hard to go back to seeing him on the Wii. Twenty feet away from "Black Knight" today was the stylish, black-and-white "Madworld," which makes a strong visual argument for designing Wii games with more creatively rendered graphics that, in their cartoon-ishness don't look as dated.

This Wii exclusive line of "Sonic" games does have promise. The "Secret Rings" game showed great potential in remedying some of the long-standing problems of putting Sonic gameplay in three dimensions by constraining the action to on-rails gameplay.  So seeing further development exploration of that concept is encouraging. What isn't encouraging is seeing that game's control scheme abandoned, possibly in order to accommodate new swordplay.

The "Sonic" line has been full of experiments but few creative and critical successes in recent years. Should that make Sega stop trying or even slow down? That doesn't appear to be the publisher's agenda. We get to try this latest attempt in March. From what I played today, this experiment could go either way.

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‘I’m Not Crazy’ - Sega-Loving Rapper Explains ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ Lifestyle

My MTV News colleagues who cover the hip-hop beat recently showed me the raw footage of an amazing interview they conducted with Charles Hamilton, an up-and-coming rapper signed to Interscope who really, really liked the Sega Genesis. They've been nice enough to give us this exclusive clip.

Simply put, we need more rappers like Charles Hamilton. The man knows his video games. And he's.. creative.

Hamilton's so Sega-crazy that he's releasing a mixtape, called "Sonic The Hamilton," which chronicles his adventures of him living life as Sonic.

"I'm not crazy," he told us. "Basically, Sonic means sound. Hedgehogs bury themselves in the ground. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, because I bury myself in the sound."

Hamilton is more serious about this then you might expect, and if you listen to him speak long enough you'll understand why. It's not just that Hamilton loved playing his Genesis when he was younger and wants to rap about it -- he seems to have found solace and inspiration in following the Sonic character, an escape from a childhood that was wracked by bouts of homelessness and drug abuse.

For more on Hamilton's life and new mixtape (including some tracks you can listen to), check out my colleagues' further coverage at MTV News' Mixtape Monday.

And if you want to see Hamilton get really excited rapping about Sega, check out this language-not-safe-for-work music video on YouTube. Note the perfect references to Dr. Robotnik, "Duck Tales" and Game Genie!

(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K.)

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Now we've got a Sonic role-playing game to match against the Mario ones. I've been playing "Sonc Chronicles" on the DS the last few days. What it borrows from the other "Sonic" games are the diverse character abilities of Sonic's wide case of protagonists. It doesn't, however, do much with the core element of "Sonic" platformers: speed.

The "Mario" role-playing games -- ranging from "Paper Mario" to "Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time" -- aren't able to take advantage of as well-defined a set of gameplay character traits as the Sonic RPG. It's not like Mario should have obviously different abilities from Luigi, the way Sonic should from, say, Knuckles.

What the Mario RPGs do borrow from their platformer source material, however, is a style of action-first and ease-of-use. They translate their style of platform gameplay better than the Sonic RPG appears to. The Mario RPGs tend to be more streamlined than the average "Final Fantasy," giving players fewer items, fewer side-missions. And, most prominently, the Mario RPGs have usually included a lot of reflex-based gameplay. In some of them, you can even play them like Mario platformers, jumping on the heads of enemies and defeating them without even going into turn-based battles, if you're powerful enough.

The Mario RPGs feel more "Mario"-esque to me than the Sonic RPG feels like a "Sonic" game. But I do appreciate the "Sonic" RPG's successful use of a diverse set of characters, something the Mario games haven't ever managed that well. Gaming's two most famous mascots have found a new realm in which to be compared. I think they'll be richer for it.

Next: Over the weekend, I'm trying to play much more of "Lego Batman" and I'm finally starting my final copy of "Fracture." I hope I like it as much as I did the preview builds.

There are few ideas that should give gamers more pause than the introduction of "innovations" in Sonic The Hedgehog games. Sonic gets new friends, a third dimension to run in, secret rings, a gun-toting darker half -- any of this stuff introduced in recent "Sonic" installments -- and review scores plummet like an ill-timed jump.

This week, gamers got to see Sonic star in a role-playing game, "Sonic Chronicles" for DS. The fact that it's not bad and actually getting solid reviews is a twist. Whether it's the start of a trend is another question.

It didn't look like Sonic would necessarily be on a good-game trend when word leaked earlier this year that the next Sonic game, "Sonic Unleashed," will intersperse traditional run-really-fast Sonic levels with combat stages that feature a werewolf Sonic.

Werewolf Sonic? Another one of those "innovations."

In a hotel suite in Manhattan yesterday I was given a personal demo of "Sonic Unleashed" and was shown some of the werewolf stuff in action.

In "Unleashed," Sonic turns into a werewolf version of himself at night. This happens because of some as-yet unexplained plot element. You play in this form in what are night-time versions of the internationally themed environments that regular Sonic races through in the daytime.  Werewolf-Sonic doesn't really run anywhere. He jumps on some platforms. He collects some rings. But, mostly, he fights, using furry paws and stretching arms.

From what I saw, the night stages look like they play similarly to the E-102 Gamma robot stages in "Sonic Adventure," at least in terms of the gameplay involving the targeting of multitudes of enemies. Screenshots may make it appear that Sonic's nighttime combat is a one-on-one or one-on-three affair, but what I was shown had Sonic against packs and hordes. The PR person playing the level for me had Sonic swiping and punching at clusters of enemies, building up combo chains and covering the screen in special effects.

Sonic's basic combat movies involve swinging his arms and punching enemies. He can pick up enemies and throw them, use them as clubs or use two hands to swing them around the room. Sonic gains experience points and, with that, new moves.

There doesn't seem to be much that is Sonic-esque about "Sonic Unleashed"'s were-Sonic levels. He doesn't seem like he's going to be running really fast through loop-de-loops. The blazing speed that is his trademark is evident only in the swiftness of Werewolf-Sonic's combat moves.

So, is this another unneeded Sonic innovation gone awry? Possibly not. It looked fun. We'll know more when we get a chance to play it closer to the game's holiday launch. "Sonic Unleashed" will ship for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. (The level design of the Wii and PS2 versions is said to differ in construction from those of the PS3 and 360 versions -- but not to the exclusion of Werewolf-Sonic.)

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"Sonic Chronicles" arrived at retail yesterday. If you've decided to take another chance with Sonic and friends and are just starting out in the game, you'll want to pay attention to this post.

We reached out to BioWare for a list of 10 things you absolutely must check out while trying to save the world in "Sonic Chronicles." Here's what three developers at BioWare recommended:

BioWare Developers' Must-Do List For Players of
"Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood"
(Nintendo DS RPG, September 2008)

Michael Liaw – QA Analyst
1. Discover the space pirates that are plaguing the merchants - Their speech impediment is quite unique.

2. Help Big find Norton - What frogs do on their own time is pretty amazing.

3. Take a look around for Omega in Metropolis - He might give you a hand.

Miles Holmes – Lead Designer
4. Give Sonic the Hailstorm POW move – Power it up to level three and try it out by putting Tails, Amy and Knuckles in your party.

5. Get a Viral Chao – The results are infectious.

6. Equip a level 3 Spartoi Chao on either Sonic or Shadow and then get Tails to cast Adrenaline Rush repeatedly on them – This will give your party maximum odds for instant ‘KO’ attacks.

Arone Le Bray – QA Design Analyst
7. Gain Cream - Make sure that you grab Cream and Cheese. These two make playing through the game much easier because they let you do POW moves much more often

8. Be Nice to Amy - There is a payoff at the end that is very hard to get, but worth it.

9. Look for Tablets - Look for tablets and Nocturne technology for Nestor. This will tell you the true past of the Nocturne within the Twilight Cage.

10. Mix up the teams - Different characters have different responses to situations, but they will only speak up if they are in the party at the time.

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At E3, for the first time ever, the company showed the night-time stages of the game, which had Sonic in his new "werehog" form. He's apparently transformed into a werehog after Dr. Eggman captures Sonic, which will be revealed in the opening cutscene not shown.

In his nocturnal werehog form, Sonic is stripped of his speed (he runs on all fours like a gorilla) but gains massive strength and the ability to stretch his arms. The night-time levels are a mix of combat and platforming, and Sonic can perform a variety of combo attacks. On the Xbox 360, "Y" was the push attack, "X" was a sideways claw attack and "B" was used to grab enemies.

Examples of Sonic's super-strength included breaking down doors, lifting panels for platforming (the instance I saw required the player to button-mash "B" to lift) and climbing. The werehog is a good climber, and U.S. producer Patrick Riley said there will be plenty of vertical climbing in the levels. As for Sonic's stretchy arms, if the player misses a jump, his elastic limbs can save him from falling.

So Sonic fans, what do you think of the hedgehog's new werewolf form? Do you think the series needed this transformation? (At least the game won't have inter-species kissing.)

[Image from CampSonic.com]

This inter-species romance ends now.

A Sega representative demonstrating the new multi-platform "Sonic Unleashed" at a company event in San Francisco this week told me that "I promise there will be no humans making out with Sonic" in the new game.

He did say there will be "new humans" in the game. As long as they don't get to first base with Sonic, I think some (not all!) people will be happy.

Other "Sonic Unleashed" declarations from the same rep included:

• The revelation that the game's director was "not involved with the previous outing."
• The promise that the new game will be "expanding on titles people liked."
• The intention of the developers "to make Sonic new and relevant again."

Anyone sensing a theme? Can you guess which game Sega regrets making?

"Sonic Unleashed " features day and night modes of play. Night mode was not shown. Day mode is the classic Sonic-runs-fast gameplay in a 3D environment that often runs in the so-called 2.5D of "Sonic And The Secret Rings." The game moved fast but is hard to judge without a hands-on, given that "Sonic" games live or die by things like camera and level flow. Sega was only letting its own employees play the game.

Reporters were also told that, for the most part, Sonic's friends like Tails and Knuckles will not be playable in this game. The figure I heard was that gameplay would be "95%" Sonic-based.

It didn't work for "Shadow the Hedgehog," of which I played a good amount. At Nintendo's Media Summit late last week, however, I spent a little more than 15 minutes checking out -- and playing -- early bits from "Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood."

While the characters are rendered in 3D, the environments are made up of sprawling, beautiful bits of hand-drawn artwork. I'm told the BioWare offices are filled with gigantic versions of these Sonic worlds. I recommend they release some as desktop wallpapers.

With any luck, they will, but let me tell about how the game actually plays.

While I waited for my turn for a guided tour of the game, someone from Sega marketing asked for some feedback. I expressed some hesitation about the bleak setting, based on my experiences with the more recent Sonic games, but if Square Enix could make a semi-serious RPG out of Mario, why couldn't BioWare make one out of Sonic?

The isometric view means Sonic can't pull off his trademark moves without a little assistance, which comes in the form of clickable icons. You don't actually control Sonic as he does a loop-de-loop, but that's not what this game is really about, anyway.

With that in mind, an early build of the game was placed in my hands. The difficulty had been turned way down to avoid any problems in combat. Before the demo, Forbes reporter Mary Jane Irwin and I joked about "Sonic Chronicles" having BioWare's distinctive branching dialogue trees. "No way," I laughed.

I guessed wrong.

"Sonic Chronicles" does feature branching, multi-tiered dialogue trees that apparently amount to more than 50,000 words, when it's all said and done. Don't get the wrong impression, though. The choices aren't deep, but allow you a chance to play it straight or show a little Sonic "attitude." I rolled my eyes a bit, but knowing BioWare's pedigree, I'll wait until really sitting down with "Sonic Chronicles" before drawing a verdict.

Enemies are visible on the screen, so they're almost always avoidable. Once engaged, however, "Sonic Chronicles" doesn't look much different from your average console-style RPG. There are options for attacks, "Chrono Trigger"-esque team ups, item use, etc. Not-so-standard, however, is incorporating the stylus into combat. One stylus attack required tapping different icons, another forced the player to outline a circle.

Unfortunately, perhaps the most interesting draw for this game -- a BioWare-scribed Sonic the Hedgehog epic -- wasn't something I could really appreciate in a short demo. One representative told me the game takes a dark turn "about halfway through."

I'm still not convinced I want to spend much time in a dark Sonic world, but it's BioWare, right? Good choice, Sega. On BioWare's name alone, I'm willing to take a leap of faith.