I will confess: While I am a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, I tend to view him more as a comic book character first, video game character second. Sad as that may be to hear, the truth of the matter is that I hate to miss an issue of the book, while there have been several Sonic games over the past few years which I just have not bothered with.

And while I still look forward to Sonic and the Black Knight, I must also confess that things like the damnable Tornado quick-time event section of Sonic Unleashed and recent revelations have severely diminished my hope.

That said, we've got some new info for what I hope will at least be a fun, bearable Sonic game, rather than one that might have been good were it not sinking from all the wrenches thrown into it.

The new issue of Nintendo Power (I miss when my issues arrived in a timely manner) reveals some new tidbits about the game, such as the inclusion of "woodcut-esque cut-scenes" (with the opening being pre-rendered) that tell of how Sonic is sucked into yet another storybook with a chili dog in each hand to combat a King Arthur turned evil by the very magical scabbard which grants him immortality.

I'm actually very down with this, in case anyone was wondering.

Sonic is of course a fish out of water in the Arthurian legend, which apparently makes for some amusing moments and levity in the story. And as in Secret Rings, there are other Sonic character taking up famous roles, such as Shadow as Sir Lancelot, Knuckles as Sir Gawain, and God help us all, Amy Rose as the Lady of the Lake (um, she couldn't leave the lake, could she? I sure hope not).

It was previously reported that Knuckles and Shadow would be optional playable characters, but now a certain vagueness is cast over the specifics, as it is revealed that they will be playable in a multiplayer battle mode (possibly online?), but no mention is made of whether you can use them in a single-player mode.

I sure hope so.

NP goes on to say that in the multiplayer battle mode, you and three friends (who would be the fourth character? Amy?) can go sword-to-sword in a free-for-all deathmatch, or unite and work together to defeat one big baddie as quickly as you can.

Sounds awesome, but they also note that the multiplayer feels a bit rough around the edges, but that it will hopefully be smoothed out before its March release.

Sadly, I don't know what to hope for in such matters anymore. Seems like so often, if there's a problem at this point in development, it's usually here to stay.