Knack Reviews
It's an average effort with an interesting concept for a protagonist and a game that lasts for several days only because it's unnecessarily padded and punitive to a fault. Knack may be built on the blocks of charm and difficulty, but by the fourth level, those blocks topple over into a pile of excess tedium.
Knack probably looked great on the drawing board. Had I been one of the developers in the room, I would've been excited to get started. But I wouldn't have expected that somewhere along the way, we would've stopped implementing ideas to expand upon that admittedly rock solid foundation.
Knack is a charming romp, but not one I could recommend shelling out full price for.
Knack is an inoffensive, if overly challenging, platformer that falls just short in Sony's move to next-gen.
That's "Knack's" bottom line. It's a solid concept with horrible execution. I can't recommend paying $60 for this bare-boned experience, when it feels more like a $20 digital download title. If "Knack" does well enough to warrant a sequel, lets hope they rebuild him.
Knack is a new-age throwback to a time when you could get away with telling stupid, fun stories about mascots beating up goblins in a simple, three-button brawler. It's also a fine showcase for the PS4's horsepower that doesn't paint its world primarily in grey and brown.
No matter how linear or repetitive the levels are you'll still enjoy taking everything in. Knack manages to be magical regardless of its weaknesses and personally I hope the little relic monster gets another chance to shine in a future title.
A poor quality video game by any measure, but what this joyless throwback is doing being a key launch title for the PlayStation 4 Sony only knows.
Knack is little more than a tedious slog.
Knack's basic gameplay foundation is a solid one, but with extremely poor, numbingly repetitive level design and an absolutely absurd difficulty level, it is mostly an exercise in frustration, and one of the unfortunate low points of the PS4 launch lineup.
About all Knack is good for is inspiring new and creative curses. I certainly spent more time improvising strings of epithets at its substandard gameplay than I did improvising strings of combo attacks. The only thing I actually enjoyed about Knack were the cutscenes. It's the best cartoon that's ever been presented with real-time graphics... broken up by some of the worst action gaming I've seen in years. Let me know when someone's uploaded an edit of Knack's cutscenes to YouTube, because I'd love to revisit the story without all the swearing in between.
Knack, while conceptually interesting, never rises above being an OK platformer without any real positive memorable aspects, but plenty of frustrating ones. If you've ever wondered what a tech demo turned into a full-fledged game would be like, Knack is—or very much feels—like that.
With all this said though, Knack is a game you need to have. I say "have" because you will want to keep playing Knack. Much like Jak & Daxter, which I have gone back and played numerous times since originally completing, Knack has that same allure. It is an accomplishment not many games can tout. If you picked up the PlayStation 4, you owe it to yourself to pick this game up: You owe it to the kid inside you and the friends you know who don't know how to have fun anymore. Knack may not be the most revolutionary game, but it is yet another promise from team Sony for what the company plans to achieve with the PS4. A promise I am glad I experienced. You will be too.
Console launches typically feature two types of games. There's innovative genre-defining icons... and then there are the games that will be forgotten in a few months time. While Cerny may have defined a generation of platformers with Crash Bandicoot, Knack will be as fondly remembered as Genji: Days of the Blade is today.
Knack offers up a fine adventure, with gameplay that slowly reveals its strength
Knack is a colorful, but mediocre platformer that has issues with repetitive gameplay on top of being frustratingly difficult at times.
Knack doesn't really do anything exceptionally well, and squanders your willingness to like it by constantly working against you. Yeah, I'm talking about both the game and the character again.
Play it to enjoy the next-gen graphics moreso than for the throwback PS2-style gameplay.
Knack's shifting size is a great idea that never really grows into anything substantial.
Dull combat with little diversity banishes Knack to a dark realm normally reserved for the likes of foul goblins.