Much like the make up of the game’s titular star Knack is a relic of the past. Its an action, platformer which creates the impression that it could have been released around say 2002. Rather bafflingly Knack is plagued with many of the same problems as those early 3D action-platforming hybrids, its got a bland and flat set of characters (although all of them excluding the starring character Knack are filled out with hilariously over-the-top in depth backgrounds), poor level designs, infrequent checkpoints, a gimmick power up in the form of the various scales and forms of Knack and a boring and dull gameplay experience that’ll leave you feeling hollow and down beaten.
The main problem with Knack is that it just isn’t exciting or a joy to play. Running and jumping around as Mario is enough fun in itself from the comical animations to joy built in to the finely crafted aspect of moving as Mario. This simple fun from movement is the same for many of the best examples of the genre from Ratchet & Clank (which I’ve lost far too much time to hovering or flip dodging around) to Jak & Daxter (with their stupendous roll) if the task of simple movement feels off or wrong in a 3D platformer then you’re left with an almost insurmountable mountain to climb as the developer attempting to win the hearts and fun of players. Above all else this is my main problem with Knack, it just isn’t fun to move around and play. The combat or platforming fares no better either as the combat feels cheap in that the enemies deal incredible amounts of damage but are easily defeated by running away from them, waiting for their attack animation to play out before moving in for a quick strike to defeat them. You can also unleash one of three super attacks which are earned by collecting yellow crystals scattered all throughout the levels and any of the three attacks will typically cause instant death to your foes. Platforming meanwhile is often insulting simple but pathetic nature of the single jump renders it almost useless and I found myself always double jumping just in case the game decided to steal another death from me due to the pitiful hop that is the single jump.
The other main issue with the game are the structure and layouts of the levels. Most amount to run straight along a linear path until you reach a group of enemies. At this point progress is blocked, typically by a locked door or magical force field, until all enemies are defeated fighting enemies at which point your path opens and you may continue onto the next fight. Occasionally between fights you’ll be asked to perform some very simple platforming tasks such as jumping onto a slightly higher platform, across this gap or over an obstacle. You may even be asked to hit a switch to unlock a door on some levels but it all comes together to create an extremely dull and insulting simple design to the levels. At no point will you have to think about what to do next nor will you experience any variety between stages and by the fourth chapter of the game you’ll have seen all there is to over probably more times than required and I was distraught at discovering that there are 13 chapters in total despite the fact that the game loops all of its mechanics every 3 or so chapters. It is worth noting that upon completion of one play through of the story that additional time attack and combat arena modes unlock but given that these are mere rehashes of the repetitive gameplay mechanics they offer nothing new to the gameplay experience whatsoever.
Finally if there’s one thing to take away from Knack its the game’s overly complex story. Each character seems to have an in-depth background and history and much like the gameplay this is repeated multiple times throughout duration of the games campaign. Its surprising though that Knack himself has almost no backstory whatsoever given that some characters parents are discussed in detail and Knack left as “Your this relic / orb thing the professor found in a cave.” And while some of the dialogue is bad in that perfect sort of way “Electrocution here would be a fitting end, she doesn’t love me anymore!” being a personal favourite, most of it is delivered both poorly and flatly.
A final knit-pick is that Knack as a character just doesn't look the part of the cutesy, platforming mascot. He's far too pointy for one thing and he looks far too grumpy most of the time. Whenever you look at Mario or Sackboy you can see the joy and emotion bursting out of them. Their exaggerated emotions help create a character that challenges you not to fall for their dashing looks and charm. Whether its Luigi humming as he hunts ghosts, Mario taking a nap or even Earthworm Jim blasting himself in the face its the small touches that create character. Knack meanwhile appears to be in a constant bad mood as if the task of saving the world and friends is an inconvenience to what he had planned. A great character alone creates happiness and joy; meanwhile Knack is more likely to initiate tears of fear than laughter.
At the time of writing there exists people who cry out for Knack to be released as part of the PlayStation Plus free game program. Those people are mad. Personally I’d argue that even for free Knack isn’t worth the 30GB or so that it would take up on a hard drive as that space could quite easily be filled with all variety of much better games than Knack. Even the comfort of knowing you have at least an extra 30GB of empty space on the hard drive may be better than wasting the space with Knack. So to all of you out there crying out for a free copy of Knack, take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself why? To put it simply, its not a game worth playing at all.