My relic creature’s bigger than your relic creature...
Knack, a launch title for the
PS4, was treated exceedingly meanly by all and sundry. Perhaps it
was over-expectation as platforming game god Mark Cerny was
involved? Anyway, it wasn’t hateful, but it did have issues.
Chief amongst these was an utter arsehole of a respawn system. The
first joy of Knack II? That’s been rectified. Respawn
points are fair, and not several points back now. There’s also
two-player co-op, plus a lot more variety – especially in the need
to flip between big Knack and little Knack to get anywhere. It works
a treat.
Otherwise, Knack II amplifies the good bits
and deemphasises the cruddy bits, so it’s slicker, shinier and a
more than a smidge more engaging. The main antagonists, goblins, are
back – and so are their ancient robotic warriors, who are going the
reanimated vibe. This isn’t a good thing for the world in general.
Luckily, of course, voxelated transformer-like thingy Knack is
around to save the day, as he and his boy soldier onwards through
hill and dale, getting all the more Kung-Fu master along the way,
while channelling scenery – and often gameplay - that isn’t a
million miles removed from the Uncharted adventures of
Nathan Drake.
Actually, if TT Games made a LEGO Uncharted,
it would likely be something like this. But with less voxelated
robotic transformer-like thingies. Yes, it’s a platform adventure
with bulk outbreaks of foe-fighting.
Even though it’s nothing
ground-breaking, Knack 2 is a vast improvement on the
original, and delivers some colourful and very fun puzzling,
biffo-infused arcade adventuring that is suitable for younger
players right up to wherever you think that you should grow up and
give up on playing games. Which for us will be when the coroner is
en route...
Yep, cold dead hands, baby – although as fun as
Knack II is, we’d probably like to go out playing something
a bit cooler.
