Playing is like watching a dull movie on a plane – it's tolerable if all you want is a way to pass the time, but it's not something you'd seek out for its own sake. I finished in about 11 hours and, challenges, co-op, and secrets aside, there's just not much here worth recommending.

Growth concept; A cute hero

Too scripted; Repetitive fights; Uneven story and tone

As you've been told a million times already, the PlayStation 4 was recently released and with it came a slew of launch titles. While it is always a great thing to have lots of games to play on your brand new console, launch titles have developed a bit of a reputation.

Lots of Potential; Fun Characters

Repetitive Soundtrack; Ease of Death

Throughout this review I have to use "Knack" to describe both the name of the PlayStation 4 launch title and its titular hero. Normally, these sorts of situations can make things confusing (it's like trying to talk about the Pokémon in Pokémon--what a headache), but I don't think it's going to be a...

Beautiful; colorful world; Strong enemy variety; Clever combat

Poorly placed checkpoints; Heartless characters; Weird technical issues

Oh, Knack. I want to love you so much more than you're letting me. Amid all the other PlayStation 4 launch titles, Knack has oddly been one that Sony has pushed to the forefront.

Everything in Knack revolves around relics, a mystical energy source that fuels engines, generators, and other contraptions; Wise-talking Knack himself is a living, sentient relic, but his main source of power is collecting smaller relics to bulk up his own body.

If there's one thing that bugged me the most about Knack, it's his amazingly inconsistent powers; Although he quickly figures out how to absorb things other than relics into his body, his game never runs with that idea, keeping his abilities frustratingly situational.

With the introduction of each new generation of console I'm always excited to see the first release for each genre type, especially when that game is a first-part title as is the case with Knack.

Positives And original lead character and technological showpiece; outstanding cutscene animation style

Negatives Game is too long, boring, repetitive, and rooted in ancient platforming tropes ; The few things that help break up the monotony are too few and far between

Un gentil jeu de plates-formes qui distille des éléments intéressants çà et là mais qui pêche trop par certains aspects pour être incontournable. Jeu PS4 oblige, on s'attendait à en prendre plein les mirettes. Ceci est d'autant plus vrai que le nom de Mark Cerny se profile derrière Knack.

Nouvelle licence; Quelques très beaux niveaux; Des personnages attachants; Aspect film d'animation

Répétitif; Inégal; Quelques ralentissements; Manque de charisme des personnages; Pas de réelle claque visuelle

If you haven't heard the name Mark Cerny, you've definitely seen and played the games he has worked on and consulted for with franchises including Crash Bandicoot, God of War and Uncharted all enjoying his contributions and insights.

Knack is a prototypical launch game. Everything about it screams "easily accessible launch title," and that's a big reason the game succeeds. It isn't overly ambitious, it isn't groundbreaking, it isn't pushing limits of a system, and so there's not a whole lot that can go wrong.

The Last of Us , Beyond: Two Souls , and Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus ).  The game's visual fidelity and polish are high everywhere, but other than the game's titular character, nothing in the game looks inspired.

Knack is the type of game I really appreciate on paper. Despite being a launch title for the PlayStation 4, it's a deliberate throwback to PS1/PS2 era platformers, interested less in selling the power of the console and more in creating a charming world and good platforming gameplay.