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

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.

Knack is a competent throwback to the golden age of the platform genre, but certainly not a giant leap forward.

Brutal difficulty; Some unique puzzles; Online trading mixes it up

Unremarkable level design; Character growth isn't intricate; Difficulty may frustrate beginners

Mercy is not part of Knack's vocabulary. He happily uppercuts a defeated enemy into a steaming lake of molten lava and flings an aircraft by its tail into the unforgiving ground. And don't believe for a second that he sheds a single tear for the pilot engulfed in the flaming wreckage; Knack doesn't...

Well-realized environments that you want to exist in

Little variety to distract from the nonstop fighting; Even enlarging Knack or turning him invisible doesn't change the action; Artificial environments and enemy interactions; Tiresome combat with a meager move set

Simplicity and pretty colours. That's about the easiest way to sum up Knack in a quick few words. While I actually enjoyed my time with the game I have to admit that it never really advances past a one button puncher that's easy on the eyes.

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.

There's a good amount of variety in the pleasingly colourful environments; The basic idea of absorbing relics has some promise

The gameplay is extremely simplistic, extremely repetitive, and extremely difficult – the latter for no obvious reason at all; Unimpressive graphics, made worse by slowdown

Knack signifies two experiments in one: Knack himself as a technological marvel and construct comprised of ancient relics held together by an energy core, and Knack the game as an attempt to combine old-school difficulty and linear game design with new-school graphics and a checkpoint system.

Strong concept for protagonist; Beautiful environments and cel-shaded graphics; Old-school difficulty

Boilerplate characters; Beautiful environments and cel-shaded graphics; Repetitive level design; Extremely padded; Poor character progression; Tags

As one of two flagship exclusive launch titles for the PlayStation 4 (the other being Killzone: Shadow Fall ), Knack has a lot of expectation to live up to as a definitive "next-gen" (now current-gen) experience. Console launches, however, are notorious for being a breeding ground of mediocrity.

Particle physics are great; Awesome animation and visuals throughout; Social features; Accessible yet challenging; Knack

The overt simplicity does not add anything to the genre..; ...in fact; it feels like a step backwards; Story falls apart more than Knack after a KO

, a character questions whether it's a good idea to bring the titular hero on a military mission, claiming that Knack looks too delicate for combat. Full of bravado, Knack immediately says that he'll prove his worth by going through a combat-heavy obstacle course.