Knack is wack!

You might as well put aside all of your February plans, because Sony has dropped a bombshell with the PlayStation Plus lineup. Instead of offering up relatively unknown indie titles or even four-year-old AAA releases, we're finally getting the greatest game that has ever graced a home console; Knack! While the lineup stumbles a little by not including Knack 2 alongside this gem, at least Plus?? members finally have a reason to keep their subscriptions acti?ve.

The other games don't even matter, but you'll be able to download Rime on PS4, Mugen Souls Z and Spelunker HD on PS3 and finally Exiles End and Grand Kingdom on Vita, with that last game being a cross-buy title for PS4. I suppose the disappointing lineup was all thanks to Knack being such a huge pull.

StarBlood Arena is also being offered as a bonus for owners of the PlayStation VR headset and?? will be available for the duration of February. Again, anything looks paltry compared to Mark Cerny's baby.

PS4

• Knack
• Rime
• Grand Kingdom (Cross-buy with Vita)

PS3

• Mugen Souls Z
• Spelunker HD

PS Vita

• Exiles End
• Grand Kingdom (Cross-buy with PS4)

PlayStation Plus: Free Games for February 2018 [PlayStation Blog]

The post February’s PlayStation Plus lineup includes the G.O.A.T. Knack appeared first on Destructoid.

Woo?

Knack 2 ?is maybe a thing?? that is might be happening, if an animator's resume is to be believed.

As spotted by NeoGAF, the following comes from 3D animator Mindy Liang's LinkedIn account:

Liang is reportedly an employee at XPEC Entertainment, a Taiwanese game studio confirmed to be assisting Square Enix with development on Final Fantasy XV, so the first part seems to check out.

But in addition to animating character motions and cutscenes in Square Enix's upcoming role-playing game, Liang apparently also did the same for Knack 2, which hasn't yet been announced.

The possibility of Sony working on a sequel to Knack is certainly sounds plausible, if unexciting. Despite garnering a tepid response from critics, the original game presumably sold well enough, as it was one of the few marquee exclusives available for ??PlayStation 4 when the syst?em launched.

Moreover, publishers don't often create new intellectual properties these days without visions of turning them into franchises -- ?and Sony could ?certainly use some unique software right about now.

Mindy Liang [LinkedIn via NeoGAF]

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PS4's debut platformer

Every system launch needs a good platformer, right? Knack is a bit different from, say, Crash Bandicoot or Ratchet and Clank, but it does feel like it takes a bit from both games. Of course, that has a lot to do with t??he its creator, Mark Cerny.

Cerny worked on both Crash Bandicoot and Ratchet and Clank, as well as other top PlayStation platformers like Spyro the Dragon. It’s great then that the PS4 has a launch game with such? solid PlayStation platforming DNA?.

But is Knack strong enough of a platforme??r to le??ad the way into next-gen?

Knack (PS4)
Developer: Sony Japan Studio
Publisher: SCE
Released: November 15, 2013
MSRP: $59.99

In a world where ancient and powerful relics are readily available, a man named "Doctor" (Doc) comes across one particular ??relic during a cave expedition. After years of research, Doc was able to use his find to create the ultimate weapon, a magical being he named Knack, in ??the fight against evil Goblins. 

The relic Knack is based around has powers allowing it to attract and attach other relics around it to form a small cr??eature. While Knack may start out being about the size of a toddler, through relic collection he can become absolutely massive, letting him crush buildings and knock aircraft to the ground. 

Knack’s health is also directly tied to his relic collection -- when he gets hit, some of the debris fall of?f. He can smash just about any device in the world to find more to recover his health, which basically doubles as a healing ?item.

Knack is an action-platformer that has players punching out the monsters and goblins that stand in the way of Doc’s goal to push back a full-blown invasion. The focus is on the fighting, with a single attack button handling most of the action. There’s no way to block as Knack, but he does have an evasive move (a la God of War) th??at uses the right analog stick to send him scooting away from harm. Knack can also double jump, and can chain these moves into diving jump attacks.

Rounding out his move set are?? three special moves that draw on power collected from sunstones. One lets him pound the ground for an AoE attack, while another has his relic pieces swirling in a destructive whirlwind. The last lets him s??end charges as auto-aiming projectiles to take out distant enemies.

The platforming in Knack is pretty light. Outside of the rare balance-walking and obstruction-dodging segments, Knack is usually jumping or double jumping to scale heights to get to enemies. Every level of Knack is made of a series of areas that close off, requiring the player to defeat waves of enemies before progressing. Almost every ??one of these areas has some kind of door or gate that locks Knack in, meaning that yo??u’re forced to take on every enemy in the game. 

While the combat in Knack is simple ??and mostly satisfy?ing at first, countless waves of goblin face punching begin to wear on you after awhile. It’s a shame that the only variation to these base mechanics has Knack changing sizes. While it’s fun to suddenly become strong and powerful after being small and weak for awhile, the enemy waves Knack goes up against scale up to his size in subsequent areas, making the action feel exactly the same as before.

It may look impressive to go up against towering robots and powerful tanks, but these big enemies take the same amount of hits as the small enemies do. And while there are some secret rooms to find, and special relics to combine to unlock power boosts, they’r??e not quite enough to break up the action. 

The combat starts to go in a creative direction with Knack’s ability to draw up other items into his body to change his abilities, but it doesn’t quite go far enough to make a difference from just normal debris. For example, while Knack can draw up broken wood among his relic pieces to become bigger, outside of moving slightly faster, his abilities aren't really much different from when he’s only using relic pieces. Knack can also draw in ice and crystals, bu?t there’s no appreciable difference other than his looks. With some of these materials, a weakness is also added. For example, his ice bod?y can melt in the sun, and his metal scrap body can be hindered by large magnets. 

The combat sy??stem has a few problems. The evade move, which you’re forced to use due to the lack of a block button, has you dashing out of the way with a directional press of the right analog stick, but a post-dash delay makes the move useless when up against more than one enemy. You end up being a sitting duck for enemies that have a way of ganging up on you, with the ones that use projectiles never hesitating to fire their weapons in your direction. Worse, many? of these enemies have the ability to dash, letting them move just out of your punching range when you try to attack.

Your only option in this situation is to jump around and hope you come in on successful dive attacks. If you do, you need to combo and take the enemy out before he dodges or one of the others starts hitting you. I feel that a ???slight tweak to the dodge timing would make the combat feel a bit more fair.

So while Knack looks to be a family-friendly title with its bright colors, cartoony cutscenes, cinematic score, and accessible controls, don’t assume that it’s an easy game. On the default ‘normal’ mode, Knack is quite a ??challenge. Setting the g??ame on easy has goblins hanging back a bit to be more open for hits, but they still put up a stiff challenge. 

Knack is a good-looking game, though there are some inconsistencies that pop up from time to time to remind you that you’re looking at a launch title. Watching Knack command the thousands of individual relics that make up his bod?y is like watching the PS4 flexing its graphical muscle -- he’s a walking special effect. Bright colors, high-resolution textures, and highly-detailed enemies make Knack look like an animated CG film in places. At times, all of this combines with lovely backdrops and impressive lighting to make for some of the best visuals I've ever witnessed coming from a videogame c??onsole. 

It’s strange then that some of the realtime cutscenes are so rough around the edges. Set pieces that would have been nearly photorealistic in gameplay are somehow rougher and less detailed in some cutscenes. Some of the character closeups seem jaggy and rough, too. Most of Knack is visually impr?essive, but that presentation makes the parts that aren't as slick stick out that much more. 

Knack’s combat mechanics seem fine at first, but extended plays will show their limitations. It’s unfortuna?te that the game design never really breaks out of the room-based, fixed-camera areas where waves of relentless enemies have to be taken out before proceeding. A stronger lean toward platforming and more variety in Knack’s move set would have made a big difference.

I'll admit that it took playing through about 30 sub-levels of Knack to realize that it is likely running on a modified God of War engine. And now that I've realized it, I can’t shake the thought. Everything from the way the camera zooms on in on finishing hits to Knack’s evade moves scream God of War. 

All of that said, Knack is still a fun romp, and definitely worth a play. It’s easy to pick up, a joy ?to look at, and and some of the boss battles are pretty great. My recommendation is that you take it in smaller doses, or try out the drop-in/drop-out cooperative play, which will definitely help when the going ??gets tough.

It’s not the next blockbuster platformer you'd want out of a launch title, but you need a break from shooters or want something with some personality, Knack is worth a look. 

The post Review: Knack appeared first on Destructoid.

And he's got a great shirt, too

PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny has all but surpassed painter?? Bob Ross as the person I'd most want to go on a cross-country road trip with. He could just talk for the duration and I'd be stuck in a relaxed state of mind, hanging onto every soothing word. Cerny is a busy man, unfortunately, so this five-minute Q&A video will have to ma??ke do.

Not a whole lot of new information here, but Cerny touched briefly on the future of gaming ??and his belief that one of the next big trends will be seamless connections between single-player and multipl??ayer. No more tacked-on modes sounds like a step forward to me.

The post Mark Cerny answers your PS4 and Knack questions appeared first on Destructoid.

Knack has cool eyebrows

Sony threw a PlayStation 4 shindig this week and Knack was featured heavily. We were treated to a video, narrated live by PS4 architect and Knack director Mark Cerny?, with a lot of the gameplay sliced out in order to focus on the narrative, which hasn't been the biggest focal point of late.

Then, behind us, were several different demo stations for Knack. Jonathan Blow's sprawling, enigmatic The Witness, which was my favorite game of E3, had one, watched over by Blow himself. The fabulous Resogun, too, had one. With Cerny taking time out of an assuredly busy schedule to talk about Knack, I guess they wanted to make sure we'd have a chance to pl??????????????????????????a??y it.

So, play I d??id. I like it ?a little better than I did before, partly because I understand it better.

Knack (PS4)
Developer: SCE Japan Studios
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release: November 15, 2013

Knack has two audiences in mind: those nostalgic for "mascot" sort of action games, akin to the Crash Bandicoots and the Ratchet and Clanks, as well as those who might be playing their first console videogame. It does this largely by bein??g much more action oriented than platform-oriented, though so many of associate the latter with some of our formative gaming experiences.

Platform games are hard. They often feature instant death and become difficult to scale. In an action game, enemy attack animations can go more slowly. Damage taken can be lowered; damage dealt, raised. Knack?? is being desi?gned so that its easy mode will be proper easy, but on normal it presents a fair challenge.

If you slip up or let your guard down, you can die and die quickly. Certain attacks will unceremoniously remove precious chunks of your health bar. Devil May Cry it is not, but?? there is challenge, mitigated by forgiving checkpoints.

Playing through a boss fight against a goblin leader felt decidedly old school. King goblin was positioned in front of me, lobbing projectiles from a mech suit, as I dodged and smashed through the debris that sat between us. When I? made my way to him and slugged him a few times, he would speed off to t??he other side, adding some new missile or bomb to his repertoire.

I died quite a few times getting a hang of the attacks. Patterns, animations. There were some?? helpers, like a slow motion effect when a devastating spike mine came barreling towards me and I was prompted to dodge, though earlier times I got hit straight through by such an attack without that kind warning, costing me 3/4 of a life bar. 

Knack also has some Nintendo-style drop in, drop out co-op. Player two (or, younger siblings everywhere, I hope) plays as Robo Knack. He can attack enemies, but the camera remains focused on regular trash golem Knack. Robo Knack is a suppo?rt role. Trash enemies to grow Robo Knack in size and he can donate parts to restore health to regular Knack.

At one point in the demo, Knack says, "Hmm...wood" and punches a bundle of wood, adding its splintered shards to his Katamari golem body. He can even ignite it with fire to punch peopl?e bette??r. During another segment, absorbing ice particles gives him a shield that will slowly melt in sunlight, bringing him back down to size. A decidedly different segment saw a giant Knack eclipsing buildings in a city, fighting goblin mechs and throwing cars at enemy dropships.

It seems like there will be enough to do on t??his whimsical, colorful, somewhat rotund adventure. I'm not sure, then, what isn't exactly clicking for me (and what, seemingly, hasn't been clicking for a lot of people who have played it).

It might just be that Knack is very much a family-oriented game in a way the colorful mascot titles of past PlayStation launches simply weren't, despite their anthropomorphic leads and vibrant colors. While it can? be hard, it remains simple. It has charm, from a range of good voice acting to the cla?cking sound of Knack bonding new parts to his corporeal form. It's goodnatured, approachable, colorful, and a bit of fun. It doesn't try to be too much more. DreamWorks, rather than Pixar, maybe.

The post Dying a decent amount in Knack appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm the one who Knacks

This week I talked with PS4 system architect and Knack creative director Mark Cerny about his upcoming, family-friendly PS4 title. When talking about balancing the difficulty -- making the game accessible as someone's first console game on easy, engaging to a nostalgic core a??udience on higher difficulty -- it became clear how Cerny and company did it. Platforming, which defines many of the mascot games we cut our teeth on, has taken a back ??seat.

"We've taken Crash Bandicoot and flipped it," Cerny told Destructoid. "In terms of ratio between platforming and enemies. Crash was very, very heavy on the platforming to the point where -- I went back and counted -- [there would be] fifty plus jumps in a row, all of which resulted in death if you failed to make them, and then enemies that would be just obstacles. Many of those enemies had no attacks. You simply took damage by bum?ping into them."

"We flipped it around to where we do have platforming, but it's sort of taking a break from the combat," Cerny explained. "The combat is about the enemies; their attacks and then the specific ... places in their attacks where you can succes??sfully defeat them."

In aiming to be a more family-friendly title. it makes sense to avoid the pratfalls of platforming: potential frustrations because of the genre's reliance on instant deaths after one bad move. I found Crash Bandicoot remained a challenge when I replayed it a couple years back. Still, it's weird to talk about introductions to console gaming and not think of it by way of Super Mario Bros-style play. Check out my full hands-on preview of Knack very soon. Like, watch an episode of Adventure Time and if it's not up yet, it will be after that.

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We so wanted to love it

"I'm a burning piece of wood. I'm going to? punch a robot. He's going?? to hate that."

Jonathan and Spencer played Knack at PAX Prime 2013 and, from the sound of it, this may not be quite the PlayStation 4 launch title some of us were hoping for. I'm rooting for Mark Cerny and co. at SCE Japan Studio but the levels that were playable at the sho??w didn't inspire much confidence. The game sounds somewhat dated, and not in a good, nostalgic way.

The post Knack is conceptually sound,?? but lacking in execution appeared first on Destructoid.

First hands-on with PS4's first adventure game

Knack came out of nowhere. This PS4 title is quite a bit different from what you'd expect for a launch title from Sony, but this makes it a standout in the large pile of upcoming next-gen games. As it stands right now, there's nothing else like Knack.

In Knack, humans and goblins used to live together in one world, in perfect harmony. But something went wrong somewhere, and now goblins have weapons?? and are attacking humans. One man has th??e answer to the situation: a little creature named Knack. 

Knack is small, but he can bust things up to absorb their parts, called relics. This makes him grow. Mix the magnetic nuts and bolts attraction you'd find in Ratchet and Clank with the increased size and access of Katamari Damacy and you'd be on the right track.

These collected relics automatically attach and become part of Knack's body, making him not only bigger, but more complex. Each addition adds to his lifebar and abilities, but on the other hand, damage taken knocks off both available life and pieces of relics. He's? most vulnerable when only ?a few pieces of relics are covering his core, so it's in the player's best interest to go looking for something else to bust up and collect. 

This adventure title has Knack running around bashing both objects and enemies and collecting relics to grow in both size and power. Starting out, Knack is knee high at best. But it wasn't long before I had h?im towering over buildings in a city, able to knock them down with a single punch. He started with a low level of available health, but at his top size, which was about ten tim??es his starting size, Knack was easily able to take down aircraft.

Movement and combat in Knack are simple as it is designed to be accessible, meaning that a kid could pick this title up and enjoy it. Knac?k can jump and punch, as you'd expect from an adventure game. And while it lacks a blocking button, using the right analog stick allows dash-type dodging. Tapping circle opens up the ability to pick from a few special moves, all of which are pretty flashy graphically. One had Knack sending all of his relic pieces out from his body into enemies to destroy them, for example. The PS4 had no problem sending countless little fragments out ?and about; it looks really slick.

It didn't just look nice, though. I'm pleased to say that Knack's control felt tight and focused. Both platforming and combat came through beautifully, showing the polish put in benefitted bo??th the visuals and the gameplay. It may be a game built for accessibility and mass appeal, but any well-versed gamer will appreciate how nicely it controls.

Knack's world won't wow you as design goes, though it does look nice with the PS4 supplying fancy par??ticle effects and other touches. I ran around in a city as both small and big Knack, lettin?g me appreciate how the game gradually toys with scale to make you feel more powerful as you grow. I went from climbing up objects to access roof tops to towering over them. 

Knack showed off some morphing skills in a later segment that had him sneaking around inside a building. By press?ing Triangle I wa?s able to change forms, turning into stealth Knack. This let me walk through laser fields unharmed, and had it so that I was small enough to walk through air ducts. Some relics give Knack new powers. An ice cave stage had Knack sliding around on surfaces. He was able to break up ice formations to draw them in like he would relics.

If you're looking for a graphical showcase title for PS4, Knack might not be your first choice. That said, it does look very nice with its sharp textures and clean looks. There are tons of little bits moving about the screen at any time, and it's clear that the PS4's graphical muscle is flexing here under to hood to make this so. Between these objects and the particle effects, there's still plenty to be impressed with. Knack is colorful and detailed, giving it an animated movi?e kind of look.  

Overall, while you might not expect Knack to knock your s??ocks off, you should expect a nicely crafted adventure with excellent controls and plenty of charm.

The post There’s something nice about PS4’s Knack appeared first on Destructoid.

And that it's worth remembering

I feel bad for not being more invested in Knack when I'm reasonably sure it will end up being a worthy pickup for PlayStation 4 owners. For starter??s, it looks like something Pixar could?? have put out, which isn't the kind of thing that gets said frequently enough in gaming.

More importantly, however, the villains in Knack are goblins. Humans fighting goblins, no less! If you need any more convincing, it's being designed by SCE Japan Studio and Mark Cerny. The man's past work speaks for itself.

The post Latest trailer reminds us that Knack still exists appeared first on Destructoid.