Knack II

On a technical level this is clearly a better game than its infamous predecessor, but it’s still nowhere near as fun as it should be thanks to its bland design and characters.

Knack II has the bones of a good platformer and a hint of charm but it just doesn’t execute. I’m not sure what the Knack series attempted to accomplish, but after a sequel, it stands as one of the most missable franchises Sony has ever crafted. Maybe one day Sony can combine both of these together on the PS5 as a free PS Plus item and call it the “Knack Pack.” That one’s free.

Across the internet, Knack is often referred to as “our lord and saviour” or “the divine one”, a cheeky and sarcastic dig at his overall irrelevance in the pantheon of gaming mascots and heroes. Knack 2 comes along and tries to rid itself of this moniker, this slander, this blasphemy, in what could go down as the truest form of the phrase “the sequel nobody wanted”.

Console launches have a long and frustrating history of mediocre games. Knack is the prime example of a launch title that gave gamers a brief taste of what the PlayStation 4 could do before the adventure settled into a mundane rhythm of repetition. The showering of polygons ended up being the highlight in an adventure that rarely tapped into the potential of a size-changing hero. The idea was interesting enough to lure people in, but the execution didn’t quite hit the mark.Enter Knack II. Iteration can go a long way in making a formula work, and that is crystal clear in this sequel, which clin...

Knack II makes great strides in improving on the gameplay failings of its predecessor, but makes equal missteps in the quality of its characters and storytelling.