Knack 2
Knack is an action platformer that just does nothing spectacular and doesn’t have any real hook for gameplay. You run around incredibly basic environments and punch and kick enemies with the same button. That is really about it. There isn’t much to draw the player in or set it apart from better games in the genre.
As such, you have to wonder why Knack 2 was ever created. Yet, it was. So one could only hope that it would try to innovate on the previous game, surprising everyone as a result.
Instead, Knack 2 really just asks “Wouldn’t Knack be better if you could play it with a friend?” As revolutionary as that sounds, it feels more much like a gimmick than a gameplay improvement. It’s not the best reason to make a video game sequel.
To its credit, Knack 2 did add some new mechanics, including ones that let you grow bigger or shrink for different platforming sections. The problem is that this felt far too scripted. There was only ever one solution to the problem — either grow or shrink — and when compared to modern platformers like Mario Odyssey where you can get to your objective any way you see fit, Knack 2 is as bland as they come.
When the conversation of PlayStation exclusives is happening, nobody brings up the Knack franchise and that’s because it’s nothing spectacular.
