Let me begin with why I chose to head for Knack at the Sony booth – frankly, its puzzle elements in what amounts to almost a 3D platformer looked to be a slice of different. What I mean is, you play a construct who is composed of floating bits of material, similar but to far more detailed than a character like Rayman. I was looking forward to playing it, and being amazed by its graphics and gameplay. Well, I guess I got some of what I was looking for.
Knack is able to grow in size by collecting pieces of artifacts – the justification for trashing any breakable objects on your way through levels. His body will absorb materials such as wood, ice, or even steel – basically whatever element is presented. He can also shed his acquired parts in favor of shrinking down to his original size and becoming clear – a must for skipping past laser alarms.
While the different elements like ice were fantastic to look at, ultimately the combat devolved into either smacking the stationary enemies, or double-jumping and hitting attack to cannonball into them. Later on you can throw objects such as cars, but it really didn’t captivate. Knack’s tiny, sneaky mode isn’t much better – in the demo (which, to be fair, does jump around a lot) it felt rushed. There was no developer on-hand for me to get an idea as to where it was going, but my first impression is that it’s a game with potential, but if they think their E3 showing sold it, think again. The real deal wasn’t nearly as compelling as the promo video.
The real reason Knack had a line was so people could get their hands on the new PS4 controller – it’s too bad that only three basic buttons were used.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, at a young age I was forced to decide whether the harsh northern winters were going to claim my fingers, or to turn to the safer pursuits of indoor activities. Little did I know that a little game called Ninja Gaiden would bring my digits more pain than frostbite ever could. Starting with Vectrex and C64 games and moving forward through the era of electronic entertainment, I sampled as much as I could in the different platforms, and began my interest in PC gaming from wrestling with DOS memory management.
While console games were a part of my earliest gaming memories and I certainly had played on most platforms including 3D0, all things Nintendo, PS1 and the like, truly the PC was my domain until the Xbox. As an old PC gamer, I ever chased the cutting edge technology. Eye of the beholder with CGA 4 colors was my first step down the the path of blowing thousands of dollars on PC upgrades over two decades. Ultima 7, with the Guardian talking to me through my monitor, still haunts my dreams and keeps me ever hoping for a decent Ultima 8 and 9. From the 3DFX SLI VooDoo2s and Aureal to today's GPU driven DirectX games, the new and shiny pictures seem to keep me going. My PC gaming has slowed down with the market shift though, and although I have choice games that will ever be on PC, I have found myself in console gaming with a bit of portable gaming in my life.
Back around the turn of the millenium (and long before fatherhood), I had fired off an email offering to help Ron with a little-known site called ConsoleGold. Little did I know it would be be a part of my life to this day. While I've seen my fair share of shovelware (thanks Ron!), I manage to try and find the fun in most games. Leaning towards sandbox and action titles, I've grown to love games for their potential to reach art. Console agnostic and excited for the progress of tomorrow, I fancy the latest and greatest, but still enjoy the good old classics ... as long as they've been revamped from their 8bit graphic roots.
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