If this was a game that centered around something like The Blob meets Katamari Damacy I could have been all right with this, playing as some kind of eldritch horror for most of the narrative and whatnot, but from what I've seen, 'letdown' is not a strong enough word for something that could have been good with its concepts but so crap in its execution.
But then the bulk of games for the consoles would be delayed for another year after that. It's not like delaying the console would suddenly make developers work on titles for it, and it would magically launch with a huge library of quality games.
The console really has to be released first for developers to start working on it, outside of the few that will do launch titles. It's just the nature of the beast. If you delay the launch, developers will just delay their development and keep developing for the consoles that are actually out. Then there's the competitive aspect. If your competition has a brand new console, and you're still shipping a 7-year old one, then that makes you look bad.
Strange Yahtzee did some gushing about Crash Bandicoot. Can't remember what review it was (Rayman Origins?) and my memory might be sketchy, but he showed Crash Bandicoot when talking about how 3D platformers handled like ass. Not that I mind him liking Crash Bandicoot, as I too remember when I was a bright eyed young child who wondered "Crash, why are you looking at that boar like that?".
Shame about Knack though. Not like I was going to be chomping at the bit to get it, but it's good to have more GOOD light-hearted AAA games for kids/families (that aren't Nindendo). Seems to be a dying art these days compared to when I was a whelp. Oh we still have them, but they've certainly been nudged aside. Knack was the only game I was remotely interested in at PS4 launch, so I guess that's that for now.
You really do have to feel sad for kids whose parents were so uninformed that they went and got whatever console is newest. This may be the worst console generation, but its start isn't much worse than the 6th generation's. The Wii U got a 3D Mario game and is getting Smash Bros only half a year after the Gamecube did, but the Wii U now had 2 and now has another prospective other 2 co-op games coming out, not to mention a Skylanders game that's as good as today's acclaimed cartoons. But despite all that, it still sold something like 1 million compared to 3 and 4 million sold of the other newest consoles.
I chalk it up to marketing. The PS4 had plenty of it all over the internet starting from the DRM-bashing E3 and the ads "Greatness Awaits" and "Perfect Day". But in December, the Xbox One got ads on all sorts of TV channels and giveaways every which-way: Bing, McDonalds, and even here on The Escapist. As for Wii U, I've only seen an ad or 2 on children's cartoon channels (that I was watching with my young cousins).
I do certainly agree that they could have gone more into Knack's origins and stuff about the relics.
I wanted to know why they made such a big deal about how Knack shouldn't have been able to pick up ice and glass and wood and use it as part of is body and yet he could anyway, but they never explained that. I wanted to know more about who originally created him and for what purpose and they never explained that. I wanted to know what the big giant red orb was for and why it was the guardian of ruins and big relics but they never explained that either.
But thank fuck the professor got his wife back, right?
Oh and yes, Viktor is a complete tosser.
I still enjoyed the gameplay though. Simple and repetitive, absolutely. But for some reason this one clicked with me. A lot of people loved Gravity Rush on the Vita. That was simple and repetitive too (just sky kick things a whole bunch) but I hated that one. Of course, I can think of a lot of complaints for that too, like how the enemies frequently dodged out of the way at the last second no matter how much you leveled up. And how you'd keep flying off into the distance after you missed so you had to stop and turn the camera all the way back around to get another go (which usually resulted in you getting hit by some attack you couldn't see coming). And how the game actually had a lot of other abilities to it but it just kept resorting to missions where you kick shit and then kick more shit. If you want to use any of the other abilities in the game you have to go to the optional side missions.
I dunno, I guess Knack for me was simple and repetitive done right. Although I would like to see a sequel where they give Knack more things to do than just punch people and get more into the story of all this relic based stuff. I mean, again, yay for the professor and all, but fuck him, the relic stuff would have way more interesting.
Also I only remember one framerate drop when I was playing it, and it was when I was picking up a lot of piles at wood at once. It wasn't during combat so it didn't fuck me over and thus I didn't care.
Oh and also it was weird how Knack wouldn't or couldn't talk until he'd picked up a few relics. At the start of every chapter when he had to start over as his smallest form to fit in the plane, he never talked. It was only after playing a bit and getting bigger that he'd start talking again. ...Nothing else about that really, I just thought it was weird.
Raggedstar said:
Shame about Knack though. Not like I was going to be chomping at the bit to get it, but it's good to have more GOOD light-hearted AAA games for kids/families (that aren't Nindendo). Seems to be a dying art these days compared to when I was a whelp. Oh we still have them, but they've certainly been nudged aside. Knack was the only game I was remotely interested in at PS4 launch, so I guess that's that for now.
It will be on PS+ someday. And since most people are going to have it now as it's mandatory for online play, a lot of people such as yourself can just wait and play it then.
Auron225 said:
OlasDAlmighty said:
Nutella is pronounced with a long u, like NEW-tella.
HAHA. The last line got me. Not gonna write up anything in limewrick again? Maybe you'll get paid more!
Yes, I had to look up "dross". Did you mean metal impurities?
Thanks for making me not want new gen consoles.
Shame about Knack though. Not like I was going to be chomping at the bit to get it, but it's good to have more GOOD light-hearted AAA games for kids/families (that aren't Nindendo). Seems to be a dying art these days compared to when I was a whelp. Oh we still have them, but they've certainly been nudged aside. Knack was the only game I was remotely interested in at PS4 launch, so I guess that's that for now.
It will be on PS+ someday. And since most people are going to have it now as it's mandatory for online play, a lot of people such as yourself can just wait and play it then.
Except, it's really no good for kids, either. That was my hope for it - that would be a kid-friendly, yet engaging enough game for adults to enjoy. But it fails at both. Unless, of course, you want your kids to cry because of the frustrating gameplay.
Also, while the graphics are cartoony and colorful, the content is still actually quite violent, and the violence isn't really justified in the story. So, you may as well have them play a bloodier fighter if you aren't bothered by them playing violent games. If you don't want them playing violent games, then this isn't suitable either.
It just baffles me who this is supposed to be for. It could have been a casual, fun game, but it's tedious and very difficult at some points. And if people want a more difficult, challenging game, there are so many more with better pay-off out there. It doesn't even work as a graphics demo for a new console, as the graphics don't even look very good.
It's really revolutionary that a character becomes less destructible in cut scenes. I'm far more used to seeing a character take bullets like a bag of sand in the game and then suddenly have to freeze because somebody points a gun at them in a cutscene.
I still don't see why everyone sees this game as just god awful. It's not great by any means but it's not god fucking awful. If only Cerny was actually working on the game, not just putting his name on it, saying he's with it, and spending all his time elsewhere doing other things it could have been great, but now it's only mediocre.
I still don't see why everyone sees this game as just god awful. It's not great by any means but it's not god fucking awful. If only Cerny was actually working on the game, not just putting his name on it, saying he's with it, and spending all his time elsewhere doing other things it could have been great, but now it's only mediocre.
Remeber, the mentality of people when they see a score at the end of a review nowadays is, "unless it is 80-100 then the game is absolutely terrible and has no redeeming qualities."
That's been growing even more apparent through the last year and a half I say. Now I'm not saying that Knack is the best thing since sliced bread, it has many many flaws, but it was still enjoyable and not the absolute worst as some people have said. Heck the first Crash Bandicoot had it's problems, and they improved on them in 2 and beyond. I can see that if Sony were to actually work more on the franchise then it can turn into something amazing, of course like you said it would help if Mark Cerny was actually part of the game's development other than in name. XD
It?s a shame that going by most reviews this game isn?t very good since it looked very interesting, it could have been the first game to make it on my reasons I might get a next gen console list.
Eh for what it's worth I've enjoyed playing it, as Yahtzee said it's very similar to Crash Bandicoot, that said considering how many reviewers don't like it I'd say check it out in store before making your own choice, it seems to be one of those love or hate games.
I think Yahtzee is just complaining for the sake of complaining.
It's for all the people that fondly remember the terrible platformers of the PS2 era that we scraped off the bottom of a bin at a Gamestop or whereever.
Also, I think many games would be better if the bad guy just said "bored now" and did evil things. Or only knew how to do things the evil way. It'd at least be less contrived than 90% of game stories.
This game was a disappointment to me. I was encouraged to see a new console being launched with a platformer again, it stood out among the boring beigeness of the AAA offerings but it turned out to be just as boring and beige and linear as they were. Reminds me of my dismay last gen when Lair sucked, dooming Sixaxis games and dragon-flying games with one fell swoop. (And it wasn't the tilt controls that messed up that game, it was shit all on its own.)
Oh, by the way, language belongs to the people who speak it. Maybe it's intended to be pronounced Newtella, but 50/50 people (at least) who I've heard use the word pronounced it Nut-ella which kinda makes that the right way.
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