YMMV / Knack

• Catharsis Factor: Going on a rampage as Giant Knack and effortlessly pulverizing the obnoxious enemies who can shave off tons of his smaller form's health with each blow feels so damn good.
• Complete Monster: Xander, leader of the Monks in the sequel, cannot stand that his order is not taken seriously by the rest of the world. Starting the game as an ally against the initial threat of the Goblins, Xander tricks Lucas into giving him an artifact which enables him to turn the goblins' machines against them. When he tries to use these machines to conquer humanity, Knack and Lucas object, for which Xander attempts to kill the duo despite promising his Youth Leader Ava he wouldn't harm them. Eventually deciding that ruling the world was too much work and that modern civilization had made humanity weak, Xander builds the Armageddon Machine to destroy every city, town, and village, apathetic about how many die and only caring that people will finally listen to him because he will be "the only thing between them and death". For a "personal touch", Xander bound Knack and Lucas's friends and family within his first city target so they will die along with it. Furthermore, Xander is almost gleeful when he realizes Ava and some defected monks are attempting to evacuate civilians, believing they will all die as well. Hypocritical, power-hungry, cruel and a traitor to his species, Xander set a new standard for evil within the Knack universe.
• Critical Dissonance: Despite getting incredibly mixed critical response, the game managed to briefly outsell Super Mario 3D World during the launch period of both titles (though Knack had the advantage of being a pack-in and Mario would ultimately outsell it 4:1). Sony also defended the title, stating that critics failed to understand the Knack's nature as a more accessibly family-friendly game to help expand the audience of the PlayStation 4 to younger players.
• Cult Classic: Despite the below-average scores critics gave, Knack managed to secure a dedicated fanbase who find it's simplistic nature and gorgeous presentation charming.
• Demonic Spiders: Ranged enemies. Knack can't attack at range unless he uses sunstone energy (which are pretty rare, or flat out not available in some stages), and plenty of ranged enemies attack you from way off screen without you being able to see where they are.
  • The developers have clearly realized this, since one of Knack's new abilities in the sequel is a shield to send back the projectiles.
  • Standout examples of nasty projectile enemies are the yellow goblin archers and blade-tossing assassin robots. They both shoot/throw an aimable, incredibly fast moving one-hit kill projectile that requires strict timing to dodge, and if they show up in groups of other enemies they can seriously complicate things in a hurry.
• LGBT Fanbase: Following its announcement, the game quickly gained the attention of the bara fandom due to the designs of Doctor Vargas and Ryder.
• Magnificent Bitch: Katrina is Viktor's right hand woman, both seeking to open a locked door containing countless Massive Relics that they want to use to revolutionise the world. Katrina is the brains of the operation, coming up with just about all the strategies. Believing Knack to be the key, she suggests Vitor kidnaps him. When that doesn’t work, Katrina suggests they simply let Knack and crew investigate the door themselves, correctly predicting they’d also be fascinated by it. Later managing to bug a memento of kid sidekick Lucas, Katrina is able to ascertain where the real key is, managing to snatch it from right under the heroes’ noses. Through acrobatics and strategy Katrina was able to go toe to toe with the much stronger Knack and when Knack outsmarted her, she went into training and accepted Viktor's gift of a mech and poisoned relics to even the odds. Even after being defeated and reforming Katrina creates her own successful company focused on private security. Almost always one step ahead, Katrina was Knack’s most likable and devious antagonist.
• Memetic Mutation: Knack is this among fans of Video Game Dunkey, mostly because the way Dunkey says "Knack" makes it into an Inherently Funny Word.
  • Also courtesy of Dunkey, "Knack 2, baybeeeeee!"
  • "Where's Knack", or other variations of it.^note This is used to express frustration towards the PlayStation Plus lineup for the PS4 being almost exclusively indies, despite older games like Knack being something that would've likely been added before the lineups began mostly being indies.
  • "Ice is nice." ^note A quote from Knack II that was highlighted in Dunkey's review.
• Moral Event Horizon: Viktor crosses it when he tries to murder Knack, Vargas and Lucas via Disney Villain Death. His motivation for it could be understandable, but the sheer cruelty and sadism he shows during it sends him flying far beyond the horizon. After that, he completely deserves the horrible death he gets later.
  • In the sequel Xander, after spending the second half of the game trying to conquer humanity, truly crosses the line with his Armageddon Machine, deciding to destroy all human civilisation so people will have no choice but to obey him. The cherry on top of all of this is deciding to destroy New Haven City first with Knack and Lucas' family and friends tied up so they die with the city for the "personal touch".
• Nightmare Fuel: The scene where Gundahar reveals his goal of exterminating mankind. Made worse by the fact he's saying this to Charlotte, implying he's going to pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on her. Thankfully, he doesn't.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Knack II improved on the gameplay and fixed many complaints that plagued the original, boosting the critical scores from 4's and 5's to 7's and 8's. However, one common thread between reviews is that the gameplay is fun and a lot better than the original, but the story and characters remain uninteresting.
• Polished Port: Not so much a direct port as it is the backwards compatibility on Playstation 5, which allows you to play these games in 4K resolution and sixty frames per second compared to their unstable and experimental performance on its origins.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Playing as Tiny Knack is incredibly painful thanks to his ridiculously short attacking range and dash range. It doesn't help at all that just about every enemy deals a ridiculous amount of damage to him, and health pickups are not only rare, but don't help much.
  • Knack's homing attack is also problematic thanks to it failing to actually hit it's targets half the time, dealing a paltry amount of damage, and the cooldown time leaving Knack open to getting smacked around. While it lets the player get in free cheap damage, it's ultimately not that worth it.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Knack II considerably tones down the difficulty, with Knack having Regenerating Health and considerably more defense. Furthermore, there are fewer moments that force you to be Tiny Knack, instead allowing you to shift sizes at the press of a button to solve puzzles.
• So Okay, It's Average: The first game in general. It's a decent platformer with some good ideas, but is ultimately simplistic, repetitive, and doesn't really push the envelope compared to other games of its ilk.
• Surprise Difficulty: Knack has a lot less health than his HP bar would lead you to believe. No matter how large it gets, practically every enemy in the game is capable killing Knack with just one attack. It's somewhat justified, though; since Knack is a mishmash of parts and not a solid being, it makes sense a punch from an enemy bigger than him would cause a bunch of his pieces to fly out of him (and thus a huge chuck of health would be taken off of him). Regardless, it makes the game a whole lot harder than it should be.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Knack II fared significantly better with critics than the original.
• Ugly Cute: Despite looking rugged, bestial, and blocky, Knack is surprisingly adorable in his tiny form.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Both games look absolutely gorgeous thanks to the pristine environments and charmingly cartoony, Pixaresque character designs.