Mark Cerny is most widely-known as the PS4’s System Architect, but he’s also developing the PS4 launch title, Knack. Previously described as a platformer that’s a cross between Crash Bandicoot and Katamari Damacy, Cerny revealed to the PS Blog that you can expect Knack to be “a very story driven adventure” that will take 10 hours to beat.
It’s not a one-and-done type experience though, as Mark says:
There are hundreds of secret rooms and many contain treasure chests. Some of those are part of gadgets that will help Knack in his quest – you need to collect all the parts before you can build the gadget. Others are crystal relics where if you collect enough of them you can unlock a variation on the Knack character you can use in a subsequent play-through. There are also a couple of additional features that we’re not talking about at this point.
Sitting up against heavy-hitting PS4 launch titles like Killzone: Shadow Fall, Watch Dogs, and DriveClub, Mark believes gamers will get Knack “for another member of the family,” or “for that old school – with a twist – feel.” While speaking to GameReactor, he said his goal with Knack is “to be everybody’s second purchase,” behind some of those aforementioned titles.
When you go to buy Knack this holiday season, the most surprising aspect, according to Mark, is how “each level is a different variation on the theme of “Here’s this character who has this ‘knack’ that lets him grow and transform.” In some levels he’ll slowly grow, and in other levels he get big really fast – by picking up icicles for example — but then if he goes out into the sun he’ll melt down quickly.” You can check out our E3 preview of the game here.
Is Knack on your launch day buy list? Let us know in the comments below.
