Kicking off last night's Playstation 4 reveal, and with the honour of being the first title shown for the new platform, was the somewhat unassuming Knack. Introduced by its creator, Mark Cerny, who's previously worked on Sonic the Hedgehog, and Crash Bandicoot, Knack is a platform game that stars the somewhat diminutive titular robot, Knack. Sent in as a "secret weapon" to help tip the tide of battle between the goblins and the humans, Knack is fighting on our side. But while he may have a rather imposing jaw line and some mean stick on eyebrows, Knack also has a rather special power - the ability to absorb bits and pieces it finds lying around, and grow stronger.
And so, the scene is set for a platforming adventure that sees you storming around towns, smashing up the bad guys, collecting their nuts and bolts, and turning into an ever larger, er, robot. With some rather impressive animation that lends the game an almost Pixar-esque quality, and a charming main character (who inexplicably seems to develop fangs as he gets bigger), this is a Playstation 4 game we're going to be keeping a rather close eye on.
While few other details can be picked up from the trailer, it does seem that it may be possible to collect different types of pieces to give your character different powers - at one point in the trailer, you see Knack covered in spiky, red bits, while at other times he's made out of small spherical rocks. Whether this in turn grants you special powers, or is purely a visual effect remains to be seen, but it also seems you'll be able to ditch your collection at any time, turning Knack into an invisible, ghost form, able to sneak past sensors and lasers without being detected, before summoning your parts back again at the touch of a button.
As of yet, there's nothing by way of a release date, or even many firm details about Knack at the moment, but as with most Playstation 4 games, we can expect to hear more at E3. Either way, one things for certain - fans of platform games will want to keep a close eye on Knack. We know we will be.
