Beat this years ago but I'm gonna review knack now because fuck it.

There are worse games! This game is objectively pretty bad because it's content is minimal and repetitious, and it's story and characters aren't interesting. But this game has like... "childhood animated movie that wasn't very good but you love it anyway" energy. Like hoodwinked, doogal, alvin & the chimpmunks, monsters vs aliens, etc. It's cool for kids. It isn't annoying though! And it's pretty harmless.

Uhh, but this game's combat doesn't evolve and its overall pretty badly designed. Graphics are cool and the music is nice! But who cares, this game will forever live in infamy for being a terrible ps4 launch title, and being a huge meme for it's glaring mediocrity.

KNACK THE FUTURE BABEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYT

The ending kinda biffed it for me, but MAN was this a fucking rad AAA experience.

My favorite part of the first game was the combat and webslinging. That gameplay loop is embedded in my brain and I loved the hell out of it. Gadget switching, combo-ing into webbing someone to a wall, this shit was smooth as hell. My main problem with the first game was the MJ and Miles (who isn't spider-man yet) missions. They were at best, unexceptional, and at worst, void of fun. Also the science minigames were really boring. Still can't believe Insomniac gave you the option to just flat out skip those in the remaster, I think they knew they sucked. And the first game's story was passible, it was a nice backdrop for the gameplay.

THIS game on the other hand? HUGE upgrade. For the most part. Whoever came up with the web wings needs a raise NOW, they are SICK. Seriously, the controls are so precise and tight, they are seriously the biggest highlight of this game for me. Along with the web dash and jump you can do on top of the gliding. So many quality of life upgrades. No more mandatory science minigames (Just one and it's the introductory to the optional minigames), and there are still MJ missions, but much fewer, and they have improved... Kinda? What the fuck are the shitty third-person shooter inclusions? They aren't poorly designed, just incredibly dull. Also I will say, the writing can be cringe. Not the story, I'll get to that in a sec, but sometimes they're really heavy handed with the messages of the scenes.

Okay, Kraven FUCKS. I love the threat he poses so much. A villain that kills for sport? Holy shit. Venom is also really rad and I like this new interpretation of it. What I like about the story in this one are the stakes. It's TERRIFYING?? There's some wild shit that happens, I won't get into it, this review is mostly spoiler free. But yeah, awesome villains, awesome inclusions, the writing kinda blows. It's not always bad, there are good lines and motivations here and there, but the ending was just a liiiittle disappointing? I think it's just because I beat this game on hard mode and the final boss made me MAD. But yeah, there are aspects of what happens in the finale and what characters do in that finale that I just didn't agree with. That's all I have to complain about though.

What a game, I absolutely love the upgrades to just about everything. I love hearing the difference in the spider-men's web thwips, it's a great detail. I love gliding around the city, I love the new minigames and collectables. What a downright fun time this game was. I really enjoyed my PS4, and I'm REALLY enjoying what my PS5 has to offer.