What an incoherent game. There's a laundry list of design issues packed into Knack, but the chief one is that it is exceedingly stingy with it's main conceit. That idea seems to have to do with Knack's ability to change size, especially to get nice and large, and to smash things. But the encounter, enemy, and combat design doesn't do anything with that. If Knack is big, enemies get bigger. Knack gets ice, it melts. Wood? Knack's set on fire. Metal? There are magnets to take it away. Knack's stealth doesn't affect enemies, just environmental laser beams. Most of these materials also don't grant any new abilities, just a larger size with a timer set on it by whatever in the environment is diminishing the character.