Day 201, Game 201 - Knytt Underground

When buying a game, everyone seems to make a decision differently, taking into consideration different factors and justifying the purchase or lack thereof upon their own personal guidelines they have in place. Some people have to decide whether or not the game they are buying will be worth the monetary value that is asked of it, because of tight budgets or the desire to be smart with money. Other people solely rely on reviews to help them make a decision, sometimes going as far as to set a specific review number as the bar, and if it gets that or beyond, then it's "good enough" to buy.

Then there are the consumers who just buy games from specific genres, or by specific developers, but these are a rare breed from what I can tell. Of course, there are always those who just want to buy everything that is new and shiny, not matter what it is. 

Lastly, you have the category that I fall under the most, despite the fact I have dabbled in all of the categories it seems at one point or another. And no, I am not talking about the group that buys games to build up a library to ensure there is enough content to play a game a day for an entire year - because I would be the lone wolf in that wolf pack. 

I am actually referring to the buyers who drop money based on hunches, feelings in their gut, on whether or not they should buy a game. Something about it just calls to them and says,"Buy me, buy me!" This category can often get confused with the new and shiny group, but where as they just buy everything in site, this other group usually has some thought or feeling put in to it - despite the fact it does look like they buy almost everything. 

Why am I making these distinctions? Because when I bought Knytt Underground, I may have jumped the gun just a bit, and ultimately, my gut feeling was wrong. I looked at what the game looked like, with the colorful backgrounds and silhouetted foreground, and thought to myself, "this is my kind of game." After all these are the same reasons I liked Badland just a couple days ago. 

Knytt Underground is a platformer, which is my genre of choice, and combined with the art style and the fact it was a cheaper downloadable title, this was pretty much a no brainer for me. Well, maybe I should have trusted my brain more than my gut on this one. 

I just don't like this game. The art style is great, if it wasn't for the actual character you play as, which looks cheesy and cartoonish compared to the rest of the game. It's like the game has an identity problem, unsure if it is an artsy, moody game or a cartoony, whimsical game. While it is possible to make such a game (see Trine 2), this game was not attempting that as far as I could tell. And if it was, it failed miserably. 

Another issue I had with the game is the controls. The jumping and platforming feels broken and wonky, not fluid, tight and precise like I am used to. It's very floaty and almost impossible to predict where each jump will land. I don't know if this is intentional based on the universe they have created or what the deal is, but it was a game breaker for me, plain and simple. 

Sure, other people have really liked this game. I don't know why, but hey, to each their own. I just wish I wouldn't have paid money for this game ... especially since it went free as part of PS+ just a month or so afterwards. Yeah....

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