Ratchet & Clank

"Getting Insomnia 'Cause playing this wonderfull game"

Ratchet and Clank, alongside Klonoa 2, is the best platformer for the PS2 by far. The creators of Spyro the Dragon created a brand new platform game with a long quest, many weapons and gadget, fluid animation and of course, CMR.

The story begins as Ratchet, a Lombax (something like a cat-bat creature) from the planet Veldin, is building his spaceship when all of a sudden a failed experiment robot is coming from outer space, and he's being followed by his evil brothers. Ratchet save him and he calls him Clank. Clank tells him about Chairman Drek and his evil plan to destroy planets and if Ratchet will help him, Clank will able to turn on the ship. And so the odd couple enter to a quest to save the galaxy before Drek will make havoc.

You play as Ratchet the Lombax. At the beginning Ratchet is equipped with a screwdriver as his main weapon, a bomb glove and some of his own tricks such double jump. The main goal is to investigate the planet and destroy the robots and finish the missions on each planet. Each robot that you destroy gives you bolts, which in this game is the money. Which the bolts you can either buy new weapons and ammo or paying for new gadgets or open new ways, much like moneybags in Spyro. Except getting bolts you need to finish various missions such as finding a scientist that will give you a new gadget or shut down a space shuttle. There are many missions that Ratchet will need to finish and he need different weapons (and gadgets) and infobots to continue. Infobots gives data about another planet that you should go, without them you're stuck until you'll find them.

Now more about the main thing: the weapons. The game has a huge arsenal of 36 weapons and gadgets. Each weapon is different than the other and has it's own adventages and disadventages. The Blaster for example is a good weapon with good range and it's homing, but it not so strong. There's the suck cannon that you can suck little creatures and use them as your weapon, but you can't use big creatures as your weapon. My favorite weapon must be the CMR, the Chicken Morphing Ray. Although you get this weapon near the end of the game, it's the coolest weapon out there. You shoot a beam that turns enemies into harmless chickens! If that's not original, nothing is. There're 12 more weapons with their own uniqueness, which help the game being more action oriented instead of just platforming.

Now for the gadgets. There're more gadgets than weapons, but most of them are minor. The gadgets are divided to different uses: Normal, Head, Feet and Pack. Normal gadgets are the gadgets that you use them as weapons. The swingshot must be the best out of them, which you use to swing from a place to place. Head gadgets are mostly helmets like the O2 mask that help you to breath underwater easily. Feet gadgets are shoes, like the grindshoes. Much like Sonic Adventure 2, Ratchet can grind on rails in order to walk through narrow lanes. Packs help you to float on the air, like the Helipack. Clank turns into Helicopter like robot and he helps Ratchet to glide. So many gadgets with each of them has it's own uniqueness.

Talking about graphics, people still argue that Ratchet and Clank is the best looking game on the PS2 in 2002. I must agree here, because of many reasons. The game runs smoothly 60 frames per second, the backgrounds are amazing, everything moves so good it's amazing, from the flowing water to the shooting star on the spaceship. Ratchet and Clank themself look amazing as the rest of the huge cast of the characters, and their animation are the BEST definitly. Jak and Daxter did a good job here but Ratchet did it much better with more fluid movement. It's a state of art.

The game sounds perfect as well. Unlike the stupid and shallow soundtrack of J&D, Ratchet and Clank has catchy soundtrack with teachno-rock tones, making the game more action oriented. The voices are also great, great voice acting here, especially with Captain Qwark (voiced by the same guy that voiced Powder Toast Man in Ren and Stimpy! Right?). Thanks to the great script, the game is funny as I never expected it to be. Two thumbs up.

After finishing the game once you can go back to get all the secret stuff such as Golden Bolts and Skill Points. Getting all those stuff unlocks new Golden Weapons for Ratchet to aquirre and more goddies such as a scrapbook.

While not having any complain about this game, Ratchet and Clank is the best platformer for the PS2 to date. Fixing all the huge flaws of J&D, what we have here is a platformation perfection. A must-buy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/14/03, Updated 03/14/03