Ratchet & Clank

"The Legend of Ratchet and Clank begins....."

Back in 2002, was the world really ready for Ratchet and Clank? Sure, the platform genre had become stale and boring and some new faces were needed if platform games weren't going to become obsolete. Platform games have become very interesting the past few years. Now it has become a practice to team up two different characters in one. Jak and Daxter were the first and Ratchet and Clank was the second. The first Ratchet and Clank is a platform game that should stand right up next to other great platform games such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Megaman 2 & 3, and of course Super Mario 64. I say that eventhough I don't think that Ratchet and Clank is as good as its follow ups; it's still a good game. Sony needed a mascot to compete with Mario. They tried to make Crash Bandicoot their official mascot, but that didn't work. Now, it's safe to say that Ratchet and Clank is Sony's "Mario", with of course Jak and Daxter thrown in to the mix as well. Ratchet and Clank is what I believe to be one of the best PS2 games. Twenty years from now, people will still be talking about this game, much like the original Super Mario Bros. today.

In any Ratchet and Clank game, the premise is very simple. The two use awesome weapons to blast their way threw stage after stage. Some of the weapons are a riot to use. Whether you are using the Ryno (Rip Ya a New One), or the basic wrench, you are always given the chance to blow stuff up. And blow stuff up you will as each level is simply full of badass after badass. Unlike the follow up Ratchet and Clank games, this game is all platformer. In all, the game is pretty hard at times. You only get a four-hit life bar for most of the game, and that makes the game very difficult. There is no upgrading your weapons, so you really need to be on your toes. What is interesting is that Ratchet can basically use his wrench for the majority of the game. While the later games in the series focuses on Ratchet's weapons, this game doesn't. Luckily there a numerous save points or checkpoints in every stage.

The story is well written. Ratchet lives in a world filled with spaceships, robots and high-tech gadgets. Ratchet lives on an abandoned planet and dreams of someday going out on a space adventure. A good distance away from where Ratchet lives, Chairman Drek is the president of a polluted planet named Orxon, inhabited by a race of creatures called the Blarg. Tired of his polluted planet, Drek comes up with a plan. He decides to build a new planet using the best parts from many of the other worlds in the galaxy. If he can't convince the inhabitants to part with their worlds, his army will destroy them.

In one of Drek's factories, a computer glitch creates a small robot named Clank. Learning about the Drek's plans, Clank flees the factory seeking help, but his ship is shot down over Ratchet's home world. Ratchet agrees to help Clank. Ratchet and Clank blast off from planet to planet in order to save the world. On a side note, Ratchet has the worst attitude in this game. He sounds like all he wants to do is surf. Thankfully, this was fixed in the other Ratchet and Clank games.

Graphically the game looks great. Each environment has such nice detail, but what impresses me the most are the character models. For a cartoon type of game, each character looks absolutely incredible. The music and sound is decent, but nothing out of this world. It is very strange but, a lot of the music in the Ratchet games actually seems very similar.

The game has tons of replay value. The game itself is fairly long to begin with, but you can also find all of the Gold Bolts as well, plus unlock new weapons. Another great thing about this game is the humor that comes along with it. While the Jak and Daxter series goes more for wisecracks, Ratchet and Clank's humor is a bit wittier. The jokes themselves actually will surprise you when you hear them and will really make you laugh.

I still think that the designers must have been half asleep when they designed Ratchet's character. While Clank has been the same in all of the games, Ratchet seems cool when you meet him, but after a little while, you start to dislike him, especially the way he treats Clank. Luckily, as I said before, they fixed Ratchet's character in the later games in the series.

Everything about this game is well written and well executed. The humor is fantastic. The gameplay is solid. The weapons are cool. Each environment looks great. In conclusion, this game is fantastic. I advise anyone to pick this game up, since it is so great. Besides it is now a Greatest Hits game which means it's only $20. Plus it isn't worth renting at this point because of the low price tag. I think that the later Ratchet and Clank games were better, but hey, they only improved on a good thing. Buy it now!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/05, Updated 09/15/06