Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

"A solid portable follow up to the PS2 hits"

I love the ratchet and Clank series. I've found every entry thus far to be good. Deadlocked was weakest of them but was still highly enjoyable. Now we have Size Matters, Ratchet and Clanks first adventure on the PSP. Does it hold up to it's big brother or does size really matter?

Ratchet and Clank are vacationing on an island. A young girl comes up and asks for some photos of our famous heroes. She wants some action shots and knows where some bots are. On their way the girl gets kidnapped and it's up to Ratchet and Clank to save her. Plot seems a bit contrived but it works and the way the plot goes is amusing. Quark steals the show in this one but our heroes still have some great lines.

The graphics aren't up to snuff when compared to the PS2 games and even comparing it to Daxter you'll notice it's a tiny bit weaker. Not that the graphics are bad though. Everything looks good and the cut scenes look amazing. The levels while linear have some wicked designs. The Ratchet dream level is amazing. It felt like a few members from the guys behind Psychonauts worked on this level, it's very trippy. The character models all look nice and while the enemy variety is weak, I never got sick of the enemies which is rare.

The sound in the game is actually good. I've heard complaints about the music but I actually enjoyed the music. It reminded me of the old games. Voice work is done by either the same cast or very good sound alikes. Even the new characters sound good. Sound effects are nice and are mainly what you'll hear. Everything sounded good and like it does on the PS2 versions.

We all know the PSP isn't know for it's smooth control setups since it's lacking two more shoulder buttons. That being said the game controls well enough. Ratchet moves smoothly with the analog nub. Strafing is done on the d-pad and worked well and I must say it's the best way to fight because it worked perfectly. The shoulder buttons turn the camera but strafing tends to work better most of the time. I believe X is jump, Square is wrench attack and circle is gun use. Hit triangle to bring up the weapon quick select. Besides the camera issues I had no other problems with the control.

The basic idea behind Ratchet and Clank is to blow crap up. The game has only 8 worlds this time around but they have a few different sections or things to do usually. What's great about this game is that it's made for fans.

We get giant Clank levels, tournaments, hover boarding and cameos from most of the old characters. The Clank levels are interesting in the fact that there are a few different types. The space shooter ones are very good and make me angry at Nintendo for what they did to Star Fox on the DS. There are also some Lemmings inspired levels and some Twisted metal-esq levels. It's a nice way to mix the game up.

The idea behind the game is to travel from one end of the level to the other. Enemies come out at full force and you'll need to use gadgets to solve some mild puzzles.

The action tends to be furious and the weapon selection seems weak at first but the classics are here. The Doom Bots, the Acid gun and of course the RYNO. We get some new ones as well. A sniper rifle which I don't care for and perhaps the oddest is a beehive which sounds lame but it's awesome to use.

The level designs are straight forward but I think the boss fights make up for that. The bosses are actually kind of tough until you figure out what to do. The boss with the plane was amusing and gave me a few deaths until I figured its patterns out.

The game is short and took me just over 5 hours to beat it. It would have been sooner but I had to level my shield and gain lots of bolts so I could defeat the last boss. So while the game is short there is plenty to do post game. Find all of the bolts; get all of the skill points which haven't been this tough in a while. You could also find rest of the armor pieces. Or just replay challenge mode and upon beating that play the new mode that opens after that (which is more than any of the other games). Beating both of the other modes unlocks new armor to equip. Oh and there is also online play but there seems to be a slight issue with connecting to games so hopefully that will be fixed soon.

So while the game has some camera issues it's still a solid title in the PSP library. It doesn't hold up perfectly to the originals but it's still very good. Fans should love the game and the cameos alone almost make it worth while.

Story - 8/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Control - 8/10
Game Play - 10/10
Replay value - 10/10

Final Score - 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/07