Ever since the start of 2021 and over the past few months I've been going back and playing through and very much enjoying my time with these games again. I use to play them all the time back in the day, but moved on to more recent releases for awhile, but I'm glad to come back and play them all these years later still with a smile on my face and a sense of satisfaction after beating them all. There are 16 games that have been released, and obviously like alot of other long running video game franchises not every game is perfect, mostly the spin off titles, however most are great at least to me, and are fairly consistent throughout. At this time or writing my overall favourite entry is Ratchet and Clank 2 Going Commando/Locked and Loaded, 100% that game was the most fun I'd say. I feel like the series has been overlooked abit overtime, while still being quite popular and doing well for Insomniac Games, I do feel they are abit underrated in the mainstream world of gaming. I would love to hear what everyone else has to say about these games though, whether you're a long-time fan, or a new fan.

1.Setting

Most games will take place in a set world that you will traverse through over the course of the game. What I love about ratchet and clank is you fly to different planets in a ship through space, exploring various alien worlds in sometimes different galaxies, and it makes you feel like you are on a big adventure that is quite literally out of this world. Later entries in the series even focus on stuff to do with time travel and interdimentional travel. I've always been interested in space and wondered what life was like on other planets, it was always something I was curious about when I was younger, with this series it really did a good job of showcasing that and made it feel like you were far away from earth.

2.Main Duo

In alot of 3D platformers the main characters usually already know each other, but what's cool about Ratchet and Clank is when you start off that first game you are in the beginning stages of how the duo first met. You get to see their origin story take centre stage, the issues they faced first hand, how they became best friends, and how they became the heroes they are today, and it sets it up for the rest of the series. The stakes get bigger in later games, and it really showcases just how important their pairing is after all that time. I just really dig their chemistry, and it shows how 2 polar opposites can still have so much in common despite their obvious differences. An alien and a robot exploring space and all kinds of different alien worlds, or maybe fighting for their lives as they work together in an illegal combat sport show to avoid death, what more could you ask for.

3.Exploration

Alot of the time when you first enter a planet you will be given multiple paths to choose from the outset. There might be 2 or 3 paths and you get to choose where you want to go first. It could lead you to the main objective or it might just lead to a cool new weapon or gadget perhaps even a secret nearby, or in some games you might meet an npc of that world that might reward you if you help them out. Even in games that don't have multiple paths or always npcs in them there are still alot of secrets hidden somewhere in the level that you can figure out and find yourself, you will always be rewarded, and if you can't get access to something you can always come back later. In some games it even breaks up the linearity and gives you a huge open sandbox to explore in, whether it be on foot, vehicle or just being able to fly around the whole level. I enjoy it because it's not overly complicated nor is it strictly simplistic, and I just find it alot of fun to navigate in, with either a main objective or some optional ones for extra rewards.

4.Gameplay

The core of Ratchet and Clank is its gameplay. The mix of being a 3D platformer and third person shooter. I just really enjoy the gameplay loop. All kinds of different platforming challenges to figure out either with normal traversal or by using all the cool gadgets you can find and earn in the game. Sometimes hackable puzzles will be in your way and ratchet will have to use the gadgets he has on hand to figure them out, It shakes it up abit and can be pretty fun. Clanks gameplay is focused more on puzzles than combat, and has a more laid back vibe to it compared to Ratchet.  My favourite aspect though is using all the cool weapons you can either buy or find on some planets. Having an arsenal of about 10-20 on average helps make it feel more consistent while not making you too overpowered the whole game or underpowered aswell. Swapping to multiple weapons on the fly, and the entire arsenal on the fly in later games, adds to the choice of what you want to use at any given time when in combat, and a cool fast paced approach you can dish out to lay the smack down on your enemies. Using a weapon can level it up making it more useful, it can change the design of the gun aswell as how it performs by changing how it shoots and the various features that come along with it. In later games weapons even have an extra upgrade feature that changes its effectiveness even more and makes it more powerful and unique than what you originally started with. While you are playing you get lots of bolts, the games currency, by killing enemies, breaking crates or completing different challenges. Having enough let's you buy stuff, whether it be guns, armour or even something you need to get to progress the story. It all adds to the satisfying gameplay loop I really enjoy.

5.Unique Weapons

Speaking of the weapons I just want to mention some of the ones I think are really unique. The Winteriser is a morph gun that slowly turns enemies into snowmen, it plays a non vocal version of jingle bells once you've held down the trigger. With further upgrades you can destroy them and they drop Christmas presents which when destroyed can drop bolts, ammo or health. The gun itself is really cool, it has a snowflake sight, and inside the gun itself is a little snowman dancing as snow falls down. The pixeliser is a weapon that lowers the resolution of enemies and bosses once they are shot, when killed they break apart into little cubes and even make an 8-bit sound effect. The suck cannon let's you suck up enemies or crates and then shoot them back at other enemies, it's simple yet destructive. Those were just some examples there are way more obviously. But when talking about unique weapons I obviously can't forget...

6.Rip You A New One

The R.Y.N.O. I like the idea of being able to get a super overpowered weapon at the end of a game or in a new game plus run as a cool reward on being able to absolutely obliterate everything or breeze through something that was giving you trouble before, and in Ratchet and Clank they did just that. Not only is the R.Y.N.O illegal in regards to the games lore, but it will either cost you a shit ton like in older games, or require you to collect all the pieces of an illegal holo plan scattered throughout various planets. There are currently 7 in the franchise, and all of them definitely live up to the name and are alot of fun to use.

7.Challenge Mode

I love games that have tons of replay value and add new content or things to do once you have beaten it. Challenge mode, also known as new game plus, let's you restart at the beginning by letting you carry over all your weapons, armour and bolts etc to play a harder version of the game, this is usually just enemies having more health and dealing more damage to you. What I like is not only do the enemies and bosses get stronger but you can too. You can buy new upgrades for weapons and level them all up again to be even more powerful, and since the games difficulty has been increased aswell it still feels pretty balanced and not too ridiculous to handle, nor is it really a push over. It also adds the option called a bolt multiplier, where the more enemies you kill without being hit will increase the multiplier allowing you to get more bolts. It caps out at 20 but will always reset to 0 if you ever get hit. This is important because in challenge mode the new upgrades for weapons don't come cheap, so by performing well and keeping that multiplier up you can earn bolts faster and get more upgrades to level up for your weaponry quicker. I also like this system since it shows how well you are performing, and incentivises you to play smart and always change up the gun play, and by doing so you will be rewarded for it and feel like a badass.

8.Soundtrack

This is in regards to the ps2 games. I love how cool the soundtrack is, it was composed by David Bergeaud, and it goes for a 90s electronic and sci fi vibe or even some rock which fits those games. It can range from having a really funky beat when exploring the more colourful alien worlds, but it also knows how to be dark and atmospheric when in space and exploring space stations or various moons. I don't mind the soundtrack in later games too, but in regards to the ps2 era it's very nostalgic for me and I find myself listening to alot of the tracks outside the games all the time.

9.Rewards

The best part about fully completing a Ratchet and Clank game is the rewards that you can unlock. Once you've gotten all the collectibles or completed all in game achievements known as skill points, you can unlock various cheats that let you use things like making people's heads in the game smaller or bigger, same for ratchets weapons. There is one called mirror world where it let's you flip it and play the game abit differently. There is an option to make the game speed slower and faster than normal, which in regards to the faster option would be crazy for speed running and makes the game alot harder. There are even cheats you can unlock to make you invincible and have unlimited ammo, if you wasn't feeling overpowered with the R.Y.N.O well you sure as hell will if you use that. There are skins too you can unlock that are either references to stuff in the series or other forms of media, and all of them can be unlocked in game and none are locked behind microtransactions. You can unlock concept art, or even developer commentary where they talk to you about the kind of game they wanted to create and shows the people who work at Insomniac Games. One of my favourite things was for the ps2 games they made comericals promoting the ones that were about to come out, and where they made actual real life weapons and then added special effects to make it seem real, it was really cool. There is more you can unlock but that's just some examples. Not every game will have all of this but alot of them do.

10.Insomniac Museum

But without a doubt the coolest reward I've seen in any game that you can either find or unlock in some games is the Insommiac Museum. An interactable in game developer office where you can roam around and see all kinds of stuff that was cut from the game, either due to time constraints, things that might be fun in theory but not so much in execution, or complications that might make the console explode so it had to be cut out. The office is huge aswell and even branches out to different areas you can explore in. You can even listen or at least read all the notes left by devs about certain things you can test out, the development process and why it was cut in the end, and being able to try it out still see what could have been is so cool. Going there as a kid blew my mind and I wished every game did this since it gives you some insight on what went into it.

I am pretty biased to 3D platformers in general since I did grow up with them. Games like Crash Bandicoot, Mario, Jak and Daxter, Spyro the Dragon etc were games I really enjoyed because of how much charm they had and the replayability, at least to me. Finding and collecting stuff and just jumping and moving around was always a gameplay loop I could never get bored of, simplistic but yet still satisfying to play, and Ratchet and Clank combines that and a bunch of other elements I really like and makes it feel even more rewarding to play. When it comes to specifics I would argue I've played games that might have a better story, better characters, better soundtrack etc, but despite all that no series I can think of is as fun and consistent by having all the aspects of it that I enjoy and meet my preferences within a long running series like Ratchet and Clank. It's the series that was there for me when I was younger, and the fact I can still enjoy them to this day makes me very happy. The series marks its 20 year anniversary next year since it's debut in 2002, and looking back on it now I'm glad it was such a big part of my childhood.