Ratchet And Clank: Size Matters Review

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters was released during february 13, 2007 in North America, and was the fifth chronological game in the Ratchet and Clank series. Unlike all of the earlier games in the series, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters was developed by High Impact Games, a company that spawned off of Insomniac Games (the original creator of the series) back in 2003. The game was first released for the PlayStation Portable (otherwise known as the PSP) and was later released for the PlayStation 2 in 2008. In this article, I will be explaining the basic storyline, discussing the notable game mechanics, stating any possible problems with the game, and will give it my personal rating using the ten-star system, as I always do in reviews.

The two main protagonists, Ratchet and Clank, are resting at the island resort on the tropical planet of Pokitaru after undergoing several harrowing adventures. A small girl named Luna appears and begins to take pictures of Ratchet and Clank, explaining that she is working on a project on "heros", as she calls them, that will be put into a report for her school newspaper. Luna then asks Ratchet and Clank run around a sort of excersize/training ground while she takes photgraphs of them in action. When they are finished, Ratchet and Clank meet up with their old friend Qwark, who explains that he wants to start looking for his long-lost family. Suddenly, a large dropship appears, and several mysterious and dangerous robots begin to chase Luna around the resort. When Ratchet and Clank finally catch up with the robots, they are kidnapping Luna and taking her back to their dropship. While they are flying away, Luna drops a strange, metal, spherical-shaped object. Upon examining the orb, Clank explains to Ratchet that it is an artifact from a mysterious race of creatures called Technomites. The Technomites are thought by most to be a children's story that parents would tell their kids to explain how technology works. However, this artifact not onyl proves their existence, it also contains coordinates to a strange jungle-like planet called Ryllus. Ratchet and Clank travel to Ryllus, and after searching for a while, they discover a temple. They use the strange object like a key, which contains a map leading to Luna, and possibly even a base for the Technomites. It appears that the Technomites were behind Luna's kidnapping in the first place, but if that's so, then why did they do it, and why does it seem like they are leading Ratchet and Clank straight to them?

There aren't many major game mechanics that distinguish Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters from most of the other Ratchet and Clank games, but there are a few that are, at the very least, notable. One such game mechanic that has changed is the "arena", as many call it. In many Ratchet and Clank games, there is an arena where Ratchet can fight special enemies for rewards such as large amounts of Bolts (the currency used in the game world) or items, such as weapons or armor. However, in Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, only Clank is playable in the arena, and instead of fighting enemies using direct combat, he participates in events such as battling in vehicles used for combat, or tossing around small robots called Gadgetbots. Another small change to the mechanics was the way the enemy-transformation weapon worked. In many Ratchet and Clank games, there was a type of weapon that could transform enemies into harmless farm animal. Usually, the enemies were transformed into sheep or ducks, but in Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, the enemies were transformed into cows. The last notable addition to the series' features was the option to race against NPC's on Skyboards (flying skateboards) through special stages.

Although Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters was, in my opinion, a fairly-good game, there were a few downsides that I thought that I should discuss, since they were worth mentioning. For one thing, the game was a tad bit too short, not that it was easy, but the progression through the story went by quite fast. Another problem was the fact that there were quite a few bugs/glitches. For example, the game oftentimes lagged both before and after it executed a quick autosave. Another problem was that occasionally you could fall through the ground and die. The last bug worth mentioning was the fact occasionally the details of the noninteractive scenery failed to appear, so at a specific angle, a wall on Ryllus would have an endless hole-like tunnel filled with clumps of what appeared to be gray matter.

MY RATING: 6.25 / 10 stars