It is cause for celebration that we are about to receive Ratchet & Clank: A Dimension Apart on PS5, being the new installment of a saga with a lot of tradition within (almost) all PlayStation consoles. And we say “almost” because only the first PlayStation was lost, debuting on PS2 in 2002. Yes, almost two decades.
It was the other great platforms that PS2 had along with Jak & Daxter, although currently he wins by a landslide due to the high number of deliveries received since then with this couple created by Insomniac Games. Let’s see its evolution.
In search of the ideal mascot for the PS2 console
Although the age of pets sounds old at this point, it could be said that the first PlayStation was the last to join the bandwagon emulating Nintendo (Mario) and SEGA (Sonic) with the Crash Bandicoot trilogyby Naughty Dog. There were quite a few suitors at that time, even from Sony itself (Kuro and Toro
However, each Sony console was varying in a way its mascot, although the figure of “mascot” as such no longer had the same impact or claim as in the nineties, the one of its greatest apogee. And in relation to PS2 said dispute had the aforementioned couples between Jak & Daxter (2001) and Ratchet & Clank (2002). It’s funny, because they had a very similar journey: shared prominence and five chapters each on PS2. There was only one experiment after the trilogy of Jak & Daxter, as the fourth chapter is a speed game (Jak X: Combat Racing). But let’s go back to the duo of Ratchet and Clank on PS2.
The first video game of this couple created by Insomniac Games surprised by moving away from traditional 3D platforms by introducing elements of shooter in third person. Knowing the studio, it was not something strange, since his debut was an FPS (Disruptor) and his previous pet (Spyro the Dragon) “shot” fire from its mouth as a dragon. So Ratchet was the logical step.
On the one hand we had a feline humanoid of the Lombax race, who was also mechanical (important fact, as there are many nuts and bolts used as a bargaining chip throughout the saga); and on the other side a tiny robot (Clank). One provides agility and strength, while the other provides brain. Something that has been emphasized and polished throughout successive deliveries.
Its sequel, under the name of Ratchet & Clank: Totalmente a Tope In Europe, it took only a year to come out and surpassed its predecessor in everything, especially in the significant increase in the number of weapons or in the minigames available.
Insomniac Games went at a game rate per year, seeing how Ratchet & Clank 3 It came out in 2004 to continue spreading the legend of this couple, where their villains and secondary characters began to gain more weight, such as Doctor Nefarius or Captain Qwark. In addition, the possibility of improving weapons by using them continued to be promoted, which resulted in the most addictive.
Just Ratchet: Gladiator (2005) was a slight disappointment for a certain sector of the public, by opting for a darker tonality, in part to emphasize more if possible its shooter game component, without much presence for the classic platforms. Now, Sony was very interested in growing the saga and from there it arose Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on PSP in 2007, with a subsequent conversion to PS2 in 2008. It was the first Ratchet & Clank for a Sony portable console, being appreciated that the joint protagonism between both characters was maintained, unlike Ready at Dawn when it took the baton by Naughty Dog to create Daxter
PS3 gave rise to a great variety of Ratchet & Clank
The generational change would occur in 2007 thanks to the potential of PS3. But Ratchet & Clank: Armed to the Teeth It did not accompany the new outlet console (PS3 debuted in late 2006), but came out just a year later. And luckily it was a remarkable leap between generations, despite that first period in which Sony opted out for the command SIXAXIS. Although it did not take long for this Ratchet & Clank to be compatible with the more complete DualShock 3, already with vibration.
Insomniac Games’ stage with PS3 was extremely productive, by contributing six deliveries of Ratchet & Clank, skipped with the birth of another IP (Resistance). The problem is that with so much video game the quality of the saga was diminishing little by little until it needed a respite after the Ratchet & Clank: Nexus 2013, the year where it coincided with Fuse, another study experiment.
To put it in perspective, Insomniac Games threw itself into the competition (he had always worked almost exclusively for Sony), giving a new generational change through Sunset Overdrive in 2014 for Xbox One. A fun, colorful and vindictive game that sounds loud now at Sony
But back to Ratchet & Clank, from 2007 to 2013 it had six installments for PS3 in which the depletion of the saga began to be noticed by not providing interesting ideas, without being bad games. per se. Just Ratchet & Clank: Trapped in Time (2009) managed to stand out above all, without being a revolution in terms of mechanics, where Ratchet & Clank: All for One (2011) got the worst of it, although at least he enjoyed a cooperative for four people.
Ratchet & Clank: In Search of Treasure (2008) and Ratchet & Clank: QForce (2012), the latter also on PS Vita, failed to shine even though they had their moments of great fun. It’s funny, because the saga had an important name dizziness between regions. Without going any further, QForce was known in the United States as Full Frontal Assault, while the first installment on PS3 was called Tools of Destruction, which is not translated by the “Armed to the Teeth” seen here.
Let us not forget, in any case, that PS3 also featured the remastering of the first trilogy. from PS2, also coming to PS Vita two years later.
A remake as a reboot and an optimistic future
After exploiting the saga in just over a decade with a dozen games (not counting mobile phones and the aforementioned remastering), as much as some were not the work of Insomniac Games, such as its debut on PSP thanks to the High Impact Games studio, the saga would return with great force in 2016 through PS4 thanks to a remake as a reboot in which he returned to his origins. His name was already a declaration of intentions, by calling himself simply Ratchet & Clank.
It is more, to this exciting launch, whose quality was undeniable, he was accompanied by a eponymous movie that same year. Although the video game was far superior, of course. At the graphic level, it represented another generational change, appearing to be facing cinematics in motion. But it is that at the playable level it was another important leap from the first Ratchet & Clank, which has not aged as well as it should, especially from camera use. And it enjoyed many extras.
Unfortunately, his stage on PS4 was very short-lived, being that his only game. But we hope that this trend will change radically after the launch of Ratchet & Clank: A Dimension Apart on PS5, which looks terrific.
