Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

The Ratchet & Clank series has been one of my favourites on the PS2. The weapons and gadgets, the platforming, it was all merged to create on of the best gaming experiences of the generation. When I heard that there would be a new title to be released on the PSP, I was overjoyed to hear that I'd be able to take all the action with me where ever I go. I am happy to say that the game holds up well on the system, but you probably shouldn't expect anything on the scale of the console titles.

The plot goes that your on vacation and there's this fan that takes pictures of you and then she gets kidnapped and then some more stuff happens.. and then some more... there's a dream sequence at some point. Frankly, the plot is fairly shallow and most times it just seems like it's there simply for the fact that every ratchet game has had one so might as well have a plot here. The Major thing the plot introduces however is the technomites, a race of microscopic robots that have superior technology to the rest of the galaxy and I can't help but feel that if that were true they would make something that would make them bigger. Oh wait, they did, but Ratchet kinda stole it and is using it in reverse. The gimmick is that you use this device to shrink yourself to a small size to infiltrate a city, fix clank at some point (it's not a spoiler, the box practically shouts this to you), etc. Again this isn't really necessary and is just simply there to further the "plot".

But who cares about the story, it's all about the action. What would a Ratchet & Clank game be without guns? Well, it would be Jak & Daxter, and they saw the error of their ways and hopped in to the future for some serious action. Anyway, the amazing variety of guns from the rest of the series is here, all small variations of guns from the other series. You have the obligatory starter pistol and glove which become useless after a mere couple of stages, you have the weapon that changes enemies in to harmless creatures which you abuse anyway, you have the Sniper rifle variation, the weapon that summons a minion to play the game for you. I think I'm beginning to see a pattern in how the weapons are done here. Still they all work nicely and the entire combat mechanic is still solid but there's nothing really innovative. Or is there?

This game happens to be the first (and only I believe) to include a custom armour system. Instead of buying the entire armour in one go, you instead get several parts of it, namely the head, chest, gloves, and boots. You can get a full set and wear that if your boring, or you can mix and match to find different combinations for armour with varying effects like having you explode when you get hit damaging enemies.

Clank's here, and he actually does something other than be your luggage this time round. First of all, he participates in small mini games to earn bolts and shoot your way through space as giant clank. And.. well that's about it. Frankly, Clank is still tagging along as a rather basic form of jetpack, which is strange because he CAN be a jetpack, it's just that it's not as good and is basically just tagged on.

The graphics are quite good, for the handheld that it, there are much better looking games out there for it, but there are certainly more than that which look worse. The animations in particular are smooth and run well, though to it's burden some of the characters look a bit odd, Qwark in particular looks even uglier than normal. The music? Yeah that's all right too, though there's nothing memorable like the from the other titles.

All in all, I enjoy Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. It still has all the charm from the previous games and the characters are all still loveable. The gameplay is good and the level design is fairly variable as well. However, the game is significantly shorter than any of the other titles and you'd probably get through it in about 6-8 hours if you're taking your time. However, the challenge mode is back and gives you the opportunity to get more armour, weapons, and just generally be more fun. Buy it, but don't expect too much.