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Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters Review
Written by Eugene Kim on Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Faithful to console brethren, gorgeous graphics
Camera occasionally makes you guess
By now, practically everyone knows that Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, the latest entry in the R&C canon, was developed not by Insomniac, but High Impact Games, which nonetheless includes some of the original game's PS2 developers. As a result, all the hallmarks of the series are here - everything from the thinly-veiled double-entendre title to the crazy off-the-wall weapons. Rest assured though, this title was built from the ground up for the PSP...no shoddy ports here. Thankfully, it stands proudly on its own merits as well.
Ratchet and his robot sidekick Clank are enjoying a well-earned vacation on the beach, when a pigtailed (four of 'em, to be exact) adoring fan named Luna gushes over Ratchet's heroism and asks him if she can take his picture. Not just any picture, mind you, but a genuine fighting-fearsome-robots action shot. Ratchet obliges and before you know it, Luna is kidnapped, and thus begins the adventure.
Most of the game is fairly straightforward action platforming, and you'll spend the majority of your time jumping around and shooting baddies. But Size Matters is elevated above mere generic construction by an arsenal of weapons that would look natural hanging on the wall of Pee-Wee's Playhouse; it's great fun discovering and unleashing weapons like a swarm of robotic bees, or a cannon that alternately sucks in and shoots out enemies. Additionally, there are breaks in the normal Ratchet platform segments where you can take control of Clank or participate in minigames. These segments, while they seem rather disjointed and obviously shoehorned into the game, are mostly entertaining (with the exception of the board racing, which controls horribly). The difficulty of the game is extremely well-balanced in a very clever and unconventional way: even when you die, all the strength and weapon upgrades remain with you, so the next time you tackle the same room, you'll be stronger or have more potent firepower to see you through.
The control layout is very logical and well-done, for the most part. Some functions are difficult to execute, but by and large, you won't find yourself fighting the controls. The same, unfortunately, is not true of the viewpoint camera. It is competent, but far from flawless; it is always sluggish and sometimes gets irrevocably stuck in a position which makes a crapshoot of your next shot or jump. Loading times are not egregious, though sometimes the gameplay will stutter momentarily midway through one of the levels.
Visually, the game is excellent - and sometimes astounding. Ratchet's fluid animation must be seen to be believed, and there are moments (Clank's aerial levels come to mind) where the range of colors and particle effects will blow you away. Through it all, the frame rate is consistently smooth. The cutscenes are beautifully done, and the overall ambience of the game and the cohesiveness of the environments give it a very unique and compelling identity. Sound is mostly impressive, and the voices are surprisingly tolerable, which is worth noting among the sea of like titles plagued with cringe-worthy voice acting.
The single-player campaign is fairly short (5-6 hours if you don't play the optional minigames or explore the levels for secret areas and items), but new weapons and various unlockables provide modest incentive for repeated play. Ad Hoc and Infrastructure multiplayer modes let you coordinate deathmatches or capture the flag type games with others. The story is pretty pedestrian (other than one rather predictable plot twist), and mostly serves to keep you moving from point A to point B. That's not to say, however, that the plot is a drag - the characters are oozing with appropriately caricatured personality, tongue always firmly embedded in cheek. I particularly appreciated the developer's attempt to eschew static loading screens.
It almost goes without saying that fans of the PS2 Ratchet & Clank games will find a lot to like here. Size Matters' gameplay is very faithful to that of its older console siblings, showcasing the strengths of the latter while also being eminently recommendable in its own right. It is a worthy incarnation of the Ratchet & Clank series, and by extension, one of the best examples of the platforming genre available on the PSP.
posted February 13, 2007