Ratchet & Clank is a series of action-adventure platform and third-person shooter video games created and developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment as a flagship title for Sony's PlayStation 2. High Impact Games developed two installments for the PlayStation Portable while other studios were involved in remasters and ports. An animated feature film adaptation was released in 2016 alongside a reimagining of the original game for the PlayStation 4; five years would pass until the next and most recent entry, Rift Apart, which was released for the PlayStation 5 and later ported to Windows.
The games take place in a science fiction setting and follow the adventures of Ratchet and Clanka mechanic of the feline humanoid Lombax race, and a diminutive, sentient Zoni "defective" robotas they travel through the universe, saving it from evil forces that consistently threaten it. The series is noted for its inclusion of many exotic, unique and over-the-top weapons and gadgets, a concept that Insomniac Games has expanded into their other games.
History Following the development of Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the third installment of the Spyro series, Insomniac Games wanted to move into a new intellectual property, since the Spyro series was owned by Universal Interactive Studios. With the PS2 recently announced in 2000, Insomniac began to prototype ideas for games on this new console. One, called Monster Knight, never got past the prototyping stage, while a second, called Girl with a Stick and aimed to be a mashup of The Legend of Zelda and Tomb Raider series, had about six months of development work before Insomniac's CEO, Ted Price, decided to cancel it as "the team wasn't feeling it", according to director Brian Allgeier. Now in 2001 and struggling with ideas, Chief Creative Officer Brian Hastings proposed the idea of "an alien that travels from planet to planet, collecting weapons and gadgets", an idea inspired by Spaceman Spiff from Calvin and Hobbes and by Marvin the Martian. This idea inspired the team since it would allow them to create new worlds and characters to develop. Artists sketched a number of concepts for this alien character, which was originally reptilian, but ended up as a new species they called a "Lombax", a name Price had come up with. Along with this character they named Ratchet, they gave him a robotic companion, Clank. Originally developed as a childlike version of the Star Wars character C-3PO, they later decided that Ratchet and Clank should work instead like a buddy cop film, and made Clank an equal to Ratchet.
The first game Ratchet & Clank, released in 2002, was successful. In planning the second, they revamped Ratchet's character, as they felt the first game portrayed him as a jerk, according to writer TJ Fixman. They softened the character to make him more relatable, at that point hiring James Arnold Taylor to voice the character (Ratchet's behavior toward Clank in Tools of Destruction when speaking about the existence of the Zoni and the risks posed by the Dimensionator could be a hint or reference to the character in the first game). They spent more time on developing interesting weapons to make the combat as enjoyable as the platforming sections of the game. Both the sequel Going Commando and the following game Up Your Arsenal were well-received and considered commercial successes. Allgeier considered that these games had success because they were continually evolving the series to match the current climate in video games, where mascot-driven games had fallen out of favor, and the company had adopted an "adapt or die" mentality for each title. The "adapt or die" approach was used for the fourth title, Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005), as they made the title darker and more combat-oriented given the popularity of the Halo and Grand Theft Auto series. While the game was well received, this approach was not met well by players, as it veered too much from the buddy cop concept, lacked the exploration of previous games and comedy in the writing. The balance between keeping to the "DNA" of a Ratchet & Clank game against the "adapt or die" mantra would continue to be a struggle throughout Insomniac's development of the series.
Insomniac was asked to help create one of the launch titles for the PS3, Resistance: Fall of Man (2006). The company used this title to acclimate itself to the new hardware, and did not push the capabilities of the game engine. With this title under wraps, Insomniac was then able to consider how to approach the fifth Ratchet & Clank game, knowing how to work the PS3 hardware with the aim to make a game that played like an animated movie. Insomniac brought on Fixman to write for the series at this point; one of Fixman's first goals was to take disjointed mythology from the first four games and flesh out the characters more to give them a stronger backstory. This led to the three Future games, the first being Tools of Destruction (2007), which brought the series back to what players had latched onto and met with praise, outside of its cliffhanger ending. However, between this and having to drop a planned co-operative element from Tools of Destruction, Insomniac wanted to produce a new title quickly for Sony to avoid some of these concerns, and came up with the more experimental Quest for Booty (2008), a shorter title that played with gameplay elements not previously used in the series, like conversation trees. Quest for Booty helped Insomniac to determine where they wanted to take the series next, and planned for the next game, A Crack in Time (2009) to be the last game in the series, designed to include all the elements they knew players wanted in a Ratchet & Clank game.
A Crack in Time was successful, and Sony had put pressure on Insomniac to continue the series, though by this time, the developers had fatigue with the series. Knowing that Sony was wary about the impact of mobile gaming which were drawing players away from family-oriented titles, Insomniac experimented with various concepts for the next few games. All 4 One (2011) was a fully co-operative shooter, which dropped some of the platforming elements from the series. Full Frontal Assault (2012) added tower defense elements to the basic gameplay. Finally, Insomniac developed Into the Nexus (2013) as a return to the core elements of the series, but was considered to be a shorter title. Sony and Insomniac agreed at this point to put the series on hold.
Sony started to plan for the 2016 film adaption of the first game; by nature, the screenplay of the film deviated in several areas from the story of the first game. As Sony wanted a companion game, Insomniac worked to create a remake of the first game, informed by the changes made for the film's screenplay.
Alongside Insomniac's development, the series has included two spin-off games developed by High Impact Games designed for the PSP, Size Matters (2007) and Secret Agent Clank (2008).
The next game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021), was revealed at the 2020 PS5 Future of Gaming event on June 11, 2020. Initially a title exclusive to PlayStation 5, it was later released on Windows on July 26, 2023.
Games
+TitleYearPlatformMainline titlesRatchet & Clank (2002)2002PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation VitaRatchet & Clank: Going Commando2003Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal2004Ratchet: Deadlocked2005PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction2007PlayStation 3Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty2008Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time2009Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus2013Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart2021PlayStation 5, WindowsOther titlesRatchet & Clank: Size Matters2007PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2Secret Agent Clank2008Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One2011PlayStation 3Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault2012PlayStation 3, PlayStation VitaRemakeRatchet & Clank (2016)2016PlayStation 4Mobile titlesRatchet & Clank: Going Mobile2005J2ME Ratchet & Clank: Clone Home2006Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus2013iOS, AndroidRatchet & Clank: Ranger RumbleCompilationRatchet & Clank Collection2012PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
Mainline games Original series Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank was released on November 6, 2002, in North America for the PlayStation 2. In the game, Chairman Drek plans to take pieces from other planets across the Solana Galaxy and create one new planet for his people, the Blarg, whose planet has become polluted and overpopulated, thus making it uninhabitable. Aside from the two protagonists, the game introduces Captain Qwark, who appears in the following games, as both an enemy and ally.
The game introduced features such as the ability to purchase items, weapons and unlocking gadgets as the game progresses, which have become a staple of the series in following games. The first in this series does not feature the upgrade system of experience earned for enemies killed; instead, the player may purchase stronger, gold versions of select weapons using a combination of hidden Gold Bolt items and regular bolts after finding a secret area in the game.
Going Commando
Going Commando (also known as Locked and Loaded in Europe and Australia and Ratchet & Clank 2 in Japan) was released on November 11, 2003, in North America for the PS2.
Mr. Abercrombie Fizzwidget, CEO of the Megacorp company in another galaxy called Bogon, hires Ratchet after the events of the first game, providing him with commando training in order to retrieve the "Experiment", an artificial creature stolen by an unknown masked thief while Clank is given a job as an accountant for Megacorp.
The game takes place in a different setting than the first installment, this time in the Bogon Galaxy. In Going Commando, Ratchet is able to compete in hoverbike races and engages in spaceship battles. This game introduces the leveling system for weapons that appears in every succeeding game; using a given weapon frequently, and thus gaining enough experience, causes it to upgrade into a more powerful version with upgraded stats and new abilities. Other changes to game mechanics include Ratchet's experience-based health upgrade system, as well as the ability to strafe for greater shooting accuracy during combat.
Up Your Arsenal
Up Your Arsenal (also known as Ratchet & Clank 3 in Europe and Japan and Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal in Australia) was released on November 3, 2004, in North America for the PlayStation 2. The plot consists of an invasion of the Solana galaxy by a humanoid race known as the "Tyhrranoids", led by the game's main antagonist, Dr. Nefarious, a robotic madman determined to destroy all biological life in the galaxy. The game sees the return of protagonists Ratchet and Clank alongside new allies including Sasha Phyronix, captain of the Starship Phoenix, a locale which serves as a hub area for the player. Captain Qwark makes a reappearance and is a playable character in "Vid Comics" found throughout the single-player campaign.
The third installment of the series retains the experience and upgrade mechanics of the previous game, with weapons becoming increasingly devastating with increased use. Combat and platforming mechanics are also relatively unchanged as is the weapon purchase system, with bolts remaining as the primary currency throughout. The game retains the series' signature weapons dealer, "Gadgetron". The game introduces a multiplayer mode, featuring 4-player split-screen play with online play supporting up to 8 players, with staple match types such as Deathmatch or Capture The Flag.
Space battles and race mini-games of the previous games are not present in Up Your Arsenal, same for the grindboots and grindrails.
Ratchet: Deadlocked