Every now and then PS2 owners are treated to a port of some of the better PSP games and vice versa, we have had two good Grand Theft Auto PSP ports and now Ratchet and Clank Size Matters from the PSP.
The story follows Ratchet and Clank as they are relaxing on the beach after completing another heroic deed, whilst there a young fan is kidnapped and it’s up to Ratchet and Clank to travel the universe to save her, only to find all is not what it seems.
The game starts with a gentle tutorial, helping you get used to the numerous controls like high and long jump and switching weapons. Once that is out of the way, the game then starts in full. The game is your classic platfomer style, in that you just follow the obvious directions to the next cut scene. Most of the time you will play as Ratchet, with Clank attached to his back but there are points in the game where they split up, Ratchets levels are more of the same, but Clanks are a bit different, you are able to control other bots to assist with opening doors and solving problems and even in battle. Their commands are made by using the d-pad.
Ratchet has a vast array of weaponry to locate and use including a watering gun that allows you to control plants, a bee mine and a grappling hook. A rather cool function is the constant upgrading of weapons, the more you use them , the more powerful they become, so your standard blaster will be pimped to the point where you are able to dual wield and dish out double the pain. The armour level up is also a nice touch, collecting all of one style of armour allows for different special powers, for example, wearing all fire armour allows Ratchets wrench to set baddies on fire.
Interspersed with the main game are a few minigames to break up the action, Ratchet has hoverboard racing, which sounds fun at first, but after you have hit the same wall and died from it over and over again due to a strange control system, you wont want to bother with it. Clank has a few more on offer, a kind of robot wars battle fest against other robots, where you get to pilot different ships to rein supreme, throwing small robots into a net for points and the better Lemmings clone. Again, controls let these smaller games down, and once played through, you will not fancy playing them again.
Initially this seems to be another good Ratchet game, however there are a few damming problems that take most of the shine away from this once great game. I understand this is a PSP port, but there appears to be no real graphical improvement from the original, in fact the colours look worse than before. The worst problem, and this actually spoils the game, is the camera control. There are points in the game that no matter where you aim the camera you just cant see where you are going, often resulting in death, and that leads to the next problem, there is a sort of a checkpoint system but they are so far apart on some of the longer levels that if you die, you would rather turn off the Playstation rather than go through the level again.
Overall this is a good platform blaster game, the levelling up is fun and the general action is well paced, but the controls and camera really let this title down. This was originally made as a PSP title to keep the Ratchet fans happy whilst on the move, and to be honest it should have stayed there.
