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| Clank competes in a minigame sidequest. |
Ratchet and Clank are relaxing on a beach planet when a little girl name Luna, who wanted an interview, is kidnapped for her knowledge about the mysterious Techonmite race. Ratchet and Clank go after to rescue her. Meanwhile, washed up superhero Captain Quark tags along in the hopes of finding out who his parents are.
In Size Matters, the player controls Ratchet as he travels to different planets and shoots enemies with a wide variety of guns. Each level has some obstacles like bottomless pits to jump over, or giant plants to climb, but the challenge largely comes from all the enemies Ratchet has to dodge and kill. Enemies have a ranged weapon or melee weapon, and how tough they are increases as the player progresses. Levels are linear and lead from open area with enemies to open areas with enemies.
There are many weapons the player can use that vary a lot. There are basic ones, like a shotgun, and elaborate ones like a flamethrower. When Ratchet successfully uses a weapon they gain experience points and eventually level up, which their strength in some way; the weapons can level up four times. Each level the weapon gets more powerful, or gains more ammo, or an extra weapon like electricity. The game does not tell the player what the upgrade is; the player has to figure out what the upgrade is, which is annoying.
Weapons and ammo are bought with bolts, which are dropped by enemies and found by smashing crates throughout the level. The amount dropped is usually enough so that the player does not have to go around killing enemies until they raise the amount needed to buy a new weapon. This is the most addictive part of the game, since it is fun to earn powerful weapons and blow away enemies. Otherwise it would be just going from area to area shooting somewhat stupid enemies. Not all the weapons are useful, and leveling up some of the more useless weapons is a pain.
Ratchet can only hold up to eight weapons at one time, including gadgets, so it is a mild puzzle trying to figure out which are the most important. But there are not enough weapons or tools for it to be a real hassle.
The levels look nice. The designs twist around and have enough obstacles that they do not feel like empty hallways designed solely to shoot enemies in.
There are side missions that the player can participate in as well. There are races, arena battles, a type of soccer, a flying ships game, and a robot leading game. None of them are fun, but the player needs to play them to get enough bolts. The only decent one is where Ratchet hacks security keys using rail grinding, and that does not even give bolts as rewards.
The camera is stationed behind Ratchet, but it is a little too close. Enemies will frequently be just out of sight and impossible to for the player to hit them until it is too late.
The story is a joke. There are two scenes that explain what is going on with the Technomites, and the rest of the time Ratchet’s behavior comes off as sociopathic. Quark’s storyline is tacked on. The story uses shrinking and growing a lot in its story, but no one points it out that much. Ratchet just happens to have a shrink ray that he uses a lot.
The graphics are decent three dimensional models. The cut scenes are nicely animated too, and the voice acting is very good.
The game is not hard. Even with the enemies that are off-camera they are not that difficult to dodge or just resist the shots, because Ratchet has a lot of life which increases during the game. And if Ratchet does die he just re-spawns a few feet away with all the leveled up weapons the player has gained. The only part that is difficult is the bosses, which have huge health bars.
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters is a decent platform game, but a subpar Ratchet and Clank game. There are better Ratchet and Clank games to play, but for the PSP it is okay. It is only somewhat fun, a decent way to pass the time if there is nothing better to do, but not something someone needs to play, or even remember.
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