Saturday, July 23, 2016

Gaming Bits: Ratchet & Clank core series (Da F**K's a Lombax?)

First a Ottsel, now a Lombax, When will Sony stop presenting me with these weird Pokemon things, it's bad enough that Sega introduced the Echidna to existence, I mean jeebus, there's a whole world of species to introdu...

Yoshiette 1: Ummmmmm...... The Echidna already exists...

A. Yoshi: Next you're going to tell me that Pikachu's exists...

YE1: THEY DO!!!!!

AY: WHERE?!

YE1: Pikachu Island, somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

AY: Prove it, See you never!




Just as the PS2 was coming out, Insomniac Games (The creator of Spyro the Dragon) wanted to make games without going through Universal, but Spyro was still owned by Universal, so they couldn't just pitch a new Spyro to Sony, so they decided to do the next best thing, make an original IP. Fortunately for them, they got the last laugh, because while for the next decade, Spyro would appear in mediocre game after mediocre game until disappearing, reappearing, and becoming a side character in his own Skylanders Games, they actually made Ratchet games for the next 14 years with new games as recently as last Spring...





Ratchet & Clank was the story of a Lombax, an alien species. who was traveling one day and found the crash site of a robot who would later be known as Clank. Ratchet and Clank go after the Blarg and their leader Drek (who plans to make a new world made up of other planets). They go from planet to planet destroying robot enemies. How do they do that? By Platforming, collecting bolts, and using some great weapon and Clank upgrades. It was like a lot of collectathon platformers of the era. It was praised at the time for it's varied gameplay, great humor, and colorful graphics. It also sold almost 4 million copies, Though The Game was Rated T, possibly due to the weapon use, Kids can still enjoy the game.



The next year in 2003, Going Commando was released. Basically after becoming Famous, you get a new mission to save an experiment by Professor Fizzwidget. Over the next adventure, many twists and turns happen, and things look much more different than they seem... You got more weapons, more power ups, space combat, and more bells and whistles to make you enjoy this game much more than the previous game, and if you have a save file from the previous game, you got your old weapons back. .This game got more positive reviews than the last game., with it's bigger weapon selection, improved graphics, bigger and longer story, Little did anyone know, that it's true peak was yet to happen...



Time to Up your Arsenal because Up Your Arsenal came out in 2004. You had to save all organic life in the galaxy from the robotic villain Dr. Nefarious. You got to ride vehicles, team up with other marines, and got to see new planets and many other weapons. It also had the perfect mix of action and platforming, as well as 2D platforming sections staring one of the characters named Qwark. One last thing it had was multiplayer online. The game was extremely well received fro improving on everything that made the series great. Great graphics, great weapon selection, all the weapons from the previous game, and excellent sound effects.


Continuing the tradition of new Ratchet games every year, was Ratchet: Deadlocked. This was much more of a 3rd person shooter with you entering a galactic game show known as Dreadzone. It was darker, had less platforming, and was generally stripped down from the past 3 games, Much like released at the exact same time Jak X: Combat Racing, It had plenty of weapons, but i wasn't as well received as the previous games thanks to the many downgrades from the rest of the series. However it's Co-op and combat was praised.



Over the next decade, there was a side series, a couple of portable oddities, including a solo Clank game, and a main series game known as Size Matters. It was pretty much a miniaturization of the main series made for the PSP, Blah Blah Blah, Not quite as interesting as the past games, and was pretty much a way to hold you over until the PS3 title came out, which I won't be covering, so don't even ask... There was a PS2 port, that was an upscaled version that sucked balls. Another thing that happened was remasters and remakes. The PS3 collection was great, It had the best graphics for it's time, and in 2016, there was a movie and a game based off the movie. the movie received average reviews, but the Game was generally received pretty well despite it's downgraded frame rate, I still think the PS3 ports are the best way to play these games... So Yeah, That was Ratchet and Clank, Maybe I'll cover the rest of the games someday, but That's definitely going into the when I Get around to it Pile...



NEXT TIME:


Welp, back to retro Nintendo...



YE1: I'm at Pikachu Island...

Island Villagers: PIKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA, GUNG GUNG!!!!!!!!!

*Baboon Kicks Yoshiette to the ground*

YE1: I'm not going down without a fight...

*Island Villagers Throw 16 Spears*

YE1: Can't we talk this over?

*Baboon Jumps and Kicks Yoshiette's head off*

YE1: That's a good answer, I'll have to think about that...

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