Ratchet and Clank Trilogy: PS3 Review

Ratchet and Clank Trilogy: PS3 Review

Platform: PS3
Released by Sony Computer Entertainment

Ah, the original Ratchet and Clank.

Such a wonderful gaming experience on the PS2 but one which has yet to be fully converted to the PS3 format.

Until now.

While there have been games for the PS3 - All For One, Tools of Destruction, Crack in Time - this faithful duo's outings on the format have been less than successful with narrative and game depth suffering at the hands of trying to show off what the PS3 can offer Ratchet and Clank.

While there's a new game out this year called Ratchet and Clank: Q Force (which will hopefully redress the balance), it's so, so good to have this original trilogy of games back out in a HD Classics re-release.

I will admit I've lost plenty of hours to these original games and fell in love with the series when I first tried it out all those years ago - so perhaps, there was always a nostalgic tint to the possibility of the original format getting a spruce up and outing on the PS3.

And the reason? Because the games are just so much damn fun.

Basically, you control a furry creature called a Lombax, by the name of Ratchet and teamed up with his robot buddy, visit an array of planets, amass a collection of weapons and generally save the day from the baddies - Dr Nefarious, Qwark and a whole horde of marauding creatures.

Pulling together Ratchet and Clank, Ratchet and Clank: Locked and Loaded and Ratchet and Clank Up your Arsenal (the best of all the series), there's plenty of long hours of gaming ahead of you.

There's a charm to powering around using weapons and smashing boxes to collect tokens to buy more weapons; and there's an ease of gameplay too - I lost 3 hours to the game without realising because it's just such an enjoyable outing on the PS3.

It's not perfect with some controls tricky to perfect and with a camera that doesn't always auto correct making some battle scenes a little difficult, it can be an occasionally frustrating experience.

But as a trilogy of games, and a Ratchet and Clank experience it's simply a blast. A reminder that the best games don't always have to be ones which fully tax your mind, cause you to overthink and spend days puzzling about what to do next.

The strength of the Ratchet and Clank series has always been the simplicity of gameplay, the camaraderie between the robot and his furry friend and the humour which is imbued throughout every moment of the game. Throw in an array of good supporting characters and a whole heap of endless fun and the Ratchet and Clank trilogy is a game series your PS3 needs to have. It won't change the world, and while it looks crisp and nicely presented in HD, it certainly doesn't look its 10 year old age.

The Ratchet and Clank Trilogy is a must own gaming experience; nostalgia be damned, this iconic series is as playable as it ever was and will continue to be for generations to come.

Here's hoping Q Force is going to be a blast too....

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